ELA Standards and the School Library Program

On October 31, library media specialists from Auburn, Port Byron and Union Springs districts, and the Cayuga Onondaga BOCES School Library System attended a workshop, "ELA Core Curriculum and Grades 3-8 Data Analysis" presented by CO BOCES Coordinator of Data, Curriculum and Assessment, Leela George.

At this workshop, participants examined ELA standards and core curriculum and compared it with the American Association of School Librarians Information Literacy Standards (ILS). They also analyzed ELA assessment data to identify performance indicators that teachers and library media speiclists can use to focus instruction and collections. And finally, they worked on creating recommendations and action plans for program enhancements for their individual schools.

Participants examined the alignment between the New York State ELA Standards and the AASL Information Literacy Standards. ELA Standard 1 - "Information and Understanding" and ELA Standard 3 - "Critical Analysis and Evaluation" closely align with much that library media specialists teach. Examples include instruction in Web evaluation, database use, and the research process. Additionally, ELA Standard 1 closely matches ILS 1,2 and 3. The ELA Standard 2 - "Literacy Response and Expression" closely aligns with book enrichment activities taught by library media specialists. Additionally, ELA Standard 2 closely matches ILS independent learning standards 4, 5 and 6. And finally that ELA Standard 4 - "Social Interaction" closely matches ILS Social responsibility standards 7,8 and 9. Library media specialists teach lessons on proper citation and note-taking, plagiarism prevention, ethical behavior on the Internet, book and serial selection, and through facilitation of book clubs and literature circles.

The AASL Information Literacy Standards can be found at: http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/information power/Information LiteracyStandards_final.pdf .