Untitled

Developed for the American Association of School Librarians

by the 2024 ALA Emerging Leaders-Team A

Developing Creative

Collaborators,

Flexible Partners,

and Resilient Citizens

Activity Guide

Developing Creative

Collaborators,

Flexible Partners, and

Resilient Citizens

Activity Guide

Membership in the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) helps fund advocacy, leadership,

professional development, and standards and guidelines initiatives for school librarians nationally. To

join AASL and support your profession, visit www.ala.org/aasl/join

Published by:

American Association of School Librarians

a division of the American Library Association

225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1300

Chicago, Illinois 60601

Download a PDF version of this toolkit at www.ala.org/aasl/toolkits

Standards material and images excerpted from AASL’s National School Library Standards for

Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries by the American Association of School Librarians, a

with permission.

Cover art by

Yuliya Pauliukevich from Vecteezy.com.

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Acknowledgements

AASL gratefully acknowledges the following in the development of this toolkit:

2024 Emerging Leaders Team A

CHARLOTTE CHUNG, Library Media Specialist. Suncrest Elementary School, WV

CASSI FLORES, Library Media Specialist. Francis Howell Central High School, MO

MIA GITTLEN, Librarian, Milpitas High School. Milpitas, CA

DAWN SHIRK, Library Media Coordinator, Swann Middle School, NC

KRISTIN TARNAS, K-8 Teaching Librarian, Hawai’i Preparatory Academy, HI

ARIANA VARELA, Information Literacy Instruction Librarian, University of Southern

California, CA

AASL Member Guide

HANNAH BYRD LITTLE, Director of Library and Archives, The Webb School of Bell Buckle,

AASL Staff Liaison

STEPHANIE BOOK, Manager, Marketing & Non-serial Publications

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................................................. 1

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Foreword .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

What’s in This Guide? ............................................................................................................................................................................ 9

Learners ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Think ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Scenario: Sharing the Research Process with Others ............................................................................................................................. 11

Activity #1: Creating a Shared Group Contract .......................................................................................................................................... 12

Activity #2: Using Group Discussion to Develop New Ideas ............................................................................................................. 15

Activity #3: Identifying Solutions in a Group Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 16

Create ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 16

Scenario: Using Technology to Connect with Others ............................................................................................................................. 17

Activity #1: Sharing and Building Prior Knowledge in a Group ......................................................................................................... 17

Activity #2: Creating Social Media Posts to Share Ideas ...................................................................................................................... 18

Activity #3: Creating a Collaborative Book Using Book Creator .................................................................................................. 19

Share ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 20

Scenario: Developing a Community of Diverse Readers ................................................................................................................... 20

Activity #1: Readers Advisory Zines .................................................................................................................................................................... 21

Activity #2: Generate Literary Thinking and Displays with the Headlines Thinking Routine ................................... 23

Activity #3: “You Are Here,” Advocacy Project for Local Literature ......................................................................................... 24

Grow ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 26

Scenario: Maker Education in the School Library ................................................................................................................................... 26

Activity #1: Applying Design Thinking ............................................................................................................................................................... 27

Activity #2: Using Equity Maps During Socratic Seminars or Harkness Discussions...................................................... 28

Activity #3: Participating in KQED Youth Media Challenges .......................................................................................................... 29

School Librarians ................................................................................................................................................................................. 30

Scenario: Collaborating Toward Scaffolded Learning ......................................................................................................................... 30

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Activity #1: Brainstorming Keywords for Iterative Searching ........................................................................................................... 31

Activity #2: Micro-Lessons to Address Gaps in Professional Development .......................................................................... 32

Activity #3: Critically Analyzing Web-Based Sources ......................................................................................................................... 34

Scenario: Creating an Online Professional Learning Community ............................................................................................................ 36

Activity #1: Put on Your Virtual Oxygen Mask First! ............................................................................................................................... 37

Activity #2: Collaborating on Library Love! for a Learner-Centered School Library ................................................... 40

Activity #3: Welcome to Your Public Library ............................................................................................................................................... 41

Scenario: Building Relationships with Colleagues ................................................................................................................................... 43

Activity #1: Infographics for Visualizing Collaboration........................................................................................................................ 44

Activity #2: Surveying Students to Hear their Voice ............................................................................................................................. 45

Activity #3: Student Designed School Library Displays ..................................................................................................................... 46

Scenario: Creating an Inclusive Environment for Learners ............................................................................................................... 47

Activity #1: Student Book Clubs ........................................................................................................................................................................... 48

Activity #2: Magic: The Library Gathering .................................................................................................................................................... 49

Activity #3: Inclusive Reading Challenges ................................................................................................................................................... 50

School Libraries .................................................................................................................................................................................... 53

Scenario: Collaboration Beyond Our Schools ............................................................................................................................................. 53

Activity #1: Collaborative Creativity Challenge ........................................................................................................................................ 54

Activity #2: Peep into the Library! ....................................................................................................................................................................... 56

Activity #3: Career Week in the School Library ........................................................................................................................................ 58

Scenario: Collaborative Strategic Plans as Advocacy Tools ............................................................................................................. 59

Activity #1: Community-Driven Strategic Plan......................................................................................................................................... 60

Activity #2: Curriculum Mapping.......................................................................................................................................................................... 61

Activity #3: Demonstrating Impact At-A-Glance .................................................................................................................................... 64

Scenario: Creating a Library Learning Commons .................................................................................................................................... 65

Activity #1: Rotating Displays to Showcase the School Library .................................................................................................... 66

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Activity #2: Expanding Your Professional Network ................................................................................................................................ 67

Activity #3: Highlighting Literacy Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 67

Scenario: Making the Library a Community Space ............................................................................................................................... 68

Activity #1: Funding a Functional, Flexible School Library Workspace .................................................................................... 69

Activity #2: Creating Collaborative Student Workspaces ................................................................................................................ 69

Activity #3: Creating an Open Space for Community Use ................................................................................................................. 71

Works Cited ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 73

Activity Guide Sources ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 73

Infographic Sources ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 75

Appendix ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 76

A. Resource Matrix ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 76

B. AASL Standards Framework Applied to Developing Creative Collaborators ............................................. 876

C. Creating Collaborative Communities (infographic) ........................................................................................................... 76

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Foreword

What a gift this team of 2024 Emerging Leaders has created for the American Association

of School Librarians (AASL) and for all of us to use in our school libraries. The Developing

Creative Collaborators, Flexible Partners, and Resilient Citizens Activity Guide is proof

that this group exemplified the Key Commitment of the Collaborate Shared Foundation in

the National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School

Libraries, “Work effectively with others to broaden perspectives and work toward common

goals.”

This diverse group of school librarians was charged with creating an activity guide for

“Collaborate,” one of six Shared Foundations in a series of projects taken on by Emerging

Leaders groups over the last several years. You will find activity guides to the other Shared

Foundations—Inquire, Include, Curate, Explore, and Engage—on the AASL Standards

website under Support Materials: standards.aasl.org/materials

This Shared Foundation also connects deeply with the focus of my presidential year—

Building Relationships. Collaboration is at the heart of how school librarians connect with

others. We are, by nature, folks who are embedded into the fabric of our school communities

and beyond the walls of our physical libraries. We are natural connectors of people, ideas,

and spaces. We exemplify the spirit of collaboration because it is ingrained into almost

everything we do.

Not only do we interact with all learners in our school buildings and districts, but we also

make connections with community members and with others beyond our communities, like

fellow school librarians and other educators, as well as authors and professional experts.

Collaboration does not simply stop with us, though. We encourage our learners to

collaborate with others as well. We know that to not only be successful but to thrive as

citizens in a global community, our learners need to be comfortable working with others. As

such, we provide opportunities for learners to connect with people within our own schools as

well as the surrounding community and greater world.

As I read through the Developing Creative Collaborators, Flexible Partners, and Resilient

Citizens Activity Guide, I knew this was a document I would be personally referencing over

and over and something I know I will share with colleagues as it is full of ideas that all school

librarians can easily put into practice.

Thank you to Charlotte Chung (WV), Cassi Flores (MO), Mia Gittlen (CA), Dawn Shirk (NC),

Kristin Tarnas (HI), and Ariana Varela (CA) who created such a robust and thoughtful

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activity guide as inspiration for future collaborative endeavors. And, thank you to Hannah

Byrd Little (TN) for being their AASL member guide throughout this process.

Your work has defied expectations, and I am so grateful for you collaborating on this project,

as it will make such a difference to school librarians everywhere.

Courtney Pentland

AASL President, 2023-2024

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Introduction

Fred Rogers said that “It’s through relationships that we learn best and grow best” (Loewen

2023). School librarians are tasked with practicing and reflecting positive collaborative

relationships based on personal and academic learning and growth to our learners and the

broader community. These collaborative efforts are an essential part of our role as school

librarians and are a primary reason why “the school library is a unique and essential part of a

learning community.” (American Association of School Librarians 2018, 11). These

collaborative relationships act as the heart of the school, where students learn and grow

together. It is therefore no surprise that “Collaborate” is a Shared Foundation in AASL’s

National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries.

For learners, collaboration benefits them by opening their world to greater opportunities and

experiences, as well as teaching them how to work together to accomplish greater ends. This

is an invaluable life skill that learners will utilize their whole lives. In this way, Collaborate is

arguably the intrinsic part of the other AASL Shared Foundations. When we work together,

we can more effectively Inquire, Include, Curate, Explore, and Engage.

Collaboration in the school library does not only benefit the

academic and personal growth of learners. Kammer and

Mooreland (2020, 41) find that “School librarians are motivated

to collaborate with others not only for the learners but also to

improve their own job satisfaction. Library collaboration can

create friendships, inspire new ideas, and develop supportive

advocacy networks when it is desperately needed.” When we

collaborate with others, we bring fresh and innovative ideas and

perspectives to our school library. We also help others (parents,

caregivers, educators, administrators, and community members)

learn and understand what the school library’s role is. More now

than ever, it is important that we work together to remind our

community what that role is, what our jobs are as school librarians, and that as Mychal

Threets says: “Libraries are so much more than books… It’s a place that’s there for you. The

doors are open. The library is for everybody” (Page 2024). By inviting and fostering

collaboration, we embody the message that our doors are open and that everybody is

welcome here.

The AASL cohort of the 2024 American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leaders were

tasked with creating an activity guide to develop materials that support professional

development and instruction around the skills inherent in the National School Library

Standards Shared Foundation of Collaborate—to “work effectively with others to broaden

perspectives and work toward common goals'' (85). The development of this guide was itself

“It’s through

relationships

that we learn

best and

grow best.”

Fred Rogers

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a collaborative effort stemming from a team of librarians across almost every time zone of

the United States. The team included elementary, middle, high school, and academic

librarians from five different states and school librarians in public and independent schools

and from urban and rural communities, as well as from schools that serve varied population

sizes and communities.

As a team collaborating, we grew and developed as we integrated our diverse backgrounds,

experiences, and perspectives into our common goal of creating a useful activity guide. We

believe that what we created will help school librarians develop collaborative communities

of learners, other educators, and themselves that can capitalize on diversity of thinking and

perspective. As school librarians cultivate a culture for collaborative learning, their learners

will grow in their higher-level thinking, resilience, empathy, creativity, and self-esteem.

In this guide, you will find many examples of school librarian-led collaborative activities.

These activities, rooted in collaborative relationships, may help your learners connect with

nature, experience “Magic,” develop into a community of readers, exercise and grow

leadership skills, grow their creativity (and basketball skills), and more! When we as school

librarians, educators, community members, and learners work effectively together—when

we listen and learn from, share with, and express our ideas to each other to accomplish

shared goals—we can achieve amazing things!

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What’s in This Guide?

This activity guide is housed on the AASL Standards Web portal and is available to all

professionals. The guide includes:

● Scenarios for learners, school librarians, and school libraries for each of the four

Domains (Think, Create, Share, and Grow).

● A collection of activities and web resources, organized by Domain:

○ To support professional development and instruction around the process of

collaborating with learners, educators, administrators, and community

members.

○ To assist school librarians supporting learners as they learn to collaborate

with others.

○ To encourage learners and school librarians to collaborate with people and

organizations from a wide variety of perspectives.

○ To offer strategies for collaboration and relationship-building within and

beyond the learning community.

● A resource matrix offering a quick reference for tools supporting inquiry. Organized

by tool type, the matrix also indexes activities in which the resources are featured

throughout the guide.

● An infographic to help school librarians visually display their role in collaborating

with others and to facilitate conversations with other educators around the ideals of

the Collaborate Shared Foundation.

This collection of resources and activities is not meant to represent all the opportunities and

potential for collaboration. The ALA Emerging Leaders team hopes the guide will encourage

discussions around the importance of these topics and ways to implement best practices.

Table 1 provides a focus for each section of the guide and questions to begin the

conversation.

AASL Standards Framework Applied to Developing

Creative Collaborators

Explore the activity guide using this applied framework as an alternate

table of contents. Navigate within the guide to relevant scenarios,

activities, and resources for reflection and instruction to support building

competency in the Shared Foundation of Collaborate.

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Table 1: Understanding Collaborate through the AASL Standards Frameworks

Frameworks

Purpose

Questions

Learners

Empower learners to

develop new knowledge

through the exchange of

diverse perspectives.

● How can collaborative opportunities engage learners in

developing new understandings and perspectives?

● How can learners work together to solve problems?

● How can collaboration help students find their

strengths and learn to rely on the strengths of others?

● In what ways can collaboration empower social

responsibility for learning?

School Librarians

Create learning networks

that cultivate problem

solving to deepen

understanding.

● How can school librarians encourage critical thinking

and exploration through collaborative learning?

● How can school librarians model collaboration for

learners when working with content-area educators?

● How can school librarians facilitate feedback loops to

support learners in soliciting and responding

productively to feedback from others?

● How can school librarians use collaboration to model

respect for diverse perspectives?

School Libraries

Develop a culture of

cooperation and resource

sharing.

● How can the school library foster collaboration among

school librarians, content-area educators,

administrators, and caregivers to better support

learners?

● In what ways can the school library collaborate with the

learning community to support the school’s mission,

vision, and values?

● What role does the school library play in designing

scaffolded learning to develop learner information

literacies?

● How can the school library connect the learning

community by designing and facilitating diverse social

and intellectual collaborations?

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Learners

Schools today are empowered with a variety of technology tools that provide resources for

learners to be exposed to new ideas and perspectives. However, learners frequently use

technology to isolate themselves from others and not take advantage of these possibilities. In

school libraries, learners have the chance to use collaboration to develop communication

skills and be exposed to diverse perspectives and ideas. Successful learners understand how

to engage with others by combining their strengths to achieve new goals. Organized by the

Domains—Think, Create, Share, and Grow—the scenarios and activities in this section

provide opportunities for learners to experience collaboration through collective teamwork

and creative problem-solving.

