Tales Out of the School Library: Developing Professional Dispositions - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1591588324 ISBN 13: 9781591588320

Publisher: Libraries Unlimited, 2009

Synopsis

Initiative. Curiosity. Leadership. Self-direction. Creativity. Resilience. Open-mindedness. Teamwork. The American Association of School Librarians has identified these and other dispositions as essential for 21st-century learners. But librarians cannot inspire and nurture those dispositions in children if they do not personify them themselves.|This groundbreaking book about developing the professional dispositions of school librarians uses three fictionalized librarians to serve as authentic models addressing familiar topics and situations.|Tales Out of the School Library: Developing Professional Dispositions is a book that empowers anyone working in the school library to redefine their practice to meet the needs of young learners today. It covers familiar, everyday topics of the most concern to practitioners—assessment, literacy and reading, diversity, intellectual freedom, communication, collaboration, and more. But it is the approach that makes this book unique. ||Each chapter of Tales Out of the School Library begins with a story from one of three fictional, yet recognizably authentic library media specialists—composites of real professionals, each with distinctive personalities, strengths, and challenges. These tales of elementary, middle, and high school librarians play out over the course of a school year, and serve as the focal point for discussions of essential aspects of teaching, communication, and leadership. Follow-up questions, an annotated bibliography, connections to AASL’s Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, and discussion questions further add to the value of this innovative volume.|

• Makes the case that the personality dispositions that make good learners also make good educators
• Follows its tales and discussions over the course of a school year, to mirror how real situations typically develop
• Puts a new spin on familiar topics that lead to rich discussions of current approaches and practices
• Serves equally well for professional development, graduate teaching, and practitioner evaluation

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• Features a foreword by Theodore R. Sizer, an educational reform scholar, who developed the fictionalized nonfiction style of writing about Horace Smith, an amalgam of the teachers Sizer met crossing the country during his cross-country research of the practices found in American high schools in the 1980s
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• Offers follow-up questions and answers that drive home the lessons of each tale, plus discussion questions
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• Presents an annotated bibliography of additional helpful readings
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About this title

About the Author

Gail Bush, PhD, is professor in the reading and language department, director of the Center for Teaching through Children's Books, and director of the School Library Program at National-Louis University in Chicago, IL.

Jami L. Jones, PhD, is assistant professor in the Department of Library Science at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.

Edition details

• Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1591588324
• ISBN 13: 9781591588320
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 156
• Editor: Bush