National School Library Standards - Engage

 

Stacey Merritt

River Bluff High School

Lexington, SC

https://www.lexington1.net/domain/1812

 

 

 “Key Commitment – Demonstrate safe, legal, and ethical creating and sharing of knowledge products independently while engaging in a community of practice and an interconnected world” (AASL 2018, 112)

 

As the school librarian, Mrs. Merritt implements this standard when she teaches proper citation. Depending on the subject matter the citation technique may be different. For example, when collaborating with the English classes, Mrs. Merritt teaches MLA citation. In contrast, she teaches APA citation when working with the law and business classes. She also teaches students to find proper citation for resources by using Purdue's OWL website https://owl.purdue.edu/.

 

Every student at River Bluff High School is assigned to a “Crew" for two years; a small group of students with a faculty member (e.g. Mrs. Merritt). Each crew discusses being an ethical and responsible person. Students write a personal reflection at the beginning of the year, and they conference with their Crew leader twice a year to discuss the progress they are making on personal goals. Mrs. Merritt feels like this experience helps students develop this skill.

 

One of the challenges Mrs. Merritt faces is increasing collaboration with other subject areas. She would like to collaborate with math and science classes and increase the use of non-fiction books. Another challenge is that she feels most high school students know how to properly cite sources, but some teachers do not require proper citation, so they do not always correctly cite their sources.

 

With the size of River Bluff, Mrs. Merritt is still building relationships with other faculty members. As these relationships develop she feels like there will be more opportunities for her to collaborate with classes.

American Association of School Librarians. 2018. National School Library Standards for
Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. Chicago: ALA.