Think

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Think Domain for learners and the following Competencies.

A. Think: Learners identify collaborative opportunities by:

1. Demonstrating their desire to broaden and deepen understandings.

2. Developing new understandings through engagement in a learning group.

3. Deciding to solve problems informed by group interaction.

Scenario: Sharing the Research Process with Others

Lucas is a ninth-grade learner at a new school after moving states with his family. Lucas’

biology teacher, Ms. Banks, is starting the school year with an ecology unit involving a

collaborative research project. She has arranged the class into groups and is allowing each

group to choose an endangered species or ecological problem to research. Each group is

responsible for creating an informational poster with a solution to the problem and then

presenting their poster to the class. The groups will be visiting the school library for a few

days to research their topic and access library space and supplies to complete their poster.

Because Lucas is new to this school, he doesn’t know his group members well and is hesitant

to divide up the work of the project. He approaches Mr. Smith, the school librarian, to ask for

help on the best way to choose a topic and complete the project with his group members.

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Questions for Further Discussion:

● How can learners share collaborative work in an equal way while highlighting each

learner’s unique skills?

● What are strategies that the classroom educator and school librarian can use to

facilitate effective collaboration between learners?

● How can the school librarian broaden and deepen group discussion about a shared

project?

Activity #1: Creating a Shared Group Contract

Objective: Learners create a shared vision for how to work together and complete

tasks.

School librarians and other educators can support learners with starting a group project by

building in time for learners to create a shared vision and end goal for their project. A group

contract will look different for each grade level and content area but will ultimately allow

learners to identify how best to complete the project. When participating in a group project,

learners can use a group contract to ensure collaborative work.

A group contract can include:

● each member’s strengths and weaknesses,

● the roles or tasks each member will take on,

● a timeline for different steps of the project, and/or

● a shared vision for what the end goal of the project is.

Learners should then sign off on the agreed contract to claim accountability for their role in

the shared work. The collaborating educator or school librarian can review these documents

with the group to ensure that the work has been divided equally.

A template or guide will help learners complete an effective group contract. Figure 1a-1b

provides one example of a group contract template and more examples can be found at

Magnify Learning

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Figure 1a. Example Group Contract—Page 1

GROUP CONTRACT

Project Name: Team Name: ________________________

Project Start Date: Project End Date:

A. Group Members/Personal Information

Name

Phone #

B. Goals/Purpose of Group

1. What is/are the specific purpose(s) /goal(s) of this group?

2. Briefly explain why each member is important and must be included to achieve

the purpose/goal listed above.

How will your group know they are on track to be successful during the project?

(Be specific- Meet benchmarks, everyone has a task and gets it done, etc.)

4. How will your group promote “active membership” (making sure that everyone

participates) throughout the project?

5. Individual Goals for this project:

Ex: Miss Gibson/ Work on Oral Presentation skills by practicing three times before

presentation day.

Team Member’s Name/ Goal:

Team Member’s Name /Goal:

Team Member’s Name / Goal

Source: Example from Magnify Learning

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Figure 1b. Example Group Contract—Page 2

C. Group Norms (Reflect upon the class norms. Then use the class norms and add

any additional ones that meet the specific needs of your group.)

1. Trust-

2. Respect-

3. Responsibility-

4. Group Norm-

D. Group Agreements

Please describe the group’s shared expectations about behavior during the group process.

These agreements should be in accordance with the norms and expectations of the

classroom

Category

Agreements

Decision- Making: How will your group

make decisions?( Consensus, Majority Rules,

etc.)

Pick a process from the sheet provided.

Conflict: How will you deal with conflict?

(Talk it out, talk with a facilitator, etc.)

Communication: How will you

communicate as a group? (Group Check-Ins,

Text, Email, GoogleDocs etc.)

Attendance: What is your policy for people

who are absent? How many days can a

person miss and not be fired from the

group? (Excused vs. Unexcused)

Sharing Work: How will you get work to

one another esp. if someone is absent?

(Flashdrive, Google Docs, Email etc.)

Source: Example from Magnify Learning

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Activity #2: Using Group Discussion to Develop New Ideas

Objective: Learners will build connections between ideas using hexagonal thinking.

Once a lesson or unit of learning is completed, learners need an opportunity to organize and

reflect on the learning. Reflection done collaboratively can be highly effective as learners

scaffold their thinking with classmates. One way to engage in collaborative reflection is

through Hexagonal Thinking

, an activity created by Betsy Potash. Hexagonal thinking

prompts inquiry-based discussion while teaching learners how to collaboratively share ideas

and make decisions.

1. Start by providing hexagons for learners to manipulate. This can be done using paper

or a digital tool like Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint.

2. Give learners a word bank of vocabulary words and ideas from the current lesson or

unit of study.

3. Instruct learners to write the words from the word bank on the hexagons.

4. Through discussion, learners determine how to make connections between the

words and construct a grid with the hexagons.

5. Learners can extend this learning by sharing their thoughts through written

explanation, oral presentation, adding visuals or artwork, or participating in a gallery

walk.

Learners can use hexagonal thinking to combine thoughts about different but related topics

or think about a variety of ideas from a unit in a new way. Examples of hexagonal thinking

(figure 2) might include connecting the book Long Way Down to gun violence in the news or

relating the book 1984 with modern technology. The

activity can be completed in small groups or larger

groups as long as each learner is able to share their

unique perspective.

________________________________________________

Figure 2. Hexagonal Thinking Example

In this example of hexagonal thinking using

vocabulary words about the Vietnam War, learners

considered the relationships between words to

organize them in this order.

Source: Example from Betsy Potash, Cult of Pedagogy

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Activity #3: Identifying Solutions in a Group Discussion

Objective: Learners will develop solutions to a problem using the Question

Formulation Technique.

The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is an interactive protocol for developing the skill

of asking thoughtful and effective questions (Right Question Institute 2022). QFT can be

easily used with learners from third grade to adults. It could be modified with writing support

to be used with younger learners. QFT is an effective way to encourage learners to critically

think in a collaborative way. As learners are participating in the technique they are

practicing hearing information and feedback from others and reacting positively. Learners

will better be able to work in groups or pairs when they can create new ideas with others.

One way to use the QFT is to have learners work in groups to develop a solution to a

problem. In groups, QFT is an effective way for learners to collaboratively share the work of

problem solving and highlight their unique perspectives.

In this example, middle school learners are ending their Holocaust unit by coming up with

ideas on what should have happened to the people who were incarcerated in concentration

camps.

1. First, instruct the group of learners to start by brainstorming questions about

concentration camps and the end of World War II.

2. Then, guide learners clarify questions as open-ended or close-ended.

3. Lastly, ask learners to prioritize the questions and determine if they will help with

finding the solutions.

At the end of the activity, learners can use the questions created to help them write an

essay, make a project, or reflect on their World War II unit.

Create

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Create Domain for learners and the following Competencies.

B. Create: Learners participate in personal, social, and intellectual networks by:

1. Using a variety of communication tools and resources.

2. Establishing connections with other learners to build on their own prior knowledge

and create new knowledge.

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Scenario: Using Technology to Connect with Others

Sara is a curious, seventh-grade learner in a rural school in Texas. Her English teacher, Mr.

Lopez, has just finished reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio to the class. Mr. Lopez asks the

learners to write short stories about a character who has experienced bullying and how they

overcame the situation.

Sara really liked reading Wonder but is struggling to come up with ideas for her short story.

Because her school community is small, Sara is limited to the number of people she can

share ideas with. She wants to use some kind of technology tool to reach out to other

learners who might have some experience with bullying and can share their perspectives.

Sara visits her school librarian, Ms. Castillo, for help. How can Ms. Castillo guide Sara in

finding and using the right tool to connect with others interested in discussion?

Questions for Further Discussion:

● What are some technology tools that learners can use to connect with others?

● How can the school librarian encourage learners to participate in a community

outside of their direct peer group?

● How can learners be safe digital citizens while using technology tools?

Activity #1: Sharing and Building Prior Knowledge in a Group

Objective: Learners will create a mind-map to build and organize ideas in a group

setting.

When starting a research project, learners need to effectively organize and stimulate their

prior knowledge. They can do this by creating a mind-map. Mind-mapping “creates an

opportunity for the learner to make connections between facts, ideas, or concepts”

(University of Southern Maine, n.d.). Mind-mapping can be an excellent collaborative tool

because it enables groups of learners to create a visual depiction of their thoughts and ideas.

It gives learners an opportunity to understand how others’ ideas connect and contribute to

that thought process.

School librarians can start by showing an introductory video

about mind-mapping or by

completing an example with the class. Ultimately, the way a mind-map is organized is up to

the learners and can be determined throughout the process. A mind-map can be completed

using paper and coloring utensils or by using digital tools like

Canva, Miro, Excalidraw, or

Draw.io.

In a research setting, once learners have completed the mind-map they can organize what

they have written into categories and then use it to generate research questions, find search

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terms, or define their research topics. Figure 3 shows an example of how learners can

organize their research ideas.

Figure 3. Research Mind-Map Template

Source: Template created by Cassi Flores

Activity #2: Creating Social Media Posts to Share Ideas

Objective: Learners will create Instagram-style posts to convince others of an idea

or topic.

In the current age, our learners are avid users of social media. According to Pew Research

Center, 95% of teenagers use at least one social media platform (Vogels et al. 2022). Social

media gives learners a chance to engage with a much wider audience than their school

community and educators can guide this opportunity by incorporating social media into

their lessons. Educators can use social media to build choice into their assignments and

allow learners to feel a greater connection to the why of their learning.

This activity can be performed in a variety of ways using digital tools such as Canva,

Adobe

Express, or Clips. Learners can use these tools to create static images like those that might

be found on Instagram or short videos like those found on TikTok. Visually engaging social

media communications may include images, short text, statistics, quizzes, video, narration,

and more. Learners can use their personal interests and their own social media presence to

guide and inspire them on what to create.

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Once created, allow learners to choose whether to post their social media communications

on their preferred platforms. Posting their creations empowers learners to engage with their

personal network of peers and friends in positive ways, as well as opens a potential to

connect with others outside of that group but with similar interests.

If social media is not an option at your school due to learners’ age or school policies, there

are other options for them to still be able to participate in sharing ideas. Connect your

learners with classrooms in other locations and countries using the e-pen pal program at

Pangea. Or classes from other schools in the district or state can be added to the same class

group in Flip, where they can share videos and discuss.

Alternatively, consider inviting learners to create posts for school- or library-managed social

media accounts, which supports advocacy and engagement on those platforms. Learners

can do a social media “takeover” and collaborate on creating a social media campaign.

Evaluate the school calendar and divide activities and events among learners to create posts

and write captions. Learners can collaborate on shared colors and branding for their posts to

create consistency while still displaying individual creativity.

Activity #3: Creating a Collaborative Book Using Book Creator

Objective: Learners will build a collaborative book using art and writing samples.

School librarians and collaborating educators can foster collaboration among learners

through the creation of a collaborative book, where each learner contributes 1-2 pages to

the book. A collaborative book gives each learner a sense of ownership in their own pages

while still connecting to others through a shared theme or idea. Book Creator

is an excellent

digital tool to create the project, as it has lots of built-in creative features that are easy for all

ages to learn to use.

The collaborative book can be centered around a curricular topic, current event, story

prompt, emotion, idea, etc. Learners can each write and contribute a part of the same story

or individually develop their own writing sample in the form of a story or poem around a

common theme.

1. Offer a class prompt to help learners begin brainstorming ideas, and then write their

contributions based off the prompt.

2. Next, introduce the digital creation tool, and instruct learners to design their

individual pages for group publishing.

3. Once the digital pages are completed, the learners can work together to edit and

organize the book and create a cover.

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4. Share the finished book with the other educators, the administration, the parents,

and the local community. Publish it online and/or print a copy for viewing in the

school library.

Since 2015, Book Creator has been facilitating "The World is My Audience

," a collaborative

project where classes worldwide create collections of poetry around the theme "This is Me,"

with narratives from each learner expressing their individual identities. These books are

shared globally, allowing learners to participate in a larger community and appreciate

diverse perspectives. Importantly, Book Creator also ensures privacy by publishing books

with shareable links that do not include personal information, promoting safe and inclusive

collaboration. School librarians and other educators can submit their classes' books to be

featured.

The first iteration of this project

was created in 2015 and featured 35 classes from 22

different states and countries. The collection included 163 pages of poetry about what

represented each class' unique perspective and community.

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Share Domain for learners and the following Competencies.

C. Share: Learners work productively with others to solve problems by:

1. Soliciting and responding to feedback from others.

2. Involving diverse perspectives in their own inquiry processes.

Scenario: Developing a Community of Diverse Readers

Braden is in fourth grade and sometimes finds himself at a loss when his classmates and

friends excitedly head to the school library for browsing time during class. The school

librarian, Mr. Yamanaka, reminds the class that browsing entails looking for, finding, and

exploring books. Braden has enjoyed finding Waldo in books with his friends and being

shocked with these same friends at all the crazy things people do in the Guinness Book of

World Records.

When the class is asked to find chapter books during school library browsing, Braden has a

hard time finding a book. He is convinced he won’t like any of them, as he has noticed that

lots of chapter books are boring. When asked to share about books he likes, Braden mostly

remembers funny picture books from when he was younger. Braden knows that his friends

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enjoy looking at the Guinness Book of World Records with him and laughing at the pictures,

but he is pretty sure he is the only one who can’t seem to find or enjoy chapter books. Mr.

Yamanaka asked Braden what kinds of stories he likes, but Braden wasn’t sure, so he just

said, “Action stories.” When Mr. Yamanaka guided Braden toward a few action titles, Braden

pretended to like the books but just put them in the return bin or borrowed books and

returned them the next week without reading them.

Questions for Further Discussion:

● How can learners develop an inclusive and engaged reading community in the school

library through thoughtfully designed library routines?

● How can learners feel empowered and able to provide effective and sensitive peer

readers advisory when they notice their classmates struggling to find books?

● What do learners need to generate and pose authentic questions that lead to

increased awareness of diverse perspectives?

● What motivates learners to seek feedback on their work as researchers?

● How can learners use inquiry to assist their classmates with finding books and

resources that meet their needs?

● How can learners respond productively to feedback?

Activity #1: Readers Advisory Zines

Objective: Learners share books, research, and ideas with their peers using zines.

Interest in a book, series, or topic increases exponentially when it is enthusiastically shared

by peers. Creating accessible artifacts is an enjoyable way for learners to share reading

interests and to inspire others to pick up a book or explore a new topic. A creative artifact,

like a zine, is an engaging and vibrant format. Zines provide a space for learners to express

themselves and collaborate around literature appreciation by sharing personal reading

interests and making peer connections with books and information.

