Inna Levine

CO-Collaboration Strategies

Subramaniam, M., Ahn, J., Waugh, A., Taylor, N. G., Druin, A., Fleischmann, K. R., & Walsh, G. (2013). Crosswalk between the "framework for K-12 science education" and "standards for the 21st-century learner": School librarians as the crucial link.School Library Research, 16 Retrieved from http://dialog.proquest.com/professional/docview/1509082301?accountid=143640

Within the school library community, there have been persuasive calls for school librarians to contribute to science learning. The article presents a conceptual framework that links national standards of science education ("Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas,") to core elements embedded in "AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner", the standards that guide the teaching and learning of multiple literacies for which librarians are responsible in schools. Based on this conceptual framework, the authors of the article highlight how four middle school librarians in a large school district in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States enact and expand their five roles--information specialist, instructional partner, teacher, program administrator, and leader--while they participate in Sci-Dentity, a science-infused after-school program. They observed clear links between skills, dispositions, and responsibilities from the "Standards." taught and facilitated by these school librarians, to principles in the Framework. The authors contend that the learning of the Standards is crucial to creating and sustaining science-learning environments as envisioned in the "Framework" and argue that school librarians' role in science learning is more vital than it has ever been.