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A Question of Inquiry - 11.17.21

This week, I was happy to chat with a school librarian I worked with years ago and it was marvelous catching up with her.  In fact, I called her when I was pondering my decision to attempt my MLIS degree. Elizabeth is a middle school librarian with 20 years’ experience, so she has seen many teachers, many styles, and many standards in her day.  She is a strong advocate for students’ rights to read, both for pleasure and for information.

  When I asked her about the Inquire Shared Foundation, her first thought was for what students can do to find their next book.  She pointed out the first indicator in the Think Domain:  Encouraging learners to formulate questions about a personal interest or a curricular topic (AASL, 2018).  She actively seeks tools to share with her students that help them accomplish this.  Recently, she led a lesson for a sixth-grade ELA class.  The students used SCDiscus to find the NoveList database.  She asked the students to think of the last good book they had read.  Guiding them to select “title” in the search bar before entering the title was key to their success!  When they found their books, she directed them to the pane along the right that listed read-alike books.  While some of her students exclusively read fiction, she has a substantial number that prefer nonfiction.  She was able to help one student select “keyword” instead of “title” as a search parameter and locate books on World War II.  Once students had at least two titles that interested them, Elizabeth modeled how to open Destiny and search the school catalog.  The lesson was an hour long and she used every minute!  SCDiscus is a powerful tool, and it is a resource she considers essential to her practice. In her opinion, it is imperative to give students the tools they will need to independently seek information… a key element in the Inquire Foundation. 

While Elizabeth had success with her NoveList lesson, she finds it a challenge to adequately serve her students in the limited time they have.  She meets with sixth-grade students for one hour twice a month.  The seventh-grade teachers only stay for 30 minutes on the same twice-monthly schedule.  Sadly, eighth-grade classes rarely sign up for the library.  That makes in-depth research a challenge and hampers the intent behind the key commitment of the Inquire Foundation:  Build new knowledge by inquiring, thinking critically, identifying problems, and developing strategies for solving problems (AASL, 2018).  Some teachers ask Elizabeth to collect books on a topic (weather, mythology) for delivery to their classrooms.  She does not get to work with the students on those topics.  Is it enough to hope those children do some critical thinking and develop problem-solving strategies?  Elizabeth thinks not.


American Library Association. (2018). National School Library Standards for learners, school librarians, and School Libraries.

 

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