School Librarians: Show Teachers Their National Standards Require Student Research

Posted on October 17, 2020 by Barbara Paciotti

School Librarians are excited when a research assignment brings classes to the library. For me, it was my love for helping students do research—finding and using information–that drew me to pursue my graduate degree in Library Science. Teaching research skills is my raison d’être.

When I began my middle school library position, few teachers did research with students, and of those, even fewer gave me the latitude to fully engage students in the research process. As I developed collaborative partnerships, Research Library Lessons—short introductions up through week-long units—became my trademark skill set, and after several years nearly every subject area teacher had some sort of research assignment with me, even PhysEd!

Then 2010 brought Common Core College- and Career-Readiness Standards and high-stakes testing. Our state had given standardized state tests since the early 90s, but with CC-CCRS came the pressure of teacher accountability in a way not seen before.

Suddenly, teachers abandoned research assignments en masse. In the next few years I was able to recapture some research partnerships, but my biggest disappointment when I retired was how short-changed our students would be in their future pursuits because they didn’t know how to do proper research.

COMMON CORE ELA STANDARDS REQUIRE RESEARCH

Recently I discovered a 2014 blog article by Dave Stuart Jr, a Michigan educator well-known for his expertise in Common Core. In his post, New Thoughts on the Non-Freaked Out Approach to Common Core Literacy, Dave lists 8 CCSS “anchors that deal with research-related skills.” I have his permission to list them here:

R.CCR.7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
R.CCR.8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
R.CCR.9: Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
W.CCR.7: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
W.CCR.8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
W.CCR.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
SL.CCR.4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
SL.CCR.5: Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.

Note that 2 writing standards use the term research and a 3rd writing standard outlines the same Information Literacy skills that the American Library Association promotes in its Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights:

School librarians work closely with teachers to integrate instructional activities in classroom units designed to equip students to locate, evaluate, and use a broad range of ideas effectively.

OTHER SUBJECT STANDARDS ALSO REQUIRE RESEARCH

Fascinated by Dave’s analysis, I looked at Common Core Literacy Standards for History/Social Studies and for Science & Technical Subjects. For middle schoolers I found 7 more “anchors that deal with research-related skills” including 3 listed under the specific heading Research to Build and Present Knowledge:

R.LHSS.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
R.LSTS.8: Distinguish among facts, reasoned judgment based on research findings, and speculation in a text.
W.LHSS8.1a: Introduce claim(s) about a topic or issue, acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.
W.LHSS.1b: Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant, accurate data and evidence that demonstrate an understanding of the topic or text, using credible sources.
W. LHSSST.7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
W.LHSSST.8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
W.LHSSST.9: Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis reflection, and research.

Curious, I browsed the C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards and found this statement on page 17:

The C3 Framework offers guidance and support for rigorous student learning. That guidance and support takes form in an Inquiry Arc—a set of interlocking and mutually reinforcing ideas that feature the four Dimensions of informed inquiry in social studies: 1 Developing questions and planning inquiries; 2 Applying disciplinary concepts and tools; 3 Evaluating sources and using evidence; and 4 Communicating conclusions and taking informed action.

You can see that 3 of their 4 Dimensions deal with student Information Literacy skills, and within those 3 Dimensions, I found 9 Standards which specifically address student research or information literacy skills:

D1.2.6-8. Explain points of agreement experts have about interpretations and applications of disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question.
D1.3.6-8. Explain points of agreement experts have about interpretations and applications of disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a supporting question.
D1.5.6-8. Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration multiple points of views represented in the sources.
D3.1.6-8. Gather relevant information from multiple sources while using the origin, authority, structure, context, and corroborative value of the sources to guide the selection.
D3.2.6-8. Evaluate the credibility of a source by determining its relevance and intended use.
D3.3.6-8. Identify evidence that draws information from multiple sources to support claims, noting evidentiary limitations.
D4.1.6-8. Construct arguments using claims and evidence from multiple sources, while acknowledging the strengths and limitations of the arguments.
D4.3.6-8. Present adaptations of arguments and explanations on topics of interest to others to reach audiences and venues outside the classroom using print and oral technologies (e.g., posters, essays, letters, debates, speeches, reports, and maps) and digital technologies (e.g., Internet, social media, and digital documentary).
D4.4.6-8. Critique arguments for credibility.