Figure 4. Examples of DIY Zines

Source: Image from School Library Journal article,

“DIY Zines and Homemade Mini Activity Books

”

by Karen Jensen, MLS on April 8, 2020.

________________________________________________

What is a zine?

Zine is short for “magazine” or “fanzine.” It is a DIY,

self-published artifact made with paper and can be

easily reproduced with a printer or photocopier. The

ease, creativity, accessibility, and affordability of

zines has created a dynamic community of zinesters,

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people who create zines. The format of a zine is a creative, hands-on way to express ideas

and an engaging way to learn about the ideas and stories of others. Purdue University

describes a zine as “a pamphlet-like publication that can include text, images, artwork, found

objects, or any other creative material that helps to express the author's message” (Tinio

2021).

Creating & Sharing Readers Advisory Zines

1. Decide what type of readers advisory learners want to share about—fiction books,

nonfiction topics, genres, or formats like graphic novels or magazines?

2. Introduce learners to the concept and format of a zine:

a. Introduce zines by explaining the goal of the zine, sharing an example, and

demonstrating how it is created. Stacey Peters, on her site Expressive Monkey,

shares a helpful post called Zine Folding 101, which includes instructions and

resources.

b. Watching a video is another engaging way to introduce zines. For example, the

Middle Country Public Library in New York created “An Introduction to Zines”

that is accessible for older learners.

3. Present the purpose and style of zines that learners will create. For example:

a. K-2 learners could work together to create a folded card-style zine that shares

their favorite picture book over four pages. Elements of literature can be a part

of the project by including a page about setting, character, plot, etc.

b. Grade 3-5 learners could collaborate to brainstorm what information about a

book, genre, or topic would be most persuasive for their peers. They might

enjoy the mini-zine format (figure 4), which could be demonstrated in person

or with a video like this “How to Make a Mini-Zine” video from San Mateo

County Libraries. Zines could be made by individuals or collaborative teams.

c. Ninth-grade learners at the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School

(MELS) in New York City participated in The Project Zine and used zines to

share their learning after a class reading of I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up

for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Christina Lamb and Malala

Yousafzai.

4. Share zines!

a. As a gallery display: Zines can be displayed as a project gallery that learners can

explore to learn about a class read or literature unit.

b. As shelf-talkers: Zines could be placed on shelves to provide specific book or

genre information recommendations.

c. As an activity: Another class could read zines as an activity and choose books

based on their zines and even respond with their own zines!

d. As a handout: Zines that assist other learners with selecting books could be

reproduced and made available as handouts. For instance, zines that

recommend books in a genre, read-alikes, or favorites in a specific format are

helpful handouts.

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Activity #2: Generate Literary Thinking and Displays with the

Headlines Thinking Routine

Objective: Learners generate and analyze questions that become headlines to hook

their peers and inspire them to explore stories and information.

This activity introduces learners to a powerful intellectual tool that can be applied across the

curriculum and to all levels of learning. This activity focuses on several small groups

collaborating to develop a headline that engages school library users with a genre, book, or

book series. The process of crafting a headline together will provide learners with a

productive opportunity to work together and benefit from the unique ideas that each

learner brings to the discussion. Learners will work with their peers to generate keywords

and phrases that are

clear, persuasive, and

communicate big ideas.

________________________

Figure 5. The Headlines

Thinking Routine

Source: The Headlines

Thinking Routine was

developed by Project Zero,

a research center at the

Harvard Graduate School of

Education.

What are Thinking Routines?

Harvard University’s Project Zero developed Thinking Routines, which “are easy to use mini-

strategies that can be repeatedly used in the classroom, across a variety of content and

grade levels.“ These routines have been rigorously tested, and the Headlines (2019) routine

featured in this activity (figure 5) is designed to sum up ideas and topics.

Guide learners to create inspiring Headlines:

1. Create groups of three or more. Each group will collaborate on a genre, book, or book

series.

2. Instruct learners to discuss their topic as a group and use the Headlines Thinking

Routine to create a headline.

3. Then, ask learner groups to create displays featuring their headlines. Displays could

be in books, on shelves, or placed strategically in the school library or other common

area school spaces.

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Activity #3: “You Are Here,” Advocacy Project for Local

Literature

Objective: Learners collaborate to create media that advocates for local literature

within the school and wider community.

Mirrors can be tricky—just ask Snow White’s stepmother, the Evil Queen! Learners in our

schools each have complex individual identities that influence their reading. Dr. Rudine

Sims Bishop stated that “our classrooms need to be places where all the children from all the

cultures that make up the salad bowl of American society can find their mirrors” (1990).

Getting learners involved in locating and making the work of local writers visible can be a

powerful way for them to find literary mirrors, connect to books as a school community, and

experience agency as readers. Connecting with local writers opens doors for learners as

both readers and writers.

“You Are Here” Project Ideas to Advocate for Local Literature

● Learners create “You Are Here” posters that highlight a local author or book and list

the ways that readers can find connections to the author and their book(s).

○ Younger learners can work together to create a single poster focused on a

specific book used in a class read-aloud, adding connections they have to the

book.

○ Older learners can work in groups or pairs to create a choice of media focusing

on multiple works of a local author, making connections not only to the books,

but also to the author’s life.

○ Learners can create posters that highlight the author's ancestry and sense of

place that connects to their literary works.

● Learners work together to write letters to local authors with questions and messages.

Learners can invite the author to visit the school library or respond with a letter of

their own. Learner groups can then post questions and responses in a “You Are Here”

collage-style poster.

● Groups of learners design, plan, and record interviews with local authors and post

“You Are Here” interviews in school and community news venues as audio, video, or

text.

● Designed and run by the learners, a local literature award program could be

developed for the school community to vote and participate in. This is feasible if

there is enough local literature to choose at least three titles written for specific age

ranges of learners who would vote.

Sharing “You Are Here” Project Media as Advocacy Artifacts

● Post visual media in the school library or other school display areas. Audio or video

projects can be shared with a QR code post.

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● Projects can be shared in school news and support the school in connecting with the

community.

● Share projects with public libraries, AASL Chapter organizations, and

ALA state

chapters.

● Connect with local newspapers, which may want to report on learners’ “You Are

Here” Projects to share some good news with their readers!

● Learners can use project media to encourage state student-choice awards and

literacy support programs like Battle of the Books or Read Across America

to include

local books on their lists.

Concepts to Include in or Extend a “You Are Here” project

When introducing a “You Are Here” project include one of more of the following information

literacy concepts depending on the age of learners and the time available:

● An important function of literature is to reflect and validate the live experience of

the readers. This is one aspect of literature addressed in Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s

article (1990).

● Discuss the need for diverse books, using We Need Diverse Books

as a resource.

Explore the ways in which literature reflects diverse readers, with a focus on how

locally written literature connects to learners, such as mirroring settings and

elements of regional environments, cultures, and activities.

● Explore the idea that a story can be different for different readers. As Louise

Rosenblat states in her book “Literature as Exploration“ (1995), “the experience of

literature, far from being for the reader a passive process of absorption, is a form of

intense personal activity.”

Ideas for Finding Local Authors

● Reach out to local bookstores and publishers as they often have already built

connections with local authors. For instance, in Hawai’i school librarians can reach

out to local bookstores Basically Books and Native Books, and local publisher

Bess

Press.

● Authors Village, a community of children’s book authors and illustrators.

● Diverse BookFinder is a broad resource for finding authors.

● Connecticut Center for the Book, Young Adult Authors is an example of one of the

state affiliate Centers for the Book set up by the Library of Congress.

● Multnomah County Library Best of the Library Writers Project is an example of a

public library collection of local authors.

● Popular Colorado Authors Books is an example of a collection curated by book

recommendation services such as Goodreads.

● Pacific Islanders in Publishing is an example of a regional published books resource.

● Talk Story: Resources – APALA is an example of the kind of resource that could help

with seeking authors in a region.

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● Do You Know These Houston Kid Lit Authors? is a list from a local bookstore, Brazos

Bookstore, which is another great resource for local authors.

● Appalachian young adult novel list is a literary website that can be useful in curating

local literature; similarly local educators, librarians, and literature enthusiasts may

curate lists on their websites and blogs.

Grow

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Grow Domain for learners and the following Competencies.

D. Grow: Learners actively participate with others in learning situations by:

1. Actively contributing to group discussions.

2. Recognizing learning as a social responsibility.

Scenario: Maker Education in the School Library

Ms. Calderon received a sizable grant for her school library to acquire brand-new

makerspace equipment and materials including a laser cutter, 3D printers, cutting machines,

heat press, button makers, and more. What was formerly the computer lab in the school

library, and more recently a storage space for extra furniture and school decorations, will

now become an innovation lab under her direction. In preparation for this transformation,

Ms. Calderon’s school funded several professional development experiences locally,

including classes at a local community makerspace. Ms. Calderon is now familiar with how to

use the equipment but not quite sure how to incorporate it into her school library

instruction. Because she only teaches occasional discrete library lessons to learners

throughout the year with an intermittent push-in lesson to support research activities in

classrooms, Ms. Calderon is not sure when learners will have time in their day to utilize these

new cutting-edge resources.

Through some preliminary Internet searching, Ms. Calderon stumbled onto information

about ways other school librarians have implemented making in their learning communities.

She started following some of these school librarians on social media and discovered they

are using more student-centered approaches such as design thinking and project-based

learning to share their creations with authentic audiences. She did some searching for

resources from Stanford’s d.school and Buck Institute’s PBLWorks

and found sample

projects where learners utilized these frameworks to solve relevant, real world problems.

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Armed with this knowledge, Ms. Calderon was excited to collaborate with other educators at

her school to design their own project-based learning interdisciplinary unit utilizing the new

makerspace. The humanities educators were willing to work with her if they could find ways

to connect a project with their adopted curriculum and the state standards. They started

discussing how project-based learning might inspire a different approach to their upcoming

novel study. The collaborative team began applying the design thinking methodology to

their planning. Then they realized the framework could also be applied to the novel itself.

Questions for Further Discussion:

● How can learners design projects that build empathy through literature?

● What interactions with literature help learners consider their roles in their

communities?

● How can learner-centered pedagogy deepen group discussions and learners’ impact

on the world around them?

Activity #1: Applying Design Thinking

Objective: Learners applying design thinking to literature.

This activity is designed with the Learner/Grow scenario in mind. Using the design thinking

framework (figure 6), learners walk through each step of the process with a piece of

literature such as a novel, short story, or picture book in mind. Ideally, this activity can be

incorporated before learners

finish the reading or as an

extension to imagine other

possible endings.

___________________________

Figure 6. Design Thinking

Process Diagram

Source: Design Thinking Framework

from Empathize@It

Steps to Apply the Design Thinking Process to Literature

1. First, learners empathize with the character and define the problem the character is

experiencing. Then, they ideate by brainstorming as many possible solutions to the

character’s problem as possible. This may be done using Post-it notes by recording

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one idea per Post-it. Similar to the Question Formulation Technique, learners have a

set amount of time to develop as many solutions as possible without pausing to

critique or judge their answers.

2. Then, learners sort and prioritize their ideas. Once they select the best one, they

collaboratively design a prototype of the solution. This may involve sketching on

paper, whiteboards, or a digital whiteboard, or creating a simple 3D model.

3. Finally, learners’ prototypes can be shared with a larger group to get feedback. After

testing their idea, learners reflect on the impact their idea had on solving the problem

the character experienced. This is a way for learners to dig deeper into literature,

cultivate empathy, tackle real-world problems, and inspire student action.

Activity #2: Using Equity Maps During Socratic Seminars or

Harkness Discussions

Objective: Learners use Equity Maps to track student participation in group

discussions

Holding class discussions is a powerful

way for learners to communicate with one

another, contribute and build on each

other’s ideas, and extend their thinking.

Document a group discussion using the

Equity Maps

app (Figure 7) by tracking

speakers, making note of ideas shared, and

monitoring the amount of participation.

_________________________________________

Figure 7. Equity Maps App Screenshot

Source: EquityMaps

Set up Equity Maps before the class meets by adding learners, creating a seating

arrangement, and determining types of contributions to track (such as “refers to the text” or

“builds on an idea”). During a class discussion such as a Socratic Seminar, project Equity

Maps to show the speaking order and note big ideas. Learners are encouraged to actively

participate and share the air space. After the discussion, play the discussion back to review

and reflect on the conversation.

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Activity #3: Participating in KQED Youth Media Challenges

Objective: Learners create media to participate in a national conversation.

KQED, the San Francisco Bay Area PBS affiliate, offers youth media challenges

for learners

in grades 6-12 across the country, providing opportunities to create media showcased to an

authentic national audience. Learner submissions are viewable on the KQED website,

showcased at special events, included in KQED newsletters, and selections are broadcast on

radio and television.

To grow their reach, learners may individually or in groups create and share media with

KQED in the following categories: call for change (commentaries), show what you know

(informational pieces), and first person (narratives). A variety of media formats are accepted

for each category such as audio recordings, videos, political cartoons, infographics, and

photo essays.

The KQED Youth Media website provides standards-aligned curriculum for getting started

including graphic organizers, rubrics, and student examples

featured in their Youth Media

Challenge Showcase.

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School Librarians

School librarians develop learning environments that center collaboration, problem solving,

critical thinking, and learning around diverse experiences. They model collaborative

dispositions through working with content-area educators on selecting resources,

developing lesson plans, and creating outreach opportunities that support scaffolded

learning. The work of school librarians complements larger school and community efforts to

develop information literacy and critical thinking in learners through collaborative peer work

where learners encounter multiple perspectives, come up with creative solutions, and select

the most appropriate approach given the task or problem at hand. These efforts work to

advance the mission of the school and contribute to the enrichment of the larger

community. This section features scenarios and activities that demonstrate how school

librarians can work with educators to develop a virtual training program, advocate for school

library resources and services, and advance learners’ information-seeking skills through

collaborative problem solving.

Think

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Think Domain for school librarians and the following Competencies.

A. Think: School librarians facilitate collaborative opportunities by:

1. Challenging learners to work with others to broaden and deepen understandings.

2. Scaffolding enactment of learning-group roles to enable the development of new

understandings within a group.

3. Organizing learner groups for decision making and problem solving.

Scenario: Collaborating Toward Scaffolded Learning

Marisol is a high school librarian working in an urban K-12 school, where a majority of

learners come from immigrant and working-class households. All 10th-grade learners are

required to complete a personal project for the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. As

the sole school librarian, Marisol is asked to support the 10th-grade learners in developing

their research topics, demonstrating database searching, and imparting information literacy

skills in one-shot sessions during English class. The IB program encourages critical evaluation

of information, but there is limited time dedicated to developing research skills during

regular class time. After meeting with a few learners, Marisol realizes many do not have

access to computers at home. While observing how the learners search for information, she

notices they all navigate to Google by default and feel discouraged when they don’t retrieve

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the expected results. The learners also select the first source that seems related, without

evaluating the source for credibility.

