NSLA News - January 2018: New AASL Standards Frameworks

Does anyone else’s finger hurt from jamming the refresh button innumerable times waiting for the new AASL standards to make their online debut? Anyone else buy the app for $12.99 because the FREE PDF DOWNLOAD just wasn’t there yet? Just me? Okay.
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The new AASL standards website, http://standards.aasl.org/, features browsing by role (school librarian, administration, parents/guardians, and classroom teachers). This is definitely something I can direct my colleagues to and be proud of, but…. Secretly…. My favorite part is the school librarian site. Features on this abound. Self-advocacy tools, instructions on how to read the new standards, learner videos, and more show that the AASL has gone to great length to make sure the standards and their meanings are accessible by all. Based on six shared foundations, these insightful standards show just how school libraries affect learners.

Shared Foundations Icons (2017). Online Image. Retrieved on November 15, 2017 from http://standards.aasl.org/project/foundations/

So what do these mean? In the simplest terms, the framework can be described as

• INQUIRE: This is where our patrons’ curiosity, critical thinking, and inquiry gets to run wild.
• INCLUDE: Bringing the heart into learning and inquiry, our patrons develop balanced perspectives, global awareness, empathy, and tolerance.
• COLLABORATE: Building effective learning relationships with their peers both in person and digitally, our patrons will develop the skills needed to rock at collaborative learning.
• CURATE: Masters of their own fate, our patrons learn how to gather reliable information for themselves and others, examine information, and become critical consumers.
• EXPLORE: Armed with the previous four foundations, our patrons are now ready to take on more challenging topics, tackle misconceptions, and continue growing.
• ENGAGE: Utilizing safe, legal, and ethical creation and sharing of knowledge, our patrons share their learning and inspire others to be more awesome.

Rather than a step-by-step process like Bloom’s Taxonomy, the new Standards Framework for the Learner is more fluid in nature. Our patrons will drift from column to column. It is designed to never end; instead, the cycle of fostering life-long learners and responsible members of a global society continues.

You can download your own copy of the Framework here.

The NSLA Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts have additional information about the standards. Share with us how you are integrating the standards framework!

• Mandy Peterson, board member