Tag Archives: Standard

General, Public, School Media Specialist

Minnesota is part of a K-12 Curriculum Collaborative

color_pencils01Open Educational Resources (OER) are in the news and Minnesota is part of an 11-state coalition setting out to create resources to support math and English/language arts in K-12 schools. The materials will be released under a Creative Commons Attribution license version 4.0, meaning that the materials can be freely copied and redistributed in any medium without additional cost.

Interestingly, studies show that the quality of teaching and learning improves when teachers are closely engaged in developing, assessing, and continually improving their learning materials.  This Collaborative appears to be a win-win for Minnesota for two reasons: 1) It supports local control, which is monumental in Minnesota, and 2) it could provide high-quality, low-cost ways to help students meet learning standards.

Read the following blog post to read more about this effort, including the deadline and process for being considered as a content developer. Go Minnesota!

Go to this link to see how Minnesota is involved and what the other 10 states and supporting organizations have to offer too!

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/ogazd4l, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Teaching Competencies

Image by Tatadbb. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons' licensing.
Image by Tatadbb. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.

Minnesota Educational and Media Organization (MEMO) has developed a list of Information and Technology Literacy Standards highlighting 21st century skills necessary to bridge K-12 and higher education expectations for students.  The standards for grades 9-12 include;

  • Inquiry, Research, and Problem Solving:  The student will learn a continuous cycle of questioning, gathering, synthesizing, evaluating, and using information individually and collaboratively to create new knowledge and apply it to real world situations.
  • Expanding Literacies: Read, view, listen and communicate in any format for a variety of purposes.
  • Technology Use and Concepts: Students will explore multiple technologies, evaluate their suitability for the desired educational or personal task, and apply the tools needed.
  • Ethical Participation in a Global Society:  The student will participate productively in the global learning community and demonstrate safe, ethical, legal and responsible behavior in the use of information and technology.

As a library media specialist, how do you effectively teach these skills? This November, author Terry Heick shares several approaches to frame and effectively delivery content.  The article, 11 Brilliant Ways To Frame Critical Content: A Complexities Chart discusses patterns, cultural trends, themes and more.  At the bottom of the post Heick notes, “This isn’t an either/or proposition…take a standard–or concept behind a standard–and “refract” it through whichever of the following Depth or Complexity made the most sense according to that student’s knowledge-level.”

As an additional resource, TeachThought also published a visual information graphic on how to gauge understanding between a teacher and the learner(s.) Click here to view 27 Simple Ways To Check For Understanding, November 2013.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Librarians/Media Specialists and the Common Core

An article from Education Week titled Common Core Thrusts Librarians into Leadership Role is getting a lot of press and discussion lately in libraryland … and beyond. The article highlights the important role media specialists can (and should) play as their schools usher in this new phase in education. Namely, media specialists must be prepared to provide the necessary resources and learning opportunities for implementing the Common Core State Standards in their schools. The argument is that librarians/media specialists are natural “inquiry-based” teachers and practitioners, and are perfectly suited to model this way of thinking to other professionals as well as students. Additionally, the article highlights some of the ways libraries of all types are  impacted by the Common Core State Standards.

What impact do you see the Common Core State Standards having on your school and in your media center programming? Currently, Minnesota has only adopted the Common Core English Language Arts standards as a base, and has not adopted the Mathematics standards in any way. Since Minnesota has not adopted the Common Core Mathematics standards (citing our state’s superior standards and high testing performance for math), how might this separation or distinction from other states impact math education in the state? On the other hand, Minnesota has adopted the English Language Arts standards as a base, so how are you preparing for those standards in your schools? How are you taking part in this conversation, and what role are you playing in your school?

Additional information for those in the know! At this time, the NGA [National Governors Association] Center and CCSSO [Council of Chief State School Officers] will not be developing standards in other subjects and are focusing on implementing the standards in ELA and mathematics. However, other groups are working on standards in the arts, world languages, and science. To find out more, visit the section titled Why are the Common Core State Standards for just English-language arts and math? at www.corestandards.org/frequently-asked-questions.

Visit www.corestandards.org/ to learn more general information about the Common Core. Also, for a refresher on Minnesota’s K-12 Academic Standards checkout http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/EdExc/StanCurri/K-12AcademicStandards/.

Academic, General

ACRL/IRIG Visual Literacy Competency Standards Draft Released

The ACRL Image Resources Interest Group (ACRL/IRIG) has released a draft set of standards for visual literacy competency in higher education. The ACRL/IRIG believes that visual literacy standards are necessary due to the pervasiveness of online images, and the use of images within student learning and research. According to ACRL/IRIG, visual literacy is defined as a

…set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. Visual literacy skills equip a learner to understand and analyze the contextual, cultural, ethical, aesthetic, intellectual, and technical components involved in the production and use of visual materials.

In all, there are seven standards, and each of the seven standards include performance indicators and learning outcomes.  The learning outcomes, in particular, seem to be the most useful and concrete.

The concept of visual literacy standards is not exactly a new one. The ACRL/IRIG reports that there is a large body of literature on visual literacy and visual studies. In addition, there are some K-12 and other higher education documents that include at least a few standards that are recommended by the ACRL/IRIG; however, the group feels that the “learning goals”, in particular, had not been well defined, and they aim to fill this gap.

The ACRL/IRIG Visual Literacy Standards definitely deserve a glance, and the interest group hopes for feedback and commentary on their blog.

I tend to think that a set of ACRL standards for visual literacy is necessary. Librarians hopefully will use the standards to plan their interactions (one-on-one assistance, reference interactions, workshops, etc.) with students, and also in conversations with faculty, deans, and other interested parties. Additionally, academic librarians will be “speaking the same language” by having one clear set of visual literacy standards to reference.

What are your thoughts? Are the standards necessary? How are they different from general information literacy or transliteracy standards? Is there a standard or a learning outcome that really catches your eye/interest?