Model Library Curriculum shared on our PA DOE portal

In times like these it’s even more meaningful when your state department of education endorses and validates your contribution to the learning culture of your school.

This past fall, New York State recognized the specific contributions of  its school librarians by approving a new School Librarian Evaluation Rubric. (AASL lists a variety of others as well as a Position Statement on Instructional Classification.)  The NYS Board of Regents also approved a 2020 Vision Plan for Library Service.

This week, our Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA) President, Eileen Kern shared the great news that a Model Curriculum for Pennsylvania School Library Program Based on Common Core Standards is now posted on our PA Department of Education Standards Aligned System (SAS) portal.

Based on Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design, the new Model Curriculum aligns AASL’s 2007 Standards for the 21st-Century Learner with the 2010 Common Core Standards.

According to its Overview, the Model Curriculum is designed to provide a

framework for school librarians to collaborate with teachers to help students achieve 40 of the PA Common Core Standards for English Language Arts, Reading and Writing for Science and Technology/Technical Subjects, and Writing for History and Social Studies and the Academic Standards for Business, Computer and Information Technology.

Why is this exciting?

Eileen shares that this placement of the draft of the new curriculum

reflects the importance, the research, and the main goal of this project–to write a model curriculum based on the PA Common Core that could be integrated with all academic subjects. PSLA wanted a curriculum that would not only assist the students of our Commonwealth meet academic success, but also be the fuel for knowledge that is essential for success in life.

In an email to the PSLA Board, Eileen shared the collaborative history of the project:

The model curriculum came about as a result of a recommendation from the State Board of Education.  Office of Commonwealth Libraries funded the project.

A group of practicing school librarians were asked to serve on the writing team. We met for three days in June and three days in August.

This fall,  Dr. Mary Kay Biagini (University of Pittsburgh), the chairs of each level, and myself worked on editing and finalizing the documents.

Dr. Jean Dyszel from SAS Quality Review Team and PDE worked with us on the project.  She was the connection to getting it on SAS portal.

The portal includes the following resources:

• Library Model Curriculum
• PA Standards Alignment Chart
• Library Model Curriculum – Long Term Transfer Goals
• Library Information Concepts Arranged by Big Ideas

The new Model Curriculum integrates Long Term Transfer Goals focusing Pennsylvania school librarians on building a cross-disciplinary information literacy program around the big ideas and essential questions listed in this chart:

This background site offers an overview of the collaborative project and provides links to:

Filed under: CCSS, Common Core, curriculum