The school’s community includes a large four-year university in close proximity. Despite this

proximity, there has never been a partnership between the university and school before to

help develop transferable academic and research skills in learners. Many of the learners will

go on to be first-generation college students.

Marisol wants to explore a collaboration with the academic librarians at the local university

to develop an information literacy program that introduces learners to foundational

information literacy skills. She also wants to help support content-area educators in

embedding information literacy skills into their assignments and assessments. These

collaborations will promote scaffolded learning, introduce learners to developing a research

topic, and support their critical evaluation of information.

Questions for Further Discussion:

● What steps can the school librarian take to investigate a collaboration with the

academic librarians at the local university and to encourage transferable information

literacy skills in learners?

● What learning activities can the school librarian develop to encourage collaborative

and scaffolded information-seeking behaviors?

● How can the school librarian collaborate with learning coordinators at her school to

embed information literacy skills into the assessment of learners’ research projects?

Activity #1: Brainstorming Keywords for Iterative Searching

Objective: Guide learners towards developing keywords for research.

An important initial step for learners as they approach searching for information on their

research topic is to develop keywords. The school librarian can create a lesson plan and

worksheet where learners collaborate with a partner to write a research topic, underline

keywords, and brainstorm broader and narrower terms to try when searching. Oftentimes,

learners assume they understand their research topic and know terms related to their topic.

Creating an activity where two learners swap research topics and practice brainstorming

keywords for their partner’s topic can encourage them to actively engage with the exercise

of highlighting themes and developing synonyms to think about how researchers, libraries,

and the community might all talk about the same issue using different words.

Using this sample worksheet

, from the University of Illinois University Library, this activity

demonstrates the multiple terms that can be used to describe one thing, and the need for

iterative searching techniques:

1. Walk learners through discussing their ideas for research with their partner.

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2. Then, demonstrate how to find the key ideas and themes from a research statement

or question the learner developed for their partner.

3. Finally, guide learners in developing synonyms—broader and narrower terms—for

each of the main idea keywords to encourage learners to try out different search

strategies.

This worksheet can also be adapted for digital technologies so the school librarian can

display learners’ ideas and works on a projector to encourage peer and collaborative

learning. Learners can see what their classmates are studying, see how their peers are

approaching their research assignment, and gain ideas for additional terms to approach their

research topic. Padlet

can be a useful digital technology that facilitates displaying

collaborative work.

Additional tools for developing keyword searches:

● Gale Tools Topic Finder

— Gale Topic Finder is a helpful tool for school librarians to

demonstrate to learners. It allows learners to narrow down their topic and see related

keywords.

● JSTOR Text Analyzer — School librarians can demonstrate how to extract

keywords, topics, names, and organizations using JSTOR’s Text Analyzer. This tool

also shows related articles available on JSTOR.

Activity #2: Micro-Lessons to Address Gaps in Professional

Development

Objective: Train content-area educators in incorporating information literacy

principles into assignments.

Reinforcing information literacy skills through scaffolded assignments or repeated exposure

is an effective way of building information-literate learners. Developing scaffolded research

assignments and reinforced learning is challenging without content-area educator

collaboration. With the limited or nonexistent time afforded to school librarians during

school-wide professional development trainings, micro-lessons can be an effective tool for

sharing information to content-area educators and creating additional opportunities for

collaboration. You can create micro-lessons on incorporating information literacy standards

into lesson plans, services offered through your school library, among many other topics.

What are micro-lessons?

Micro-lessons are short online lessons developed for microlearning. Microlearning is defined

by Niche Academy

as self-directed learning that happens in small segments in an online

environment (Niche Academy 2022). Microlearning is especially helpful because it reduces

the amount of time needed to complete each lesson, allows users to select the content they

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are interested in, and offers professional development in an asynchronous environment

without the need of a formal instructor.

Developing micro-lessons

1. Identify measurable learning outcomes you want content-area educators to walk

away with after working through each module.

2. Develop “motivation” for completing a micro-lesson. Track content-area educator

learning and offer incentives like certificates for annual review documentation.

3. Identify technology you have available to create videos, screen recordings, and

voiceovers.

○ Screencastify

is a free Chrome extension that allows you to record your

computer window.

○ Canva allows for free video creation and editing. Consider purchasing an

external microphone to record voiceovers. You can also record audio on your

cellphone and import the audio file into Canva to create a video.

4. Identify tutorial software or an online repository to house your micro-lessons and

learning assessments.

○ One option is to use Google Sites

for storing videos and creating guided

lessons.

○ LibWizard is paid software that allows for active learning prompts next to

embedded videos.

5. Create a script (figure 8) for each micro-lesson and note the visual components to

accompany the directed learning. Make sure to upload the script as captions for the

video or include a transcript of the video in the module for accessibility purposes.

Figure 8. Tutorial Storyboard Template

Title Ideas

● …

Learning

Outcomes

● …

Assessment

● …

Storyboard

What You See

What You Hear

Source: Developed by Annie Pho for University of California, Los Angeles, Powell Library.

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6. Develop active learning prompts that can assess learning and measure whether the

learning objective was met.

7. Promote your online modules to your school administration and content-area

educators at faculty and/or department meetings. Revise the content based on user

feedback and create new micro-lessons to reflect innovations in school librarian

practice and policies.

Activity #3: Critically Analyzing Web-Based Sources

Objective: Support learners’ analysis of authority in social media sources.

One of the critical literacy skills for learners to develop is evaluating information they come

across via social media. Using the SIFT Method developed by Mike Caufield and

problem-

based learning, school librarians can organize learners in groups to evaluate the claims and

authority within a source to determine whether the group would use it in a research project.

Analyze Sources Using SIFT

1. Organize learners in groups of three and share a research topic they will all be

working with. Example topics may involve health advice from an Instagram

nutritionist or researching a local city measure to determine how each learner would

vote.

2. Set up the “problem”: Learners need to use a reliable source for their research paper

or report. How do they begin to analyze a post concerning their topic on a discussion

board, Instagram reel, or TikTok video?

3. Model using the SIFT method to analyze a sample Instagram or TikTok post that

shares information related to health, politics, or science.

4. Share a physical worksheet that outlines the four SIFT interventions

(figure 9) for

learners to take notes (this can also be adapted to a digital worksheet using Google

Docs).

5. Then, assign each group of learners a preselected social media post to analyze with

their group using the SIFT method.

6. As a group, the learners will walk through the four SIFT interventions: Stop,

Investigate, Find Better Coverage, and Trace Claims Back to Original Source.

7. Learners will then determine whether the information is accurately represented in

the social media post and whether they would use it in their research paper or report.

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Figure 9. Analyzing Sources Using the SIFT Method

The SIFT method is an evaluation strategy developed by digital literacy expert, Mike Caulfield, to help determine

whether online content can be trusted as credible or reliable sources of information. There are four interventions

to the SIFT method: Stop, Investigate the Source, Find Better Coverage, and Trace Claims Back to Original Source.

Practice analyzing an online source using the SIFT method.

1. Stop — be aware of your emotional response. What do you know about the subject? Do you know the

source publisher and their reputation?

Reflection:

2. Interrogate the Source — look up the author and publishing site. What can you find about the author?

What is the publisher’s mission? Would their assessment be biased?

Investigation:

3. Find Better Coverage — find additional sources and use lateral reading to see if they agree with or dispute

the claims made in your original source. You can use fact checking sites for claims about politics or science

(snopes.com or FactCheck.org).

Additional Coverage:

4. Trace Claims Back to Original Source — trace the original source of claims, quotes, or media. Is

information being taken out of context? Was the claim, quote, or media fairly represented?

Reflection:

Final Assessment — Would you use this source in a school project or paper? Why?

Reflection:

Source: Developed by Ariana Varela for the University of Southern California Libraries, Los Angeles.

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Create

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Create Domain for school librarians and the following Competencies.

B. Create: School librarians demonstrate the importance of personal, social, and intellectual

networks by:

1. Modeling the use of a variety of communication tools and resources.

2. Cultivating networks that allow learners to build on their own prior knowledge and

create new knowledge.

Scenario: Creating an Online Professional Learning Community

Mrs. Sato is a K-8 school librarian in an independent school in a rural area. She is an

experienced classroom educator who has recently shifted to the school librarian role and is

the only person working in her library. As a grade-level educator she had a strong in-person

collegial team to connect with and did not have an active online professional learning

community. Now she is the only librarian on her school campus and wishes she had other

school librarians to share with and learn from. She has a fixed teaching schedule with the

elementary classes and a flexible teaching schedule with middle school learners and

educators. From her library coursework, she knows that collaboration between school

librarians and classroom educators is an essential element for providing services to her

learning community.

When she has integrated ideas from classroom topics, the collaborative element feels

shallow, and she is not sure whether the lessons she is providing in the school library are

having any significant impact on student learning in their classrooms.

Knowing that her school promotes collaboration in their curriculum as part of their goals to

teach 21st-century learning skills, Mrs. Sato knows that integrating learning from other

classes is an expectation and she also believes that working with other educators is a great

way to model collaboration for learners.

However, her ideas are theoretical, and she is finding it challenging to create connections

with classroom educators who are always busy. While they are friendly, they seem

overwhelmed by her overtures to collaborate. After reviewing her textbooks, she feels

frustrated, isolated, and wishes she could talk with a more experienced school librarian

colleague.

Because Mrs. Sato is geographically isolated from other school librarians and library events,

she knows that making online connections may be her best bet, but she is not sure where

and how to start.

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Questions for Further Discussion:

● How can the school librarian create a virtual/distance/online community with other

school librarians that is inspiring and helpful without being overwhelming and

unsustainable?

● How can the school librarian create connections with educators in other roles that

are mutually supportive and allow collaborations to develop to support student

learning?

● What tools can the school librarian use to collect data that informs her

collaborations?

● What are some valuable ways that as a new school librarian she can connect with,

learn from, and support experienced colleagues in librarianship?

Activity #1: Put on Your Virtual Oxygen Mask First!

Objective: Create an online Professional Learning Network (PLN) to collaborate

with other educators, strengthen professional practices, and model the use of

resources and tools.

Collaboration is an essential element of a school

librarian’s best practices. Therefore, it is something

school librarians are always striving to do better.

However, chances are that you are already more

connected than you realize. To get a baseline and

see how connected you are already, this activity

utilizes a simple BINGO game! “

Building

Relationships BINGO Fun“ is a Knowledge Quest

article by Courtney Pentland, AASL president

2023-24, in which she shares a

Library

Relationships BINGO template (figure 10) that you

can try out and customize.

_________________________________________________

Figure 10. Building Relationships BINGO

Source: Building Relationships BINGO Fun by Courtney

Pentland, AASL president 2023-24

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Why a Virtual PLN?

While professional silos are common in

schools, often school librarians are the only

educators or one of very few in their

position. The school librarian’s roles are

unique, which can make it challenging to

create a rich, in-person, professional

learning network, and further reinforces

why having a strong virtual professional

network is so valuable for school librarians

(figure 11). Lu

ckily, school librarians are

service oriented and thus provide support

for each other generously and tend to have

the desire and the skillset to connect

virtually!

Figure 11. Why Build a PLN?

Source: Teacher Challenge, Step 1: What is a PLN?

How to Curate Your Crowd

Library Media Specialist Ashley Cooksey shares strategies in her Knowledge Quest article,

“Growing Your #PLN: Search. Follow. Connect.

“ Here are some other ideas:

● Start where you are.

○ You are already here, so you are connected to AASL! Take advantage of

AASL

Communities of Practice (CoP) and find discussions that you enjoy.

○ Think local and use the AASL Chapter Directory to find your state chapter.

○ Think national and connect even more with Community in AASL including

AASL Member Forum, the Knowledge Quest website, and links to AASL on

social media platforms.

○ What media platforms are you already using? Seek out other school librarians

on platforms you are already comfortable with like Spotify podcasts,

Facebook

groups like Future Ready Librarians, Instagram school librarians, TikTok, X

(previously Twitter), LinkedIn, etc.

● Start slow. One valuable connection can be powerful and choosing another

connection from that source may fill you without overwhelming you or your email

inbox. Here are some ideas to get you started:

○ ALA 2024 I Love My Librarian

awardees:

■ Melissa Corey (Linktree)

■ Gabriel Graña (Instagram)

○ Kelsey Bogan’s blog — Don’t Shush Me: Adventures of a High School Librarian

○ Amy Hermon’s podcast — School Librarians United

○ Shannon Balloon’s podcast — Middle Grade Matters

○ Shannon McClintock Miller’s blog — The Library Voice

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○ Follow a favorite author like Kate DiCamillo (Facebook), Jacqueline Woodson,

Jason Reynolds (X)

● Get personal. Feed the heart of your professional practice by connecting with others

for inspiration.

○ Select a few sources that you find personally inspiring and tap into them

whenever you can and especially if you are experiencing professional

confusion, frustration, or needing a boost.

○ Use the AASL Events Calendar

to find opportunities to get together with other

school librarians!

Modeling Learning Networks

School librarians who engage in a lively professional community online are able to share and

guide learners and colleagues in using online resources more effectively to support their own

learning and interests. School librarian Klaudia Janek writes about the importance of

modeling lifelong learning in her article “Why Should You Join Educator Communities?“

Resources to model digital networking:

● Provide PLN support for collegial groups by sharing targeted collections of

professional sources like this School Librarians to Follow on Wakelet!

collection or

collections around a curriculum topic with sources who focus on reading in early

elementary or a pedagogy collection with educators and professionals who share

about differentiation.

● Support faculty and administrators with PLN leads by sharing just one or two sources

when you find sources in the online community that connect to a unit or a goal they

have mentioned to you.

● Share the value of a strong PLN by letting learners know when you are using ideas of

another educator. For instance, you could say, “Today, we are going to use a

Book

Talk Wheel, an idea I learned about from Cari White, a librarian who write a blog

called, ‘Library Learners.’”

● Engage learners in creating and accessing their own digital networks with collections

of book recommendations and other crowd-sourced ideas that are relevant to their

lives. Tools like Padlet and Flip

are easy for learners to use for sharing, collaborating,

and connecting. QR codes and school websites are a great way to make learner

voices visible.

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Activity #2: Collaborating on Library Love! for a Learner-

Centered School Library

Objective: Cultivate a network of learners who care for and learn from the school

library by facilitating an “adopt a shelf” program.