In addition, Table 4 on page 20 shows how Dimensions connect to Common CoreELA/Literacy in History/Social Studies Standards, where I count 27 CCSS Standards to which the C3 Framework Dimensions connect:

More curious than ever, I searched the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). It’s a complex document, but a quick view of its Disciplinary Standards shows that 8 Standards address inquiry & research skills or align with the four CCSS Standards listed above for Science & Technical Subjects:

MS-PS1-3: Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.
MS-PS1-6: Undertake a design project to construct, test, and modify a device that either releases or absorbs thermal energy by chemical processes.
MS-PS3-3: Apply scientific principles to design, construct, and test a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer.
MS-PS4-3: Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals.
MS-LS4-5: Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.
MS-ESS2-2: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.
MS-ESS3-1: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth’s mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.
MS-ESS3-5: Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.

I was on a roll…so I scanned Common Core College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Math, and even there, under Statistics and Probability, I found “Develop understanding of statistical variability,” with 2 standards related to research:

Mathematical Practices: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
- M6.SP.1: Recognize a statistical question as one that anticipates variability in the data related to the question and accounts for it in the answers.
- M6.SP.5b: Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context, such as by describing the nature of the attribute under investigation, including how it was measured and its units of measurement.

Now I was really intrigued, so I explored the National Core Arts Standards for Media Arts, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts, where I found 8 standards related to research:

MA6.Cn10.1a: Access, evaluate, and use internal and external resources to create media artworks, such as knowledge, experiences, interests, and research.
MA6.Cn11.1a: Research and show how media artworks and ideas relate to personal life, and social, community, and cultural situations, such as personal identity, history, and entertainment.
MA6.Cn11.1b: Analyze and interact appropriately with media arts tools and environments, considering fair use and copyright, ethics, and media literacy.
MU.Pr4.1.6: Apply teacher-provided criteria for selecting music to perform for a specific purpose and/or context, and explain why each was chosen.
MU.Pr4.1.7: Apply collaboratively-developed criteria for selecting music of contrasting styles for a program with a specific purpose and/or context and, after discussion, identify expressive qualities, technical challenges, and reasons for choices.
MU.Pr4.1.8: Apply personally-developed criteria for selecting music of contrasting styles for a program with a specific purpose and/or context and explain expressive qualities, technical challenges, and reasons for choices.
(I’ve added these 3 Music Standards to my blog post for a performing arts make-up research assignment.)
VA.Crt1.2.6: Formulate an artistic investigation of personally relevant content for creating art.
TH.Cn11.2.6b: Investigate the time period and place of a drama/theatre work to better understand performance and design choices.

Finally I checked the Career & Technical Education Core, where I found 4 standards related to research:

CCTC.AG.1: Analyze how issues, trends, technologies and public policies impact systems in the Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources Career Cluster.
CCTC.AG-ANI1: Analyze historic and current trends impacting the animal systems industry.
CCTC.AC.4: Evaluate the nature and scope of the Architecture & Construction Career Cluster and the role of architecture and construction in society and the economy.
CCTC.AC-DES.1: Justify design solutions through the use of research documentation and analysis of data.

PROMOTE RESEARCH ASSIGNMENTS WITH EVERY TEACHER

Perhaps you are as surprised as I am to find no less than 46 National Standards for middle school subjects that either require or align with students doing research. And that doesn’t count the 27 that connect C3 & CCSS. The conclusion is inescapable: in order to comply with all of the National Standards, students need a research assignment within every content area class! School Librarians to the rescue!

To help you approach teachers for collaborative Library Lessons, here’s a printable PDF document listing the above National Standards. Click this link to download the FREE document National Standards Requiring or Aligned with Student Research Assignments.
(It’s also available on my FREE Librarian Resources page.)

It is imperative that we School Librarians design a variety of lessons for research assignments, in order to appeal to every teacher in our building. I’ve given an overview of how I do some of these lessons in my blog post about Information Literacy, one of the 5 Essential Literacies for students.

How a School Librarian Responds to Teacher Requests & Lesson Ideas

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Barbara Paciotti

Every school librarian experiences the teacher who comes in with a new idea for a library visit—something they did at their previous school, a suggestion from a book/curriculum guide, or a great project they heard about at a meeting or conference. How do we decide whether we can accommodate this teacher’s request? Over the years, here’s what I learned:

We can’t discourage teachers from bringing us lesson ideas, but they can’t expect us to instantly put together a lesson.

