AASL Key Concept Interview: Inquiry
School Librarian Interview on AASL Foundation “Inquiry”
The fourth interview I conducted was with my Mrs. Faith Barber, another elementary school librarian within the Aiken County Public School District (ACPSD). She chose to reflect on the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Framework foundational key competency “inquiry.” According to the AASL framework, “inquiry” is defined as “build[ing] new knowledge by inquiring, thinking critically, identifying problems, and developing strategies for solving problems” (AASL, 2018). Mrs. Barber chose this foundational standard because she believes it should be the heart of what we do as school librarians (F. Barber, via personal communication, November 19, 2021).
Mrs. Barber gave me an example
of how she has used inquiry with her first grade students. To give a little bit
of background of Mrs. Barber’s schedule, she only sees first graders on a fixed
schedule. Each week, she sees the same class for 45 minutes a day. Then, the
following week she will see another class, and so on and so on. With each
rotation, she creates a unit around a South Carolina Children’s Book Award
winner. For this particular example, she focused her unit around Carl and the Meaning of Life. To begin
the unit, she had students use inquiry to try to guess what animal would be the
main character of their story. To do this, she would give them five clues, and
they had to brainstorm what animal they thought fit into the clues. For
example, the first clue was that the animals did not have legs. From there,
students would make a list of all the animals they could think of that did not
have legs. Then, she read the second clue stating that the animal did not have any
bones either. From there, students would look at their list and eliminate
choices they had already made. They would also sometimes add more animals to
their list after reflecting on the clues. This process was used to get them
thinking critically about what they already knew, but to also entice engagement
for the new book (F. Barber, via personal communication, November 19, 2021).
Next, kids would find out that
the main character was an earth worm. Then, they would do a KWL chart to reflect
on what they already know, and then each student would decide on one thing they
would like to “wonder” about the animal (Mrs. Barber thinks “wonder” is a more kid
friendly and fun term for the KWL chart). After doing this reflecting and
planning activity, students would do research to figure out the answer to their
question. Finally, students would fill out the learn column at the conclusion
of this activity, and they would present their new facts to the class (F.
Barber, via personal communication, November 19, 2021).
By doing all of this, Mrs.
Barber was able to take a South Carolina Children’s Book Award and give
students the opportunity to use inquiry and to think independently. Personally,
I thought this was a fantastic approach to introducing first graders to inquiry
and to foster a true appreciation for wanting to learn for the sake of learning.
I thought this whole lesson was absolutely genius and would love to find a way
to adapt it in my future profession.
For the other grade levels, Mrs.
Barber said that all inquiry has to be done in collaboration with the classroom
teacher because she does not see any other grade levels regularly. She said she
really likes her schedule because she is able to attend grade level meetings
and work with teachers to cater lessons to the needs of the classroom teacher’s
students. However, she did say that sometimes it can be harder to use inquiry
when collaborating because teachers already create guidelines in which they
want their students to stick to. For example, a fifth-grade teacher wanted Mrs.
Barber’s help with teaching about credible sources and paraphrasing. She wanted
to only give her students three topics to choose from. However, Mrs. Barber suggested
giving students freedom to choose whatever topic they wanted because student
choice really drives the individual thirst for learning (F. Barber, via
personal communication, November 19, 2021). The fifth grade teacher eventually
agreed with Mrs. Barber.
Additionally, Mrs. Barber did
discuss some of the challenges that can occur when trying to use inquiry. Mainly,
she discussed how it can sometimes be harder for the other grades besides 1st
grade to be open to a true collaboration. Mrs. Barber mentioned that classroom teachers
often want Mrs. Barber to do the lesson alone, so that they can have the extra
planning period. Because teachers are already so overwhelmed, especially
through the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s hard getting teachers to give up time for
true collaborative processes. However, Mrs. Barber did say that her schedule
this year has helped give teachers more opportunity to plan collaborative units
because Mrs. Barber can work around classroom teacher schedules (F. Barber, via
personal communication, November 19, 2021).
Another challenge Mrs. Barber
mentioned was getting classroom teachers to bite into the idea of giving
students more freedom to choose topics, so that they can fully invest in the
learning and inquiry process. Because ACPSD has such strict pacing guides,
teachers fear getting off track because they will fall behind. Normally, inquiry
based units or lessons take more time (F. Barber, via personal communication,
November 19, 2021).
In terms of resources to entice
inquiry, Mrs. Barber said she normally uses the collection, South Carolina
Children’s Book Award winners, South Carolina Picture book award winners, SC
Discus, Wild Kratts, Instructional Hub, and other teaching tools like anchor
charts and expo boards.
Overall, I enjoyed learning from
Mrs. Barber about her experience with inquiry. I never thought about using KWL charts
or other standard teaching practices to help create those questions for
students. There is so much opportunity for freedom to learn in the library, but
students are not necessarily use to having the freedom to choose their own
topics. Therefore, I think the KWL charts and anchor charts Mrs. Barber uses
helps guide students as they choose topics for inquiry. Also, I think Mrs.
Barber found a very innovative way to show students how to use inquiry in a way
that is engaging for them. I would love to use this lesson in the future.
Resources:
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). AASL
standards framework for learners. Retrieved
from https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AASL-Standards-Framework-for-Learners-pamphlet.pdf
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). Shared
foundation: Inquiry. [Image]. Retrieved
from https://standards.aasl.org/inquiry/
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