Learners thrive on making personal connections and having real responsibilities and tangible

ways to apply their knowledge and skills. Facilitating some Library Love! by adopting and

interacting with an area of books or media in the school library is a great way to engage

learners and collaborate with them to create a learner-

centered school library environment and collection.

Searching adopt-a-shelf

library programs (figure 12) will

give you many ideas; however, the language of Library Love!

has the benefit of alliteration and a sense of the dramatic!

Have you ever noticed that, even after library lessons on

how books are organized and what spine labels mean, some

learners seem confused when actually looking for a book?

Perhaps you find yourself giving repeated reminders about

how to treat books, where to put them, and all the ways they

can get lost in the school library! Once learners take

ownership of areas of the school library, they will become

your collaborators, and soon some of them will even be

giving reminders, sighing over misplaced books, proudly

finding books that have been lost in the school library for

ages, and impulsively reaching out to straighten shelves!

__________________________________________________

Figure 12. Why We Need Books

Source: Liana Etling’s Adopt-a-Shelf program shared on X

How Library Love! Works:

1. Introduce Library Love! as an opportunity for learners to help take care of some of

their favorite parts of the school library collection.

2. Begin by allowing learners to volunteer and identify several of their favorite areas of

books, or even areas they enjoyed when they were younger.

3. Announce Library Love! shelf assignments with excitement and give learners a

chance to get acquainted with their shelves.

4. Brainstorm ideas with the group for making their parts of the school library the best

they can be. Guide the learners to consider what makes their shelves inviting and

accessible. Share some cool librarian tricks for taking care of shelves and books like

“fronting books.”

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5. Provide short bits of time during each school library visit for learners to give a little

Library Love! maintenance to their shelves based on their ideas for keeping it

attractive and organized.

6. Use these Library Love! areas to extend and apply library and literacy learning and

skills.

Library Love! Applications and Extensions

Collaborating with learners on collection management practices in the school library

provides rich opportunities to apply and extend thinking about literature and a sense of

belonging in the school library. Here are a few ideas:

● Learners share about the genre and subjects in their Library Love! areas and

visit each other’s areas to learn about other genres.

● With the knowledge that learners gain about their area, they can then provide

readers advisory services to their classmates.

● Invite learners to be alert for books that need to be weeded based on a

student-friendly, or even student-generated set of criteria. A guideline like

the pictured MUSTIE (Larson 2012) infographic designed by librarian

Tina

Raventós (figure 13) could be shared as an example of how librarians choose

what books to weed and then used or modified with learners.

● As learners become familiar with their Library Love! areas, invite them to

make recommendations and seek peer recommendations for books that

would improve their part of the collection.

● Learners can use themes they want to highlight and design library displays, as

librarian Liana Etling

does in her school library.

● When focusing on a literary concept such as Book as Mirrors, Favorite Story

Themes, or Books with Boring Covers That Are Great Anyway, learner can

pull book examples from their shelves.

____________________________________________

Figure 13. Why We Need Books

Source: MUSTIE Infographic by Tina Raventós

Activity #3: Welcome to Your Public Library

Objective: Cultivate a partnership with the local public library to help introduce

learners to a lifelong resource and community.

School libraries are specialized to align with curriculum needs and to help scaffold learners’

understanding and use of a library space and collection. At all ages public libraries provide

learners with additional access to resources and to a different library community. Reaching

out to local public libraries and making a connection between your school and public

libraries is valuable for learners and their families.

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Common ways that school librarians can collaborate with public libraries

● Offer to display or hand out public library information in the school library, such as

bookmarks with library hours, public library booklists, library card applications, and

information about special events in the public library.

● Collaborate with public libraries on possible interlibrary loan programs for books,

multiple copies of books, and learner access to public library online collections and

services through their website or apps. For instance, schools may be able to use

Sora

to connect their learners with their public library digital collection, even without a

library card!

● Post public library resources on school library websites and include public library

information in newsletters.

● Invite your public librarian to your school library to share about the public library, to

read a book, and/or to promote a specific public library program.

● Take a field trip to a public library to introduce learners to their community

resources. In some places, public libraries will let school librarians facilitate student

library cards with parent permission, which makes the trip especially exciting!

● Plan a research trip to your public library with a class or a group of learners working

on a project. Public librarians are often willing to pre-curate some resources for

learners or be available to assist with information seeking.

● Host a display in the public library created by learners.

● Participate in public library events such as book poster contests, and media to

celebrate reading and libraries like National Library Week

(figure 14).

● Offer to collaborate with the public library when bringing an author to the school

library for an author visit and add an appearance to the author’s trip at the public

library as well.

● Consider engaging with the public library to support reading teams or book clubs

with learners who come from different schools.

Figure 14. National Library Week 2024

theme poster

Source: National Library Week Press Kit

________________________________________________

Knowledge Quest authors Kammer and Moreland

noted that “School librarians are motivated to

collaborate with others not only for the learners

but also to improve their own job satisfaction.

Library collaboration can create friendships,

inspire new ideas, and develop supportive

advocacy networks when it is desperately needed” (2020). In a later Knowledge Quest

article, “The Experience of School and Public Library Collaboration

,” the authors conducted

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a study focused on collaborations in rural areas and discussed some of the challenges and

solutions to successful collaborations.

The AASL/Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)/Young Adult Library Services

Association (YALSA) Interdivisional Committee on School/Public Library Cooperation

created The Public Library & School Library Collaboration Toolkit

, a helpful guide as school

librarians embark on making connections to their public libraries.

Additional resources for cultivating partnerships:

● Sora + Public Library CONNECT

● School-Public Library Partnerships | ALSC

● Opportunities for Sharing and Community Connections

● Partners in Success: When school and public librarians join forces, kids win

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Share Domain for school librarians and the following Competencies.

C. Share: School librarians promote working productively with others to solve problems by:

1. Demonstrating how to solicit and respond to feedback from others.

2. Advocating and modeling respect for diverse perspectives to guide the inquiry

process.

Scenario: Building Relationships with Colleagues

Marcus is a veteran educator and school librarian who has started in a new middle school. He

is eager to have a lively, collaborative environment in his school library, and knows that he

needs to get acquainted with the staff quickly, so he can find people who are willing to work

with him. Marcus feels that if he can do that early on, others will be more apt to see how

collaboration can enhance their teaching and learners’ experiences.

He knows it can be challenging to make connections with other educators when you are new

and is considering ways to first get feedback from content-area educators to assess the

needs and the willingness to collaborate.

Questions for Further Discussion:

● How can the school librarian quickly and efficiently assess the needs and wants of

the other educators in his learning community?

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● What are some informal ways the school librarian can facilitate a meet and greet to

introduce himself?

● How can the school librarian share his skills and knowledge with the other educators

and learners to enhance the curriculum?

● What are some innovative tools the school librarian can bring to the collaboration

table?

Activity #1: Infographics for Visualizing Collaboration

Objective: Promote collaboration between school librarians and other educators

with the power and magic of infographics.

One of the best ways for school librarians to build a

sense of community at their school is by sharing all the

things happening in the school library. Creating

infographics can be an inviting way to share

opportunities for library engagement. A well-designed

infographic can “encourage conversation, suggestions,

and communication” (McNair, 2018).

Infographics can be used to advocate for partnerships

with other educators showcasing successful

collaborations. A library menu can display the

different options or “meals” that educators can choose

from to interact with school library resources or to

bring the school librarian into their classroom. In figure

15, the school librarian organized the information by

types of collaboration and provided examples within

each of the lessons, activities, and programming the

school library can support.

___________________________________________________

Figure 15. School Library Menu for Educators

Source: Angela Weisner, Dyer Library

Tools and Resources for Creating Infographics

The following include tools with templates that are adjustable to your data.

● Canva is a great, free tool for creating your own infographic from scratch or adapting

the plethora of templates provided.

● Venngage is designed specifically for creating infographics and has plenty of

templates to adapt.

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● Piktochart is another free resource to easily change templates to fit your needs.

● Wakelet can also be used to create a monthly infographic or newsletter highlighting

what has happened in the school library and encourage conversation like this

example.

Need more help on designing infographics?

The following resources can support school librarians in determining the best way to share

information.

● Students Need Libraries has some great information and examples with links to free

resources.

● Super Library Marketing gives you the “whys” and “hows” of marketing your school

library with infographics.

● James Allen has created a tutorial on how to use Looker Studio from Google to

create a low-stress infographic that updates itself.

Activity #2: Surveying Students to Hear their Voice

Objective: Invite diverse learner perspectives and feedback through interest

surveys in the school library.

Student interest surveys have long been utilized by educators to gather feedback and foster

understanding of their diverse group of learners. M. Grande defines interest inventories as “...

questionnaires or surveys of student interests that include closed and open-ended questions

whose answers will allow the surveyor to learn more about the interests of the surveyee.

Questions should also be designed to allow for the identification of both internal and

external motivators. Inventories can be completed by students independently or with

assistance depending on ability” (2008, 56). While these surveys may have been

traditionally completed on paper, school librarians can also consider conducting digital

surveys.

Through inviting individualized feedback from learners this way, school librarians send the

message to each learner that they value students’ interests and ideas in the school library.

Ensuring that individuals feel heard, valued, and understood is an essential first part of the

collaborative process!

Continuously garnering feedback is also an essential part of the learner/librarian

collaborative relationship. Learners’ interests evolve and change as they grow personally and

academically throughout the year. For example, how many school librarians were suddenly

asked for books and resources on Travis Kelce starting in the fall of 2023? By conducting

ongoing surveys, school librarians can stay on top of trends while also reaffirming with

learners that their opinions, ideas, and interests matter in the school library!

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Resources for developing interest surveys:

● Do you want to incorporate interest surveys in the school library but don’t know

where to start? Check out Leigh Collazo’s helpful article

“7 Easy Ways to Use

Reading Interest Surveys in Your Library.”

● Joanna Kozel (English Language Arts demonstration teacher with Monongalia

County, West Virginia, Schools) developed a reading interest survey for K-8

students. You can view the survey

here. You can download a pdf of the

survey here and also rework the

questions to make it more applicable

to your specific school population.

● Short on time? Have a large learner

population that makes conducting

individual assessments too laborious?

School librarians can also seek and

gain feedback from learners (and

educators) through informal surveys!

For example: Create a space for

learners to post what they’d like to

see in the school library (figure 16).

___________________________________________

Figure 16. Example of an Informal

Feedback Collector

Source: Dawn Shirk, Swann Middle School

Activity #3: Student Designed School Library Displays

Objective: Showcase diverse perspectives in the school library through learner-

created displays and social media.

As stated elsewhere in this guide, Rudine Sims Bishop (1990) reminds us that our libraries

must be “mirrors” for our learners. Diverse groups in the community and beyond should be

reflected in the school library, and all learners should feel that their experiences and

knowledge are valued and matter. Furthermore, school libraries can and should be spaces of

learning and gaining greater understanding of the experiences of others.

One way to help learners feel that their experiences are valued in the school library and to

have diverse perspectives mirrored in the library is to have learners (and other community

members) develop library displays.

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● Invite different groups in the school, such as clubs, organizations, departments, etc.,

to create monthly displays in the library. These displays could highlight a shared

theme such as Women’s History Month or Autism Awareness, or showcase a group’s

specific interest, such as a genre of interest to a book club, or the work of the STEM

club.

● Community participation would fit easily into this project, by inviting community

groups, public libraries, and businesses to create a display.

● Learners from neighboring schools could join in as well. For example, a middle school

might ask a high school to create a display that piques learners’ interest as they begin

thinking about transitioning to the next level of education.

● Extend learning and learner/community involvement in the school library by allowing

learners to create and post information and announcements in social media sites

managed by the school library!

Grow

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Grow Domain for school librarians and the following Competencies.

D. Grow: School librarians foster active participation in learning situations by:

1. Stimulating learners to actively contribute to group discussions.

2. Creating a learning environment in which learners understand that learning is a

social responsibility.

Scenario: Creating an Inclusive Environment for Learners

Ernie is the new school librarian at a Title I elementary school. Ernie is eager to develop

strong collaborative relationships with other educators and learners, but they find the school

library is not being utilized beyond learners checking out books during the assigned library

times. Furthermore, circulation numbers seem low for a school of 600 learners and 90 staff.

Ernie investigates why the school library is underutilized by the school community. First,

Ernie finds out that many learners refuse to check out books for fear of losing them and

owing fines. Second, they realize that the school community has long viewed the school

library as a quiet space for reading and checking out books, not as a space for learners and

educators to think, create, share, and grow. Collaboration between the school librarian and

other educators has not been a practice at the school, and some educators are adamant that

the school library should continue operating as a quiet space of introspection.

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Ernie knows that the school library can and should be a more dynamic and meaningful

learning environment for learners and other educators. Ernie and the principal meet to

discuss ways to make the school library the “heart” of the school—a place where all learners

can feel safe and supported.

Questions for Further Discussion:

● How can the school librarian foster a school library space where learners and other

educators want to participate in collaborative learning and growth?

● Can the school librarian develop a dynamic learning space where learners think,

create, share, and grow while also maintaining a positive relationship with the other

educators who wish the school library to continue its current course?

● How can the school librarian develop a school library space where learners and other

educators feel safe and compelled to actively participate and contribute to their own

learning and the learning of others?

Activity #1: Student Book Clubs

Objective: Coordinate learners into book clubs based on their interests.

School librarians are an ideal facilitator of book clubs at schools, as they often have the

space, resources, and flexibility to organize and run such programs. Book clubs help learners

engage in collaborative learning and growth, as they “enable students to learn from the

freedoms given, which lead to a deeper understanding of their reading, developing a deeper

understanding of other people through their conversations, and providing opportunities to

safely fail and celebrate success” (Petrich 2015).

When organizing a book club, school librarians should begin by soliciting learner ideas and

opinions on book selection. Donalyn Miller emphasizes that learners need to be able to have

access to books that they choose, arguing that "readers without power to make their own

choices are unmotivated" (2009, 23). To motivate learners to buy in to the book club,

learners must be given the opportunity to choose their own books.

To solicit ideas on learner interests, consider distributing interest surveys, holding informal

discussions, or have the learners completely run the book club by choosing their own groups

and books.

Resources and approaches for facilitating book clubs:

● Consider offering a “silent book club

.” Silent book clubs offer introverted learners a

chance to socialize and offer all learners a quiet space to reflect and read.

● Consider developing a “Buddy Shelf” at your elementary school library. A “Buddy

Shelf” is a distinct shelf or entire bookshelf unit of books that have multiple copies in

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the school library. Learners can easily locate books with multiple copies to develop

their own informal book clubs with friends.

● Need a book club theme? Genre-based book clubs may entice students who only

read specific genres of books and may also attract students who want to try

something new.