So, when a teacher approaches me about an idea, I grab a Library Lesson Planner sheet and use it to fill in information as they tell me their proposal. Then I ask them these 2 questions:

Can I learn more about this from a book, handout, Website, or lesson plan?
Can I have the rest of the day/until tomorrow/a couple days to make sure we can meet the needs of the visit?

I find that this response is better than a simple yes or no, because the teacher sees I’m taking their suggestion seriously enough to investigate it. Having some time to cogitate helps me put everything in perspective and to prepare myself for the next conversation with the teacher. When I return to them with “Yes, let’s do it!” and what we can do together (or “Sorry, this isn’t possible and here’s the reason.”), they are impressed and I create the pattern for future dialogue.

ASK THESE QUESTIONS TO DECIDE

Using info on the Library Lesson Planner, I begin my ‘thinking-time’ by asking the same question I ask for all my school library decisions: How will this impact students? How does this lesson:

Promote reading?
Promote problem-solving?
Support the subject and/or library curriculum?

If I can answer ‘Yes’ to any of those questions, I know the lesson can have a positive impact on students.

However, I also need to consider the library, so I ask myself this question: How will this lesson impact library management? How does it affect…

Collection development
- Do we have the materials for the lesson?
- If we don’t have materials, do I have enough time to gather them through Inter-Library Loan?
- If I purchase materials, will they be used again?
Facility
- Can we accommodate this lesson in the library?
- Do we have the audio/video/digital equipment needed for the lesson?
- Will we need to rearrange the facility or bring in anything else for the lesson?
Library schedule
- How much time will students need in the library?
- Will this be a single visit, or do we need more than that?
- Is the teacher flexible with the timing of the visit, or must it be within a certain time frame?
Library Promotion
- Do we need involvement by other teachers, administration, the district, the community?
- Will this lesson advertise the library program in a positive way?
Professional development
- Do I have the expertise to do this lesson?
- Can I get help from another district librarian or on one of my listservs?

Answers to those questions determine preparation time/effort and whether it can be accomplished before the teacher wants the library visit. I may need to offer suggestions about how to implement or improve their original idea, which is a delicate process:

We don’t want to patronize teachers, but rather use tact to infuse their idea with what we know is best library literacy practices and guide the lesson toward student-centered inquiry.

Usually when the teacher sees my Library Lesson Plan with detailed consideration of their idea, they readily accept my suggestions and appreciate the work I’ve put into making their idea come alive.

AN EXAMPLE OF IMPLEMENTING A TEACHER REQUEST

Our 6g Multicultural Folktales Unit is an example of developing a lesson from a teacher request. It began as an idea from a student teacher for a single English Language Arts visit. Our collaborative lesson was so successful with students that the following year ELA teachers asked to repeat it.

I suggested, and teachers accepted, that we have a second lesson visit to enhance their unit of study. The next year I suggested a third visit where teachers could introduce the student project and take advantage of the library’s resources. This entire unit has become a truly joint-taught collaboration between 6g ELA teachers and the School Librarian.

We use multicultural folktale picture books because they can be read during a single-period library visit and even struggling readers can do the lessons. Initially I borrowed from elementary schools, but purchases now allow me to host two ELA classes together for the lessons. (Theater and art teachers also use them for projects, so they were a good investment.)

1^st Library Visit
We introduce plot and story elements using the fairy tale Cinderella as an “exemplar.” As the teacher presents story elements and each plot element, I read aloud the pertinent segment from the traditional Perrault Cinderella story. Then, student partners read one of the multicultural Cinderella picture books from their table and use a double-bubble graphic organizer (the daily grade) to compare/contrast story elements of the original French story with their cultural version. I have some very humorous Cinderellas, so even boys enjoy this activity.

2^nd Library Visit
Two weeks later we introduce unity/diversity of cultural beliefs, customs, and traditions with the 5 types of folktales—myths, fables, legends, tall tales, and fairy tales. The activity is similar to the earlier visit, but with deeper examination of a story. Student pairs choose a folktale picture book from their table and, as they read it, use a ZIZO graphic organizer (daily grade) to “Zoom In” on cultural details of the tale and “Zoom Out” to universal ideas common to every culture.

