Parkway Schools

RATIONALE

The Library Program is committed to the Parkway School District Mission approved by the Board of Education on June 16, 2010. “The mission of the Parkway School District is to ensure all students are capable, curious and confident learners who understand and respond to the challenges of an ever-changing world.”

The library program supports the Parkway Vision. The following four vision bullets are particularly relevant to the library program and are explicitly addressed in the Library Curriculum. “We succeed when all our students and graduates are:
• Creative, thoughtful and effective problem-solvers.
• Increasingly self-directed, skilled and persistent as learners.
• Literate and critical consumers of information and ideas
• Acting out of a strong sense of personal, social and civic responsibility.”

The focus of the library curriculum is on the learner. Research has shown that process skills are best learned in the context of content learning, and content is most effectively learned when the necessary learning skills are taught at the same time (Standards in Action, p. 9). Effective delivery of the curriculum requires the collaboration of the library media specialist (LMS) and classroom/content-area teachers.

The library curriculum is presented in a coherent and spiraling manner. It is explained and documented in terms of four learning standards: to find information, use information, share information, and enjoy/grow (acronym: FUSE).

Guiding Documents
Research and recommendations from local, state and national sources guided the development of the Library Media Curriculum.
• Parkway Library Media Program Evaluation (2009)
• Missouri Show-Me Standards (1996)
• Missouri Information, Communications Technology and Media Literacy Grade-Level and Course-Level Expectations (2010)
• AASL, Standards for the 21st-Century Learner (2007)
• AASL, Standards for the 21st-Century Learner in Action (2009)
• AASL, Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (2009)