● Don’t have a budget for multiple copies of titles? Consider collaborating with other

schools in your district and your local public library to establish interlibrary loan

accounts to secure more copies.

Activity #2: Magic: The Library Gathering

Objective: Collaborate with educators, learners, and others to bring “Magic” to the

school library.

Magic: The Gathering is a social multiplayer tabletop card game that has existed in various

forms since the 1990s. The game is marketed as being appropriate for individuals ages 13+,

so it would be appropriate for the upper middle and high school population. Magic: The

Gathering involves critical thinking (strategy), reading, and math (calculating life totals,

number of creature tokens being created, and more)! Middle and high school librarians may

consider developing a Magic: The Gathering club in the school library.

New to the game and not sure where to get started?

Collaborate with your local game store! Game stores often have free or low-cost Magic: The

Gathering game nights open to all players (new and old) where you can learn the game. Your

local game store can also help with providing you with basic information about the game,

resources, and can recommend game decks and specific cards to get started. Wizards of the

Coast offers a search engine

to locate Magic: The Gathering events at the game store

closest to you.

No budget to purchase cards for you and your students?

No problem! Contact MagiKids

. This 501(c)(3) charity based out of Rochester, Minn., has a

mission to educate younger persons and others in how to play Magic: The Gathering, to

assist others in such educational activities and to educate persons and entities regarding the

societal benefits of games like Magic among youth. MagiKids may be able to provide you

with cards and other game materials (such as dice), and also has resources to help you teach

learners the basics of the game.

“The Professor” from Tolarian Community College in

Oregon published a YouTube video outlining the benefits of learners playing Magic: The

Gathering, and what MagiKids may be able to offer your school. Your local game store may

also have cards and other materials they may want to donate to your new program.

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Need help facilitating games and coaching players?

Put a call out to learners to see if anyone already plays Magic: The Gathering. Learners who

already play the game can help you instruct others. Magic: The Gathering is a fun and

exciting game, but there are also a lot of rules, language, and strategy to learn. Teachers of

the game will develop patience, understanding, and flexibility as they help others learn.

Consider also putting out a call to parents and caregivers. Since Magic: The Gathering has

existed for over 30 years and has many players, you will most likely have adults in your

school community you can collaborate with to bring the game to your school library.

Additional tips and resources for gaming in the school library:

● There are multiple formats to playing Magic: The Gathering.

o Commander

is one good option for the school library setting since it’s casual

and can be played by three to five players (120 minutes per game). If you have

a budget, Commander is an easy format to start with since you can buy

premade Commander decks for each learner.

o Jumpstart is another good format to use in the school library since games are

short and decks can be easily constructed out of two Jumpstart booster packs.

● There are other tabletop card games your learners may be already playing such as

Dungeons & Dragons, Lorcana, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh! If your learners are already

interested in another tabletop card game, start with what they are already playing

and collaborate with them to start and build upon the club.

Activity #3: Inclusive Reading Challenges

Objective: Collaborate with other educators and community members to develop

an inclusive reading challenge and engage reluctant readers.

Reading challenges can be an exciting way to encourage learners to read more, but they can

also cause stress for learners who are reluctant readers. For example, many reluctant readers

may struggle with a reading challenge that focuses on the number of books read.

The Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD)

in Canada releases an annual 12-book challenge

focused on having readers diversify their selections. You can implement or modify the FOLD

reading challenge for your school community. The FOLD has posters (figures 17a and 17b)

and resources for librarians and learners to implement their challenge.

You may also consider working with other educators and community members to organize

and implement a challenge similar to the FOLD challenge where books push learners to

diversify their reading selections to learn about the myriad experiences, backgrounds,

values, and worldviews that make up their community and beyond. Using the FOLD

challenge model, school librarians and other educators can foster conversations and

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Figure 17a. The FOLD Challenge

Source: The FOLD

Figure 17b. The FOLD Kids Challenge

Source: The FOLD Kids

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extended learning around specific topics. For example, using the April 2024 topic for the

FOLD challenge model, you can set up recommended books by Sikh authors. You may also

involve local Sikh community members to extend learning in the school library and

classroom by having guest speakers and special units on Sikhism. Alternately, consider

collaborating with other educators to modify the FOLD model and identify and align

inclusive monthly topics with curriculum needs. Then, share the library challenge calendar

with caregivers and community organizations at the beginning of the school year to help

promote book donations and other collaborations around monthly challenge topics.

Additional resources and tips for reading challenges:

● Check out this CBC article

on the various forms of reading challenges, and their

benefits and drawbacks.

● Project Lit Book Club is a grassroots literacy movement that also releases lists of

books with diverse authors and characters for middle and high school learners. Like

the FOLD Challenge, their lists can be used in a flexible manner—you can choose

how you want to implement them in your school library.

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School Libraries

In our current cultural landscape where school libraries face multiple challenges to

intellectual freedom, collaboration remains a powerful tool to ensure learners can work with

their peers from multiple life experiences and learn about diverse perspectives. To continue

to provide impactful and diverse learning environments, school libraries must build

relationships with key stakeholders like content-area educators, administrators, caregivers,

and learners. Promoting a collaborative culture and facilitating collaborative learning

environments situates the school library as a central partner in developing information

literacy skills and supporting learner and community needs. Fostering collaboration creates

a larger network of advocates for the school library and can help demonstrate the impact

the school library has on learners and educators. This section features scenarios and

activities that demonstrate the multiple ways the school library serves as the nexus for the

school community, fostering collaboration among learners, educators, administrators,

parents, and community members.

Think

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Think Domain for school libraries and the following Alignments.

A. Think: The school library facilitates opportunities to integrate collaborative and shared

learning by:

1. Partnering with other educators to scaffold learning and organize learner groups to

broaden and deepen understanding.

2. Leading inquiry-based learning opportunities that enhance the information, media,

visual, and technical literacies of all members of the school community.

Scenario: Collaboration Beyond Our Schools

Wilbert is a new school librarian at an elementary school in a midsize Appalachian college

town. While other educators have worked with the previous school librarian on projects, he

finds that the school library has been operating as a “bubble” with no outside collaboration.

Wilbert knows from his training that his school library should be establishing strong

collaborative partnerships with individuals and organizations beyond his school.

He is approached by a fifth-grade educator, Ms. Tsai, who wants to collaborate on a Civil

War research project. Ms. Tsai is also eager to expose her students to learning opportunities

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and experiences beyond school walls. Speaking with the principal, Wilbert realizes that there

is currently no funding available for transportation for field trips.

Wilbert’s school is equipped with ample resources to incorporate technology with learning.

For example, each learner has their own Chromebook, the school library has iPads for

checkout, and the school has access to a strong and stable Wi-Fi connection. Wilbert

decides to speak to Ms. Tsai about how they can draw upon outside individuals and groups

with expertise on the Civil War, as well as using their technological resources, to scaffold

learning and broaden the fifth graders' understanding of the Civil War.

Questions for Further Discussion:

● How should the school librarian begin to seek out partnerships/relationships between

the school library and community members and organizations?

● What kinds of groups/organizations lend themselves well to strong

collaborations/relationships with school libraries?

● How can the school librarian foster and maintain strong collaborations and ongoing

relationships with individuals and community groups/organizations?

Activity #1: Collaborative Creativity Challenge

Objective: Coordinate a cross-disciplinary “creativity challenge” that involves

information, media, visual, and technical literacies.

The Harlem Globetrotters hold an annual Court of Creativity Challenge for elementary

school students. The school library can be the heart of this challenge, where the school

librarian facilitates the collaborative entities (learners and educators) and is the line of

communication to the Court of Creativity Challenge organizers.

Work with other educators and learners to develop and execute a plan to complete this

challenge. You know the strengths and interests of your student body and should keep this

in mind when brainstorming who to involve in the challenge. For example, is there a specific

grade classroom that most enjoys arts-related activities? Is there a learner or educator who

enjoys filming/editing who can assist with this element of the submission? Are there specific

educators who enjoy organizing special events? Work to harness the interests and special

talents of your specific school community.

Being a Harlem Globetrotters challenge, you may want to approach the Physical Education

educator to see if they can overlap any basketball-specific units with the submission

timeline. Second, hold formal or informal brainstorming sessions with grade level and related

arts educators to come up with creativity challenge parameters. For example, will you limit

challenge participants to a specific grade or do a school-wide activity? Will you focus on one

discipline (for example: music) in combination with basketball in developing your

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submission, or will you be open to a multidisciplinary approach? For inspiration and

guidance, you can view past submissions for the contest here.

Learning and brainstorming for the challenge among learners should begin in the school

library! For example, kickstart the challenge in the school library by reading one of these

titles:

● Swish!: The Slam-Dunking, Alley-Ooping, High-Flying Harlem Globetrotters (2020)

by Suzanne Slade (illustrated by Don Tate)

● Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented

Basketball (2013) by John Coy (illustrated by Joe Morse)

Prompt discussion during and after these read-alouds by asking some of the following

questions:

1. How did the Harlem Globetrotters and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

use creativity to solve challenges and be innovative leaders?

2. Why is taking risks important to being creative? How do you deal with failure when

you take a risk and it does not go the way you hoped?

3. How are you creative every day? Are you artists, athletes, or inventors?

4. The Harlem Globetrotters and Naismith both emphasize the importance of working

as a team when tackling challenges. Why is working as a team beneficial when trying

to solve problems and learn new ideas?

5. How does your class work as a team to tackle challenges and find solutions? What is

your special role in your class team?

Many state cultural and other organizations run challenges and activities for learners. For

example, Blenko Glass Co. and WVU Industrial Extension hold an annual Student Design

Challenge for students in West Virginia. The winning design will serve as inspiration for an

original Blenko creation. Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, also hosts an

annual Cardboard Boat Regatta where grade 3-12 learners use their science, technology,

engineering, and mathematics (STEM) knowledge and problem-solving skills to create

cardboard boats that they race across a swimming pool. Research what competitions your

state offers and consider how the school library may act as the heart of collaboration in

tackling these challenges.

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Activity #2: Peep into the Library!

Objective: Coordinate with a local or state-level birding group to develop resources

that broaden and deepen learners’ STEM understanding and exploration.

Birding is a low-cost educational hobby that can be done anytime and anywhere by

individuals or groups, so it is an inclusive activity to promote to our diverse learners in the

school library. There are also a plethora of local, state, and national birding organizations that

school libraries can partner with to provide resources to learners and educators.

Figure 18. Birding Backpack

Resources Flyer

Source: Created by 2024 Emerging

Leaders Team A

_________________________________

With this activity, school libraries

collaborate with birding

organizations and grade-level

educators to develop birding

backpacks for checkout.

Birding

backpack programs have been

running at many public libraries over

the last decade and can be

successfully developed at K-12

schools.

To begin, research local birding

groups. National Audubon

has a

search tool to find your local chapter

of this national birding organization.

Local birding groups can potentially

help you with funding for the birding

backpacks and developing the

backpacks themselves. For example,

they can recommend age-

appropriate bird guides that

reference birds native to your area

and share knowledge about popular

birding sites such as local trails that

you can include in your backpack.

They can also recommend age-

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appropriate quality binoculars for purchase. Consider creating an infographic poster to help

promote your birding program and the materials found inside each birding backpack for

check-out (figure 18).

You may also want to research state-level and local birding rescues. For example,

The

Missouri Prairie Foundation offers birdwatching trips and even donated books related to

birding to the St. Louis Public Library recently. Local birding groups are also a wealth of

knowledge and resources. For example, The Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia, Inc.,

which is licensed to possess non-releasable birds for educational purposes, holds free

educational programs with live rescue birds such as American Kestrels, screech-owls, and

red-tailed hawks for schools. Live and educational bird demonstrations provide learners with

an exciting opportunity to experience the world of birding.

Local universities may also have expert birders on faculty who can help develop resources,

lead lectures for learners and educators on birding, and host educational birding activities on

and off school sites such as bird-banding workshops, bird watching nature walks, and more.

Additional resources to aid bird-watching with learners:

● eBird

is an online database of bird observations providing scientists, researchers, and

amateur naturalists with real-time data about bird distribution and abundance. With

the eBird app, learners and educators can track their individual or group bird

sightings while contributing to a scientific database run by the Cornell Lab of

Ornithology. Consider researching rare birds in your area and challenge learners to

spot each rare bird first!

● Need a hook for birding to intrigue high school learners? Check out This American

Life’s podcast episode “The Feather Heist

” on the true story of how a flute player

broke into a British museum to escape with over a million dollars-worth of dead bird

specimens.

● No windows or ability to take learners on birdwatching walks? No problem! Check

out live birding camera streams on www.explore.org

● Inspired to extend learning even further? Start your own birding club or class! The

Webb School in Bellbuckle, Tennessee, has their own birding class. You can seek

inspiration by checking out their LibGuide on ornithology here

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Activity #3: Career Week in the School Library

Objective: Collaborate with educators, caregivers, and the broader community to

deepen and broaden learner understandings of career opportunities!

It is crucial that learners are exposed to a diversity of career opportunities so that they can

explore a broader horizon of future possibilities. Career weeks are an optimal way for

learners to be exposed to the variety of careers that they may pursue. Career days also

enable learners to, in the words of Sesame Street: Meet “the people in your neighborhood!”

Leverage your relationships with other educators and community members to help facilitate

a career day in the school library and extend learning through displays and choice boards.

Collaborate with other educators to invite parents, caregivers, and community members to

present their careers to learners. Provide books and choice boards to educators in advance

of the presentations so that learners can explore careers they may be interested in before

the event.

Figure 19. Examples of Pop

Bottle Figures

Moore and Klemkowsky’s Grade

Two Students (a marine biologist,

arborist, computer scientist, and

paleontologist) displayed in the

school library.

Source: Suncrest Elementary School,

Morgantown, West Virginia

_________________________________

At Suncrest Elementary School in

Morgantown, West Virginia,

second-grade educators Bryanna

Moore and Tammy Klemkowsky

extended learning and exploration even further by having learners work with their

caregivers to create pop-bottle figures of themselves working in their desired career (

template of their letter to caregivers). These creations were partnered with essays on why

the learner wanted to explore their selected career. Moore and Klemkowsky held a family

night where learners dressed up as themselves working in their future career. Each learner

stood beside their pop-bottle figure and answered questions posed by family members and

educators on why they chose their specific career. The pop bottle figures were then

displayed in the school library after the event (figure 19) so that other learners and

educators could learn about career paths.

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Additional resources for career exploration:

● Invite parents, caregivers, and alumni as speakers for your career day. Local speakers

can share resources and inspire your learners. In turn, speakers are welcomed into

the school library and can learn about its goals, mission, and resources.