3^rd Library Visit
At the next visit, two weeks later, I begin with the oral storytelling tradition of folktales, relating “Little Dog Turpie and the Hobyahs”, an Old English tale I learned from my grandmother, using dressed pipe-cleaner dolls as storytelling accessories (also from my grandmother). Then teachers introduce the student project using the project guide/rubric worksheet and elaborate on the presentation choices, while I show other examples so students know what is expected.

Students will create their own cultural folktale, including cultural story elements and unity/diversity principles, and then present it in a unique way:

tell it orally with an accessory

create a book, handwritten or digital, with a handmade book cover

create a graphic novel, by hand or digitally

4^th Library Visit
About 2 weeks later students come in to present their folktale project. We begin with students seated and intersperse oral storytellers with browsing “books” on tables so students have a chance to move around. Not only do 6g ELA students enjoy this project, but it coordinates with their study of World Cultures in Social Studies.

The 7g teachers were impressed with our options and began offering similar choices for their mythology unit project: a diorama or mobile illustrating a created myth (which we display in the library), a narrated group pantomime, or a compare/contrast interview with a “mythological” actor, pop star or sports figure. The latter appeal to 7th graders, who need movement and peer interaction.

Continuing the “Story”
At the regular ELA book checkout following the folktale project I present to students that folktales may have “morphed” into the different subjects of our fiction literature.

Students and teachers are fascinated by this idea, as are other librarians. I don’t know if I’m right, but it excites kids into expanding their reading choices of fiction books!

Get these great “No Sweat” lessons from my TPT store!

A ‘Love’ for Reading & the School Librarian

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Barbara Paciotti

“Shouldn’t kids be able to enjoy reading?” is the question an elementary librarian asked on LM_NET, our librarians’ listserv. She was feeling frustrated by trying to meet Common Core Standards at every library visit with her itty-bitties: “Does a five year old really need to understand problem and solution in a story? Are we asking too much of our littlest ones? Are we teaching them a love of reading, or that it can be a pain?”

One of the biggest challenges educators face is implementing ever-changing standards, trends, and directives from administration, community, and government. How can we discern which are sustainable, long-term, best practice and which are dust in the wind?

WHAT ‘MEETING STANDARDS’ MEANS

I believe it’s important to keep in mind that Standards, of any kind or source, don’t tell us how or how quickly we accomplish a goal, but rather that students are able to meet that Standard by the end of a school year. To reference a Standard in a lesson plan does not mean we expect all students to meet the standard during that particular lesson, but only that some part of the lesson is working towards meeting the standard.

Meeting a standard doesn’t mean a student will express it in the formal language of the standard. In fact, we should expect rather the opposite: we need a kid-friendly learning goal or target aimed at short-term concept attainment that will bring students closer to the long-term understanding.

We also need to use a variety of ‘gently covert’ strategies to extract understanding from students, especially little ones. LM_NET is a great place to get ideas for expanding our repertoire. One librarian, responding to that post said this:

For in-school read-alouds, it’s a question of balance and of framing the purpose and process for an instructional read-aloud…. In my experience, when educators choose exciting books and present them in engaging ways …[kids] can learn reading comprehension strategies in the process. When we present making meaning as detective work, students, even kindergarten children, enjoy the story. Your students might also benefit from simply sharing their personal responses to stories as think-pair-share activities. (Judi Moreillon)

Another suggested this:

If you have a collection of stories then you can introduce the concepts you are focusing on cumulatively with each one by saying something like, “Remember when we read… we thought about how being in a thunderstorm made us feel. Well, our story today is set in the dead of night so I want you to think about how that might make you feel. And how it might change the way the characters in the story think and feel and act.” … In the meantime you’ve helped them all engage more with the story, increased their understanding of the sorts of techniques authors and illustrators use and kept them engaged with story and reading as a whole. (Barbara Braxton)

Based on the librarian’s post, it seemed to me that she was already charming students with delightful stories and that they were probably gaining a deeper understanding of standards than anyone could ‘test’ for, but I suggested this:

Use a felt board to have a few students retell the story, expand the story, or tell a new ending to the story.
Make “I have…who has” cards for a round-robin matching game to help students recall the plot of the story.
Make finger puppets of the main characters to take home and tell the story to their parents.

