Reflection and Action
There are so many moving parts with which to work in helping the greater community find common ground in shared facts. Beliefs and community values, social/family connections and identity/place play a big role. Shared facts in a community will always rub against or coalesce with those in mind. To be effective, the public library first needs to build trust as a respected and reliable resource within that community.
Opportunities for the public library to build trust as the go-to place for the most reliable information include engaging/partnering with community organizations, grass roots networks and schools, and using social media/technology thoughtfully. As an example, when I was working with teens in the public library, I partnered with ALA, the Chicago Center for Civic Engagement, the Community Trust and the public high school on a grant funded Art and Civic Engagement project in which we spent time reflecting on art and photography, learning the nuances of media/visual literacy, taking our own photos and looking at bias and point of view, and then developed an actionable plan to engage with the community. It was a wonderful blend of reflection and action.
School libraries are rich with opportunities and also faced with many challenges, such as grossly inequitable funding, elimination of teacher librarians, crazy schedules and traveling between schools. Advocacy is vital and better training of administrative educators (in graduate programs) on the integrated role of certified, professional teacher librarians is essential.
Where some of those things are in place, there are so many opportunities. Many states have information literacy and civics standards for high school and some for middle school. There is often little continuity between the developmental phases and information/media literacy has to begin at the elementary school. It's a golden opportunity, and there is much that is hard to undo if it doesn't begin there. There are exciting ways to fully engage students in experiential and developmentally appropriate learning at this age.
For example, at my elementary school we hold a school mascot election every 4 years to coincide with the national election. The students elect an endangered species to be the mascot. I was able to cover so much terrain with them on facts vs. opinions, accurate reliable research, personification poems from the point of view of the animal vs. facts from reliable, authoritative sources, fact checking, visual literacy and much more. Students campaigned for their chosen animal and learned through experience how campaigns get rife with emotion, opinion, spins, etc. They referred to these experiences when they talked about the national election. They are now raising money for the winning animal and dedicated to helping it remain in the wild. Reflection and action.
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Comments (3)
Christie, I love how you describe the "golden opportunity" of reaching kids at the elementary school level and starting to introduce media literacy concepts there. I completely agree!
How wonderful that your school holds a school mascot election with the students--this sounds like such a great way to engage this age group with voting, assessing information from campaigns, and concepts of democracy. I hope other schools will adopt your idea!
A lot to chew on here! A few takes: as a school librarian, you are so right about the need for advocacy and about the challenges we face. In my district, we currently have 4 certified librarians for a population of almost 10,000 students . . . up from 3 librarians after years of advocacy. The advocacy work is draining and time consuming. Additionally, it is largely our elementary students that are getting short shrift when it comes to library services. Again, you are correct when you say we need to be starting younger. It's very difficult to play catch-up . . . it's like trying to teach calculus to someone who hasn't mastered addition and subtraction. Finally, I absolutely LOVE the idea of voting on a school mascot every four years! What a meaningful, authentic, and engaging way to teach important skills!
Wow Maggie, you have a lot on your plate! I hear you when you say advocacy work is draining -- it feels relentless at times. This forum is so encouraging though -- collectively raising voices and reaffirming the place of the library (public, school, academic) as the trusted source. I too feel strongly that it has to start young. Hang in there -- it sounds like you are reaching many students, and every bit counts!!