● Consider sharing the Occupational Outlook Handbook

by the U.S. Bureau of Labor

Statistics with your learners. This handbook is divided into occupation groups and

shares information about specific jobs including: position descriptions, average pay,

typical education/training required, and job outlook.

● Consider introducing your senior learners to LinkedIn and have them connect with

school alumni who work in a career they are interested in pursuing.

Create

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Create Domain for school libraries and the following Alignments.

B. Create: The school library’s policies ensure that school librarians are active participants in

development, evaluation, and improvement of instructional and program resources with the

school librarian by:

1. Consistently engaging with the school community to ensure that the school library

resources, services, and standards align with the school’s mission.

2. Participating in district, building, and department or grade-level curriculum

development and assessment on a regular basis.

3. Including the school community in the development of school library policies and

procedures.

Scenario: Collaborative Strategic Plans as Advocacy Tools

Christal is a middle school librarian in a rural community. The school library is facing

challenges from the outside community about what topics learners are engaging with and

the learning theories used in the school library curriculum. Christal has strong partnerships

with her administration, classroom educators, and the learners’ caregivers. She decides to

create a collaborative strategic plan with her partners to create an advocacy tool that

showcases what the school library provides.

The collaborative strategic plan allows Christal to justify school library curriculum and

events using learning standards and the school’s mission, vision, and values. Creating a

collaborative strategic plan also allows community partners to contribute to the future of

school library initiatives, creating a greater sense of buy-in from key stakeholders.

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Christal organizes information sessions for administrators, classroom educators, and parents

to highlight the value of a strategic plan and the process of creating a collaborative

document. She invites participants to review the National School Library Standards, the

school’s mission, vision, and values, and brainstorm how these documents can intersect to

support student learning.

Questions for Further Discussion:

● What kinds of information does the school librarian need to collect in her information

sessions with stakeholders to help ensure school library curriculum and programming

remain relevant to the school community?

● What role does the school library play in directing and assessing student learning in

collaboration with the school or district standards?

● How can a school library strategic plan be used as a marketing tool to the larger

community?

● How can collaboratively drafted school library policies increase community

participation and buy-in?

● How can the school librarian approach the task of collaboratively drafting school

library policies?

Activity #1: Community-Driven Strategic Plan

Objective: Develop a collaborative strategic plan to guide future school library

initiatives.

Strategic plans are an effective tool for planning the future of school library initiatives,

changes in physical space, and community collaborations. Strategic plans can serve as an

advocacy tool, justifying an increase in budget or the need for additional staffing. At their

core, strategic plans share the vision, mission, and values of a school library as influenced by

their community’s needs and district or school mission.

Developing a strategic plan does not happen in a vacuum. The school librarian must work to

understand the needs of key stakeholders like learners, content-area educators, and parents

to create a strategic plan that is responsive to the larger school’s needs. One method of

creating a responsive and collaborative strategic plan is to create exactly that, a

collaboratively designed strategic plan.

The North Carolina Library Advocacy coalition created helpful planning worksheets and a

step-by-step outline of how to approach creating a strategic plan for a school library. The

first step outlined is to conduct a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

(SWOT) analysis. Dr. Anthony Chow recommends creating a steering committee composed

of key stakeholders like parents, educators, school administrators, learners, and district staff.

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If you are unable to convene everyone in the same meeting, you can consider convening this

meeting virtually and creating a collaborative notes document through a tool like Google

Docs.

After conducting a SWOT analysis, work with your steering committee to identify a vision,

mission, and organizational core values. Refer to the American Association of School

Librarians’ Common Beliefs for guidance on creating aspirational values for your school

library. The mission statement signals to the larger community what the school library does

on a regular basis to work toward the vision statement, as well as identifies key stakeholders.

To create buy-in from the school library community on adopting, promoting, and

implementing the strategic plan, it is important to collaboratively create these key

statements with educators, school administration, and other important stakeholders. It is also

important for stakeholders to see progress in the strategic plan over time. This living

document can serve as an assessment tool to measure the impact of instruction,

programming, and collaborations. Consider creating an end-of-year report sharing

advancements made as guided by the strategic plan.

Additional resources for strategic planning:

● Managing the Successful School Library: Strategic Planning and Reflective

Practice, by Lesley S.J. Farmer (2017).

● Sample of a completed school library strategic plan developed by the Cameron

Elementary School Library in North Carolina (2016).

Activity #2: Curriculum Mapping

Objective: Identify key times for school library involvement in school curriculum.

Curriculum mapping is the process of “collecting data about the operational curriculum in a

school or district referenced directly to the calendar” with the intention of improving

student performance and continuously assessing curriculum and teaching practices (Jacobs

2004). In the school library context, curriculum mapping is a tool for linking information

literacy learning outcomes with the larger school’s curriculum and individual class learning

outcomes. Curriculum maps can serve as an advocacy tool to your larger school community

by highlighting the role of school library instruction in learner development and diverse

programming the school library hosts. It can also serve as a visual aid to charting the

National School Library Standards with your local school curriculum.

It can help identify classes where information literacy instruction is happening, and where

school librarian intervention would be most beneficial for scaffolded student learning.

Although curriculum mapping has primarily been written about in an academic library

context, it is a helpful tool for school librarians and classroom or content-area educators to

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collaborate on, scaffolding school library instruction and transferable information seeking

skills.

How to Create a Curriculum Map

Curriculum mapping will help you understand the flow of courses over a school year and

identify the best times for school library instruction and outreach. Reviewing the course

outcomes and activities for each subject is daunting, so it is best to start with one subject at

a time and focus on fostering relationships with those content-area educators initially. You

will need to work in depth with classroom and content-area educators to identify their

course learning objectives, standards, and activities (figure 20).

1. Open a separate spreadsheet document for each grade-level or content-area in your

school, and add tabs for each of the specific educators you are working with in that

area.

2. Create a mapping template using columns for the months that you will be mapping

and rows for course learning objectives, content discussed by month, tangible skills,

standards, materials, and assignments.

3. Identify the objectives and skills most aligned with information literacy skills.

4. Link course objectives with school library standards and learner outcomes.

5. Collaborate with classroom or content-area educators to align their standards and

plan school library instruction sessions or outreach activities at the time of highest

need.

Additional resources for curriculum mapping:

● Getting Results with Curriculum Mapping

— book with practical advice on starting

the curriculum mapping process to improve teaching and learning.

● Curriculum Mapping as a Strategic Planning Tool — journal article that documents

how two librarians at Loyola Marymount University utilized curriculum mapping in

library instruction to have a greater impact on student learning.

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Figure 20. Sample Draft Curriculum Map

Teacher: Mr. Garibay

Course: Social Studies

Grade Level: 8th

Year: 2025 - 26

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

Course Learning

Objective

Discuss Abraham Lincoln's

presidency and his

significant writings and

speeches and their

relationship to the

Declaration of

Independence, such as his

“House Divided” speech

(1858), Gettysburg

Address (1863),

Emancipation

Proclamation (1863), and

inaugural addresses (1861

and 1865).

List the original aims of

Reconstruction and

describe its effects on the

political and social

structures of different

regions.

Identify the new sources of

large-scale immigration and

the contributions of

immigrants to the building of

cities and the economy;

explain the ways in which

new social and economic

patterns encouraged

assimilation of newcomers

into the mainstream amid

growing cultural diversity;

and discuss the new wave of

nativism.

Content

Abraham Lincoln’s “House

Divided” speech (1858)

Ain't Nothing But a Man:

My Quest to Find the Real

John Henry

Newspaper articles with

nativism rhetoric compared

to those encouraging

migration.

Skills

Identify reference/

background sources.

Distinguish fact from

opinion.

Identify primary sources.

AASL Standards

Framework for Learners

and

Learner Outcomes

IV.B. (Curate/Create):

Learners gather

information appropriate to

the task by:

Constructing an effective

and efficient process for

critically examining

information resources.

I.A. (Inquire/Think):

Learners display curiosity

and initiative by:

Privately identifying

personal identity,

prejudices, and

perspectives.

II.B. (Include/Create):

Learners adjust their

awareness of the global

learning community by:

Understanding differing

perspectives

and biases through

digital literacy.

Content-Area Learning

Standards

Other Library Book(s) or

Resource(s)?

Source: Adapted from Figure 7.2 in Getting Results with Curriculum Mapping, p. 87.

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Activity #3: Demonstrating Impact At-A-Glance

Objective: Create an infographic on school library resources as an advocacy tool.

School libraries can often serve as the nexus for the school community, addressing learner

needs, educator learning outcomes, and the missions and values of the school

administration. But how can school librarians approach showcasing the resources and

services provided to a community partner that doesn’t understand the value of school

library programming or spaces?

Infographics are a useful marketing tool for demonstrating values, impact, and future goals.

School librarians can leverage infographics to conduct outreach to key stakeholders in the

school library community and promote library values online. Canva

offers free infographic

templates. Advanced features are available free for educators.

Designing Impactful Infographics or Newsletters

1. Identify the mission and values of your school library, and potentially your larger

school community.

2. Pull statistics on outreach and service initiatives that have addressed the values of

the school library and the school/district mission. The intent is to demonstrate how

school library activities are mapped to larger goals and meet learner needs.

3. Highlight key activities, quotes from individual interactions, photographs of events,

and statements of support from content-area educators or school administration.

4. Organize this information in an infographic or newsletter. Be mindful of avoiding

cognitive overload and too much text.

5. Ensure your infographic or newsletter meets accessibility standards

. Adobe offers

helpful tools for adding alternative text to images and/or graphics. You can also add

headings and categories to text for screen readers.

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Share Domain for school libraries and the following Alignments.

C. Share: The school library provides opportunities for school librarians to connect and work

with the learning community by:

1. Facilitating diverse social and intellectual learner networks.

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2. Designing and leading professional-development opportunities that reinforce the

impact of the school library’s resources, services, and programming on learners’

academic learning and educators’ effectiveness.

3. Promoting and modeling the importance of information-use skills by publicizing to

learners, staff, and the community available services and resources; serving on school

and district-wide committees; and engaging in community and professional

activities.

Scenario: Creating a Library Learning Commons

Lani walked into her first year as a school librarian with an ambitious agenda and enthusiasm

about all that could be possible in this school role. She interviewed for the job earlier in the

summer at the large district office without seeing the state of the school library or finding

out any information about the budget. Now that the school is open to educators for working

days before the first day learners arrive at school, Lani received the key to the school library

space.

When she opened the door and looked around, Lani was initially shocked. The school library

space lacked enough furniture to fit an entire class of 30, the collection was glaringly dated,

and there were not even basic office supplies, let alone library processing materials. But Lani

was only momentarily detoured. She went straight to the main office to find out the process

for ordering materials in the hope of stocking the school library in the early days of the

school year, only to find out that due to budget cuts in recent years there weren’t any funds

allocated to the school library. Lani has zero budget.

Stumped, Lani started reaching out to people she met in her Master of Library and

Information Science (MLIS) program and even some of her professors. First commiserating

with her, Lani’s colleagues provided all kinds of useful suggestions including Donors Choose

information about the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) grants, educational

foundations, and more.

Lani started reading about opportunities and examining the application requirements.

Because her job responsibilities emphasize teaching and learning, she wants to focus on

resources to support a robust school library instruction program integrated with the school’s

curricular program. She realized that most of these funding sources required a great deal of

data about the school and her space. New in this role, Lani does not have years of

experience and information to rely on to demonstrate the need. Lani recalled using Canva as

a graphic design tool in some of her MLIS classes. She sat down to brainstorm and searched

Canva for infographic templates.

Questions for Further Discussion:

● What possible data can the school librarian find and collect about the school library

that may help her seek fast funding opportunities?

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● How can the school librarian begin to develop relationships and a learning network

with fellow educators that will help her gather data about the school library and its

work with content areas across the school?

● How can the school librarian position the information and data she gathers to make

the strongest case for funding?

● How can the school librarian most effectively present her case to convince her own

administration to invest in her program?

● How will the data the school librarian collects be useful in publicizing services and

resources to learners, staff, and the community?

Activity #1: Rotating Displays to Showcase the School Library

Objective: Broadcast school library information, programs, and services on a digital

bulletin board.

Digital signage is a great way to catch the attention of library users and reinforce all that the

school library has to offer. It means that the school community is not only better informed

about all that the school library has happening, they are encouraged to connect with and

make use of the school library more often. Slides that auto-advance can easily be created

and customized using Google Slides or Canva

. These slides can be projected on screens in

the school library space and other common areas around the school. They can be updated

on a regular basis to highlight all kinds of school library opportunities, including but not

limited to:

● library hours

● library maps

● digital resources

● new books

● special collections

● special events

● upcoming programs

● other library services and frequently asked questions

● games/trivia/contests to engage users

● surveys/polls to gather input

● learner work

● photos

Check out this free Digital Bulletin Board template

from Mrs Reader Pants on Teachers Pay

Teachers for inspiration.

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Activity #2: Expanding Your Professional Network

Objective: Cultivate a local or regional community of school librarians to share

digital and physical resources.

Creating or participating in a local or regional network of school librarians is a wonderful way

to share both digital and physical resources. Begin by seeing if there is an AASL Chapter

your area and/or other local library associations. Many organizations communicate

information on their websites, social media channels, and listservs. Members of those

organizations are often also eager to help colleagues with information and resource sharing:

● Digital resources such as sample library scope and sequences, lesson plans,

information for grants, inspirations for book displays, bulletin boards, and programs

can all be easily shared via Google Drive.

● Physical resources such as book repair machines could also be made available to

school librarians in the area. To spearhead that initiative, consider inviting the

Demco

Book Doctor to provide a free book repair workshop for librarians in your area. The

workshop will include an overview of book repair equipment and supplies plus how to

use them. Other possibilities include sharing and swapping other physical materials

such as sets of books for book clubs and literature circles, maker equipment, and

more.

Activity #3: Highlighting Literacy Resources

Objective: Model the importance of information-use skills by promoting available

services and resources on the school library website.

Utilizing input from community members, add a page to the school library website featuring

literacy resources available in your community. This makes the school library website more

robust and useful for learners and families. Resources may include links to the local public

library system and their programs and services for children and young adults, local

museums, reading and writing resources, as well as information/digital literacy resources.

Here are some possible resources to share that may spark your community’s own curated

collection.

Reading and Writing Resources:

● 826 Valencia

● National Novel Writing Month

● National Writing Project

● New York Times Contests

Information/Digital Literacy:

● Common Sense

● News Literacy Project

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Grow

The scenarios and activities in this section are built on the Collaborate Shared Foundation

using the Grow Domain for school libraries and the following Alignments.

D. Grow: The school library supports active learner participation by:

1. Creating and maintaining a learning environment that supports and stimulates

discussion from all members of the school community.