Any of the above strategies can address a standard yet make it enjoyable for the student. If we use a different tactic at each storytelling, the kids don’t see it as a task, but rather as a game. Once we’ve gone through all our tactics we start over; kids are delighted to revisit a familiar activity for a new story and gradually advance toward meeting the various standards by the end of the school year.

The librarian who posed the original query seemed happy with our responses, but shortly thereafter another LM_NET post appeared from a librarian with a similar ‘love for reading’ challenge: her middle school students aren’t finishing their books.

WHEN STUDENTS AREN’T FINISHING BOOKS

As a middle school librarian, I observed students not finishing their books, and discerned the reason: quite simply, the students don’t like the books. Yes, friends, we can’t expect students to enjoy reading if they don’t enjoy the stories they’re trying to read. So, the question we need to ask is not why aren’t students finishing their books, but why don’t students like the books they choose?

The biggest problem I’ve seen is that students are rarely given enough time to find any book, let alone one that they will enjoy reading. We can help with that, as I did, by grouping our Fiction books by Subjects, the same way our Dewey books are grouped by Subjects. I originally put Subject labels on a good proportion of my fiction section, but that wasn’t enough. Students might search by subject in the online catalog or just begin browsing the aisles for story topics they like, but when their ‘time’ was up, they hadn’t been able to find what they wanted. Now that I’ve created these smaller collections of like-topic books, students find their preferred type of story much more quickly, which the teachers also appreciate.

Another problem I see is that most middle school students still don’t know how to choose a good book. To solve this problem I modified another librarian’s clever mnemonic into the IT IS FOR ME! checklist and created a short video to explain how to use it. The video & checklist are now part of my 6g ELA Library Orientation lesson every year.

For every book checkout visit, I put stacks of the paper ‘app’—it’s about the size of a smartphone—in baskets on my library tables and students turn one in to teachers at the end of the period for a daily grade. (I always have a daily grade item for a library visit & teachers appreciate that.) Students love it because they can find a good book so much more quickly. ELA teachers love it, too, because students are actually reading their books through.

You can download my IT IS FOR ME! app as a PDF from my Free Librarian Resources page. The video is freely available on both YouTube and Vimeo. Use and share however you wish, dear reader.

ESTABLISH A READING CLIMATE WITH D.E.A.R. TIME

If we truly value allowing students independent reading, then we will be sure to give them enough time to find a book to check out and then give them time to become immersed in the story. That’s why, when I have a library lesson before book checkout, I limit it to about 10-15 minutes. That way students will have the entire rest of the period to look for a book and begin to read it.

For many years we’ve encouraged reading in our school by having each grade’s ELA classes visit the library on a set day of the week, every other week throughout the school year, and remain the entire period for DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read). Giving students the extra free reading time helps them get more involved in their book so they want to keep reading it—or to look for a different one if they realize it’s not quite what they want.

After students are reading quietly I invite 1 or 2 tables at a time for quiet checkout; it’s more productive—and less chaotic—than letting kids check out as soon as they find a book. I challenge you to try this quiet, invited checkout procedure. Let me just say that once we established library DEAR time every other week, the percentage of students passing our State standardized Reading Test steadily increased. In 5 years we went from below 80% to above 90%. We were so successful that our district ELA department directed all middle schools to implement silent sustained reading for their students.

ACCEPT THAT NOT EVERYONE “LOVES” READING

School Librarians can help students meet Standards, and we can promote reading in and out of the classroom. However, we must accept the fact that not every student will love reading, and many will lose interest in reading literature. To “love reading” is a hobby, just like stamp collecting or building model planes. Keep in mind that many adults don’t read books for pleasure, yet they’re proficient readers who can read a book or newspaper or magazine or webpage when they need to solve a problem or find an answer. To succeed in life, our students need to be proficient readers, not voracious ones.

We need to encourage and promote nonfiction reading among our students as well, especially with new standards and testing using nonfiction. Our challenge needs to be, not getting students to “love reading”, but teaching our students to effectively read in order to fulfill all 5 essential literacies.

Looking Backward – No Sweat Library Lessons & Management That Works

Reflections from A Middle School Librarian

Tag Archives: CommonCoreStateStandards