Learning through Books, Media and Technology
ARTICLES THIS ISSUE:
1996 Administrative Leadership Award for Library Media Services
Editorial: Learning Comes in Many Languages
From Cave Writing to Computers
Primary Languages, Primary sources on the Internet
Update on a Model Library Media Program
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Editorial
Learning Comes in Many Languages
Choosing a theme for an issue of Good Ideas! is always a bit of a gamble. Will the theme seem relevant at the end of the long timeline from its inception to the circulation of the issue a year later? Will library media teachers recognize their connections to the theme? Will they submit applications? Will their applications highlight the theme?
The theme for this 1996 issue of Good Ideas! seemed to select itself. The Curriculum Committee, sponsor of the Good Ideas! newsletter, had also authored the CSLA publication From Library Skills to Information Literacy. Soon after this work was published, Dr. Ann Lathrop, a former member of the Curriculum Committee, challenged us to prepare a supplement to focus on information literacy for English learners and the ways in which library media teachers could meet and were meeting those needs. Good Ideas! could spotlight LMTs and school teams who were making services to speakers of other languages integral to their instructional programs and could motivate others to do the same.
This issue of Good Ideas! reflects what we had come to understand through the writing of Information Literate in Any Language: that students' learning needs are the same in any language that is comprehensible to them. When we validate our students' languages and their communities, we recognize that every student lives in a world that is rich with information and resources. Every student brings that world with him/her into the school; the library media center is a place for focusing, sharing, and expanding those individual worlds, and for blending them to enrich the culture of the school and the community.
In Information Literate in Any Language, there is a chart that summarizes new approaches to information literacy. It identifies past and current emphases as follows:
| Past Emphases | Current Emphases |
|---|---|
| Teacher-identified research topics or project | Student collaboration in identifying relevant issues to consider |
| Locating information | Evaluating and using/applying information |
| Activities/information/resources available in English | Activities/information/resources available in many languages |
| Printed material | All sources of information (e.g., people, technology,artifacts, print) |
| Secondary sources | Primary sources |
| Established authority of reference sources | Questioning and identifying point of view |
| Single perspective | Multiple perspectives |
| Product, usually a paper | Thinking and problem solving of the search process and the application of information |
| Presenting results in written or oral language---always in English | Presenting results in a variety of formats and in many languages |
It concludes, "The current emphasis, with its focus on the searcher, acknowledges and makes constructive use of the rich diversity of learners, learning styles, languages, and resources in our multicultural, multilingual society." continued on following page
Throughout this issue of Good Ideas! the reader will find examples of this current emphasis; for example:
- flexible scheduling and collaborative planning that enable a library media teacher who uses students' primary language as she/he works with them in small groups, then sees their spark of recognition when the same concepts or information are discussed at a later time in English with the whole class.
- home and community-based research projects that bring special recipes or special people from the students' worlds into the school and into the spotlight.
- teachers and LMTs who work together to acquire, catalog, and code library materials in English and other languages so that students can identify books best suited for their information or recreational reading needs.
- access to technology for all students, including web links for resources in other languages.
- students helping other students.
Good Ideas! presents good programs run by good people who make good things happen for and with students---all students.
ARTICLES THIS ISSUE:
- 1996 Administrative Leadership Award for Library Media Services
- 1996 President's Award Winner
- 1996 Technology Award
- Editorial: Learning Comes in Many Languages
- From Cave Writing to Computers
- A Theme's the Thing
- Primary Languages, Primary sources on the Internet
- Update on a Model Library Media Program
- Limited? There Are No Limits
- A Bilingual Student Population
- Cooking Their Way to Literacy