2. Demonstrating and reinforcing the idea that information is a shared resource.

Scenario: Making the Library a Community Space

Ms. Jeffries is a high school librarian who has recently accepted a new position at a public

school library in an urban setting in a midsize city. She quickly discovers that the school

library space has mostly been used for faculty meetings and testing, especially post-

pandemic. While she recognizes that these are common uses for a school library, she sets a

goal to bring this library to life for the learners, staff, and community. She has received a

grant to replace old and outdated furniture with modern, flexible seating and workspaces.

She also is looking to community resources, such as the Parent, Teacher,

Student Association, businesses and organizations to fund active spaces within the school

library, such as low- and high-tech makerspaces, and to host learner events such as book

clubs, open mic, and career/job search fairs.

Sandra is president of the Student Government Association (SGA). She is working with the

officers and other representatives to create a list of activities they would like to see in their

school library. Sandra would also like to see their school library become a vibrant, academic

space that welcomes creative uses and offers a safe space for learners to hang out, work,

collaborate, read, etc. She has approached Ms. Jeffries to collaborate on bringing their ideas

to life.

Questions for Further Discussion:

● How can the school librarian manage her time with all her plans to grow the school

library and keep up with her other duties as well?

● What tasks or responsibilities are appropriate for the school librarian to delegate to

Sandra Garcia and the SGA? What are some best practices when working with

learner groups?

● What are some approaches the school librarian can use to enlist the help of various

stakeholders—including administrators, other educators, parents, and community

members—to ensure success and support?

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Activity #1: Funding a Functional, Flexible School Library

Workspace

Objective: Search for grants to fund the redesigning of the school library space.

To bring a more modern, flexible design to a school library, it is often necessary to secure

outside funding. Sometimes financial resources can come from local stakeholders and

organizations, but often a grant can fill this need. Here are some resources for finding grants:

● Demco Free Library and Education Grant Search

● Show Me the Money: Grants and Funding

● EBSCO: Grants & Funding Sources For Libraries

School librarians can also reach out to the public to obtain donations to support smaller

purchases of flexible furniture and supplies. If approved by administration, Donors Choose

a website specifically designed for public schools to advocate for funding through their

community members. School librarians or educators can create projects with specific items

needed and advertise it to interested caregivers or organizations to make donations.

Collaborating with other educators is another way to increase interest in gaining funding.

When educators and school librarians work together to share the importance of new

furniture or resources, granting organizations, caregivers, and community members can

better see and understand the value of donating to the cause. Collaborating with other

educators in your building to identify shared needs can help increase your odds of garnering

funds.

Activity #2: Creating Collaborative Student Workspaces

Objective: Provide flexible spaces for learning and collaborating and make the

library the HEART of the school.

The school library offers options for creating, rearranging, and recreating customized

workspaces for learners and educators. Whether users are visiting the school library as part

of a class, independently, or in small groups, the school library can facilitate many types of

use. A school library might have separate areas for classroom engagement, formal meeting

space, small group instruction or projects, and more hands-on activity areas. A quiet reading

and/or study nook is also ideal. Smaller libraries can use flexible seating/furniture to create

these spaces as needed. Following are some real-life examples of how school librarians used

flexible seating/furniture to create dynamic collaborative spaces.

Ann Virost, librarian at Rankin Elementary in Greensboro, North Carolina, used money from

Donors Choose and community organizations to furnish her school library. Knowing that

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furniture is expensive, and funding can be

limited, she created flexible seating areas

one area at a time, with multiple funding

projects. Notice that in addition to fun,

movable furniture, she has bright colors on

the walls, making the environment even

more inviting!

__________________________________________

Modular furniture and furniture with wheels

can maximize space and make creating and

recreating spaces to facilitate collaboration

as needed much easier.

Source: Ann Virost, Rankin Elementary School,

Greensboro, NC

Kristin Tarnas, K-8 librarian at Hawai’i Preparatory Academy, uses inexpensive floor desks

for learners to use as they work in the school library. These floor desks allow learners to bring

their work across the school library (and beyond)! Tarnas

also uses portable seating placed in bookshelf corners to

develop cozy reading nooks for learners. Finally, Tarnas

purchased an oversized bean bag chair to act as a comfy

seating area for tweens and teens.

___________________________________________________

Floor desks are inexpensive and easy to order.

Source: Kristin Tarnas, K-8 Librarian at Hawai’i Preparatory

Academy

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At Suncrest Elementary School, school librarian

Charlotte Chung collaborates with other educators to

have their learners’ projects displayed in the school

library. Large projects (such as the fifth-grade Titanic

models) can serve as barriers for noise and

distractions during library classes. The school library

also acts as a hallway between the kindergarten

classes and the rest of the school.

___________________________________________________

Titanic models are displayed on top of curved

bookshelves.

Source: Charlotte Chung, Elementary Librarian at Suncrest

Elementary School

In the large class space at Francis Howell Central High School in Cottleville, Missouri, school

librarian Cassi Flores wanted to upgrade the heavy wooden tables into something more

mobile but couldn’t get the funding to do so. The school decided instead to buy inexpensive

plastic furniture sliders to attach to the legs of all the tables. Now the tables can easily be

pushed around the school library space and reconfigured into whatever shape or space is

needed for different activities and events.

Flores also purchased inexpensive IKEA

chairs for students to relax in and created

a small, quiet reading nook.

________________________________________

IKEA chairs are located in Francis Howell

Central HS, creating a quiet reading nook

for high school students.

Source: Cassi Flores, Francis Howell Central

Activity #3: Creating an Open Space for Community Use

Objective: Create a welcoming, functional space for all stakeholders to engage.

School librarians can create a collaborative environment by opening the school library space

for members of the school and the local community. They can develop programming that

invites library usage beyond the academic needs of learners and supports administrators,

educators, parents, and community organizations. This creates an opportunity for

community members to be more engaged in the school and library community and be

exposed to the amazing resources the school library offers learners and educators.

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School librarians can host events that are student-focused and empower learners to engage

in extracurricular activities and share their strengths with each other. Some potential

activities are:

● after-school book clubs or library advisory clubs hosted by the school librarian to

encourage learner voice in the school library,

● an open mic night where students can perform through singing, playing music,

reciting poetry, etc., and

● tutoring or study help sessions where learners can prepare for finals, state testing, AP

exams, or college readiness exams.

The school librarian can also reach out to caregivers and community members and invite

them to present to learners as an authentic learning experience. Some potential activities

include:

● Career fairs, where local businesses can present to students about different types of

jobs and how to best prepare for them.

● Diversity fairs, where caregivers and local community members can share unique

traits, foods, holidays, and cultural practices from their diverse backgrounds.

● Literacy Night, where students and caregivers can attend and practice reading

together and sign-up for a library card through the local public library.

● Individual caregivers and community members can present to learners about new

experiences and perspectives (e.g. A local car mechanic can teach high schoolers

how to change a tire on their cars).

The school library can also act as a community meeting space and support local

organizations. The school librarian can also use these meetings for information gathering—

observe and probe for ideas on how the library can further support the organizations, but

also how the organizations could support the school library and learners. The PTA or parent

club of the school, school board members, and or other community stakeholders can present

good opportunities for hosting. Ultimately, the school librarian can create a welcoming

environment for all invested in the school library to build a culture of collaboration at the

school.

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Table of Contents | Appendix

Works Cited

Activity Guide Sources

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for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. Chicago: ALA Editions.

Bishop, Rudine Sims. 1990. “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors.” Perspectives: A

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Ehlers, Jilian. 2019. “The Zine Project.” Knowledge Quest 49 (2): 34–39.

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1d20c447d68f OR https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1281454.pdf.

Grande, M. 2008. “Using Dialogue Journals and Interest Inventories With Classroom

Volunteers.” Teaching Exceptional Children 41 (2): 56-63.

“Headlines: A Routine for Capturing Essence.” 2019. Project Zero, Harvard Graduate

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“Headlines: A Routine for Capturing Essence.” 2022. Project Zero, Harvard Graduate

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Jacobs, Heidi Hayes, editor. 2024. “Getting Results with Curriculum Mapping.” 1st ed.

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Jensen, Karen. 2020. “DIY Zines and Homemade Mini Activity Books.” Teen Librarian

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40–44. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1272606.pdf

Larson, Jeanette, and Belinda Boon. 2012. “CREW: A Weeding Manual for Modern

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Loewen, Alison. 2023. “Reimagining Relationships In Storytime.” Fred Rogers Institute.

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storytime.

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Table of Contents | Appendix

McNair, Ellen. 2018. “An Invitation to Collaborate – Part 2” Knowledge Quest (blog). April 26,

2018. https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/an-invitation-to-collaborate-part-2/

Miller, Donalyn. 2009. “The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child.”

Jossey-Bass.

Morris, Kathleen, and Michael Graffin. 2018. “Step 1: What Is a PLN?” The Teacher Challenge.

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Oates, Jared. 2022. “Building Efficacy and Empowerment Among Staff with Microlearning.”

Niche Academy, 22 Nov. 2022.

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library-staff-with-microlearning.

Page, Sydney. 2024. “Librarian faced spate of insults. Thousands of people came to his

defense.” Washington Post, 10 Jan. 2024.

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technology-2022.

Developing Creative Collaborators, Flexible Partners, and Resilient Citizens

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Table of Contents | Appendix

Infographic Sources

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ALA.

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(1): 40-44 (Sep/Oct 2020).

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Appendix

A. Resource Matrix

B. AASL Standards Framework Applied to Developing Creative

Collaborators

C. Creating Collaborative Communities (infographic)

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Table of Contents | Appendix

Appendix A: Resource Matrix

Denotes tools and products that can be used with multiple contributors.

$ Denotes tools and products that require a fee or subscription for access.

Name of Resource Description

AASL Best

Digital Tools

Paid

Product

ACTIVITIES USING

THIS RESOURCE

Books or Booklists

Appalachian Young

Adult Authors List

A list of young adult books

written by Appalachian

authors.

Learners - Share: Activity 1

Brazos Bookstore -

Do you Know These

Houston Kid Lit

Authors?

A collection of children’s

books by local authors in the

Houston, TX area.

Learners - Share: Activity 1

Diverse Book

Finder

A collection of children's

books featuring Black and

Indigenous authors and

characters.

⚫

Learners - Share: Activity 1

The FOLD

Challenge

The Festival of Literary

Diversity (FOLD) in Canada

releases an annual 12-book

challenge focused on having

readers diversify their

selections.

School Librarians - Grow: Activity 3

Getting Results

with Curriculum

Mapping, by Heidi

Hayes Jacobs

(2004)

Practical advice on using

curriculum mapping in

schools to improve teaching

and learning.

School Libraries - Create: Activity 2

Goodreads -

Colorado Authors

books

A list of books curated by

Goodreads featuring authors

from Colorado.

Learners - Share: Activity 1

Hoop Genius: How

a Desperate

Teacher and a

Rowdy Gym Class

Invented Basketball

A picture book by John Coy

(illustrated by Joe Morse)

about the true story of how

Naismith invented basketball

at a school in Springfield,

Massachusetts in 1891.

School Libraries - Think: Activity 1

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Name of Resource Description

AASL Best

Digital Tools

Paid

Product

ACTIVITIES USING

THIS RESOURCE

Managing the

Successful School

Library: Strategic

Planning and

Reflective Practice,

by Lesley S. J.

Farmer (2017).

Practical advice for school

libraries aligning their

strategic initiatives to school

mission statements and

policies, while simultaneously

negotiating for proper

budgets and resources

alongside other departments.

School Libraries - Create: Activity 1

Multnomah County

Best of the Library

List

A list of books by local

authors in Multnomah

County, OR.

Learners - Share: Activity 1

Pacific Islanders

Publishing

A database of authors and

illustrators from Pacific

Islander heritage.

Learners - Share: Activity 1

Read Across

America

This year-long initiative

provides booklists,

recommended authors, and

teaching resources.

Learners - Share: Activity 1

Swish!: The Slam-

Dunking, Alley-

Ooping, High-

Flying Harlem

Globetrotters

A picture book by Suzanne

Slade (illustrated by Don

Tate) about the origins of the

Harlem Globetrotters.

School Libraries - Think: Activity 1

Creation tools

Adobe Express for

Education

A digital tool to create

posters, videos, social media

posts, and more.

⚫

Free

for K-12

educators

Learners - Create: Activity 2

Book Creator

Create digital books with

text, images, and graphics.

⚫

Freemium

Learners - Create: Activity 3

Canva

A digital graphic design tool

to create flyers, newsletters,

social media posts, videos,

and more.

⚫

Free for

educators

Learners - Create: Activity 1

Learners - Create: Activity 2

School Librarians - Think: Activity 2

School Librarians - Share: Activity 1

School Libraries - Create: Activity 3

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Name of Resource Description

AASL Best

Digital Tools

Paid

Product

ACTIVITIES USING

THIS RESOURCE

Clips

This iPad app enables quick

creation and editing of

videos.

⚫

Learners - Create: Activity 2

Google Sites

A free website builder tool

that allows you to create

webpages, write your own

text, and embed external

content.

School Librarians - Think: Activity 2

LibWizard

Create interactive digital

learning objects, including

tutorials, forms, quizzes, and

surveys.

School Librarians - Think: Activity 2

Looker Studio

Create beautiful reports and

data visualizations using this

Google application.

School Librarians - Share: Activity 1

Piktochart

A simple infographic creation

tool.

⚫

Freemium

School Librarians - Share: Activity 1

Screencastify

A Google Chrome extension

that allows users to screen

record their desktop.

Freemium

School Librarians - Think: Activity 2

Venngage

Create infographics using

provided templates.

Freemium

School Librarians - Share: Activity 1

Wakelet

A tool to collaboratively

organize information and

links and create newsletters.

⚫

Freemium

School Librarians - Share: Activity 1

Collaboration tools

Draw.io

A collaborative flowchart

maker and online diagram

software.

Learners - Create: Activity 1

Equity Maps

An application to help track

student participation in

group discussion.

⚫

Learners - Grow: Activity 2

Excalidraw

A collaborative mind-

mapping tool.

Learners - Create: Activity 1

Developing Creative Collaborators, Flexible Partners, and Resilient Citizens

Activity Guide | 80

AASL | standards.aasl.org/project/collaborators

Table of Contents | Appendix

Name of Resource Description

AASL Best

Digital Tools

Paid

Product

ACTIVITIES USING

THIS RESOURCE

Google Docs

A collaborative online

document tool.

School Librarians - Think: Activity 1

Miro

A tool for teams to capture,

organize, and map out their

ideas.

Freemium

Learners - Create: Activity 1

Padlet

A tool to collaboratively

collect, organize, and display

resources, text, and more.

⚫

Freemium

School Librarians - Think: Activity 1