Common Core Brings Teacher Librarians to Center Stage

Besich, Lauren

CA

CO

Gewertz, C. (2012). Common Core thrusts school librarians into leadership roles. Education Week, 32(3), 1-19.  Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=bbb5ff3b-1032-45a0-a93d-208dd662214b%40sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=117

Summary

This article talks about the opportunity Common Core is giving teacher librarians to step into leadership positions in schools.  Since Common Core focuses more on inquiry, and librarians are experts at inquiry, they need to use their expertise to improve teaching and training in schools. 

Teacher librarians need to guide instructors through the shift from rote memorization to inquiry-based learning through collaborative planning, providing resources, and leading professional developments on site. When planning with teachers, TLs should encourage moving away from questions that can be answered with Google and towards questions that require a synthesis of multiple types of resources. 

Teacher librarians also need to revamp their collections to meet the demands of Common Core.  Now that there is stronger emphasis on challenging non-fiction texts, TLs have more leverage when requesting budget money from principals to improve the school’s collection.   The article also suggests that TLs need to encourage age-appropriate reading materials based on Lexile scores. 

Evaluation

I like how this article outlines how Common Core effects teacher librarians, which was a topics I wanted to learn more about in my reading plan.  This article helped me view Common Core from a librarian’s point of view, as opposed to the teacher’s point of view I usually view it from.  I like the direction Common Core is going with inquiry-based teaching, as I believe it will provide for more constructivist learning.