I have standards on the brain these days.   Between a couple of articles I’ve been writing, the standards popping up in our IASL conference planning, and plotting out my MAME presentation for yesterday (see yesterday’s post), I have been thinking and zinging a lot of emails on the subject.

But there is something very different about talking with folks who are familiar with the standards while sitting comfortably on your sofa watching a rerun of Project/Runway (hey, what can I say, I used to work in a costume shop in college) and talking with those who are seeing them for the first or one of the first time(s).  While you’re standing in front of the room.  And they’re all looking at you.

So I was glad to be able to have the nine Common Beliefs statements as a starting point in the discussion.  (Find them and a link to the Standards here.)

Common Beliefs

The learning standards begin by defining nine foundational common beliefs:

• Reading is a window to the world.
• Inquiry provides a framework for learning.
• Ethical behavior in the use of information must be taught.
• Technology skills are crucial for future employment needs.
• Equitable access is a key component for education.
• The definition of information literacy has become more complex as resources and technologies have changed.
• The continuing expansion of information demands that all individuals acquire the thinking skills that will enable them to learn on their own.
• Learning has a social context.
• School libraries are essential to the development of learning skills.

Here is why I find those Common Beliefs so powerful:  they establish common ground for discussion.  The Standards themselves are rich and textured, and they are going to spark some heavy discussion as you drill into them with other librarians and educators.

But does anyone doubt the value of reading? That ethical behavior is important? That the world is getting more complex? I can’t imagine they do.  So if you are beginning a discussion about the Standards, I highly recommend that you start here.

In a departmental meeting, for example, you might start by discussing these nine beliefs.  Does your department hold all nine as common truths? If not, I’d hazard a guess that the conversation needs to linger in that discussion zone, NOT move forward into the standards.

I imagine that inquiry is the sticky wicket in these beliefs, especially in elementary, where we vacillate between wanting kids to use resources that they can read/interact with independently and wanting them to answer their burning — but often college-level — questions for which they cannot find answers on their own, as someone at MAME pointed out yesterday. But maybe not!

By the way, the image at the top is another word cloud from Wordle.net.  I pasted the Common Beliefs into it just to see if there were key words that repeated.  (I am LOVING Wordle for this task!)  Out of the 9 beliefs, look what emerge at the three most common words: INFORMATION. SKILLS.  LEARNING.  Pretty powerful stuff.

(Standards image from ALA)

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