So often in education, we focus on the end-game: summative assessments, finals, standardized tests, graduation. We’re always asking ourselves, “Did they learn it?” However, learning is never really finished; it’s a journey that continues regardless of what milestones we pass. When we talk about creating lifelong learners, we’re really talking about helping learners develop the dispositions and skills to support ongoing learning across disciplines.

One of the things Kate and I like about the National School Library Standards is their focus on growth. They are competency standards, and mastery can be measured at various ages and developmentally appropriate increments. The contributors to this issue of Knowledge Quest invite us to look at the standards as a road map to guide the learning journey, rather than a checklist of items to mark as complete. The issue also includes a number of online features (linked below) that detail how school librarians are spreading the word about the AASL Standards in their communities. The full issue–including all the online features–is available on eCOLLAB. You can get a head start on reading the issue while you’re waiting for your copy to arrive in the mail!

At a recent conference I attended, a presenter shared the word coddiwomple, which means “to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination.” This idea of purposeful travel toward uncertain destinations relates well to the learning that happens in the library: the National School Library Standards provide purposeful guidance toward mastery of a wealth of skills that all learners need as they move toward their yet-to-be-determined goals. So, please pick up your May/June issue and coddiwomple with us through some innovative approaches on the journey to implementing the National School Library Standards!

About the Guest Editors

Kate Lechtenberg is a doctoral candidate at the University of Iowa. She wrote the chapter “Curating against the Canon: Collaborative Curation for Critical Inquiry” in Teaching the Canon in 21st Century Classrooms: Challenging Genres (Brill 2018), and coauthored (with Elizabeth Burns, Marcia Mardis, and Mary Keeling) the chapter “The New National School Library Standards: Integrated Learning and Growth for Innovative School Librarian Positions” in Global Action on School Library Education and Training (De Gruyter 2018). She coauthored (with Jeannie Phillips) the article “Speaking up for Equity Takes Courage—But the Standards Have Your Back” in the May/June 2018 issue of Knowledge Quest. She was a member of the Standards Implementation Task Force and is a member of AASL. and She is a member of AASL.

Jennisen Lucas is the district librarian for Park County School District 6 in Cody, Wyoming. As a member of AASL, she chairs the Standards Committee and serves on AASL’s Beyond Words Grant Jury. She is also the past chair of the Wyoming Library Association’s School Library Interest Group. She achieved National Board Certification in 2006 and renewed in 2016.

Read their Guest Editor Column, “Journeying with the AASL Standards.”

Knowledge Quest, Volume 47, No. 5 – Journeying with the AASL Standards

Features

School Librarians Level Up! Transform Your Teaching by Unpacking the AASL Standards Framework and Implementing Shared Foundation V: Explore
Alice Robinson and Jennifer Freedman

Now Serving…an Appealing Menu of Digital Literacy Tools and Resources
Mary Lou Caron O’Connor

Portrait of a Graduate and the National School Library Standards
Deborah Ehler-Hansen and Casey O’Meara

The Start of Something New: A Relationship between the AASL Framework for Learners and IB Approaches to Learning
Calypso Gilstrap

Collaborating to Communicate: Librarian Reading Groups and Understanding Standards
Courtney L. Lewis

Engaging Adolescent Literacies with the Standards
Jenna Spiering

Implementing the National School Library Standards at the District Level
Sarah Culp Searles

Making It Matter: National School Library Standards for School Administrators!
Kathryn Roots Lewis

The School District Library Supervisor and the National School Library Standards
Jeffrey DiScala, Ann Carlson Weeks, and Christie Kodama

Maryland’s Journey toward New State School Library Standards
Laura Hicks

Article

Navigating the Library Slopes: Dispositional Shifts in the National School Library Standards
Kathy Cromartie and Elizabeth Burns

Online Features

Roll the Die on the New Standards
Misti Jenkins

Implementing the National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries in Rural Virginia
Jen Spisak, Carl A. Harvey, II, Karla Collins, and Audrey Church

Finding Your Way with GPS: Going Places with the Standards
LaDawna Harrington and Christina Cucci

Online Exclusives

Two Birds, One Stone: Exploring Complex Writing through Poetry
Jason D. DeHart

Trauma Sensitivity in the School Library
Melissa E. Gardner

Column

CBC Column
Why I Wrote about Libraries in My Debut Novel
Allison Varnes

Departments

President’s Column
What’s in a Quote? Building Connections Using the National School Library Standards
Kathryn Roots Lewis

Guest Editors’ Column
Journeying with the AASL Standards
Kate Lechtenberg and Jennisen Lucas

Author: Jennisen Lucas

Categories: KQ Content

Tags: #AASLstandards