This article details how the Norman Public School District implemented Guided Inquiry Design and making at all levels of the school system. It highlights how the faculty collaborated with other educators and how learners collaborated with their peers and their classroom teachers on inquiry projects.

Students' levels of exposure to the world rely on many factors such as location, access to information, and socioeconomic status. Educators, can create a level playing field for all. Authentic learning experiences will multiply the paths that lay at students' feet as they embark on their life's journey. Students question because they have been…

Assessment and evaluation are not optional for school librarians who want to be valued as full-fledged instructional partners. School librarians must document evidence of practice. Classroom teachers plan, implement, and assess student learning outcomes and then evaluate the effectiveness of their instruction. If school librarians are to be…

Advocacy is an ongoing imperative for school librarians. This article examines the role of inquiry in empowering students to learn critical skills in literacy and inquiry and develop their own agency. It also outlines advocacy strategies to share the impact of inquiry-based learning.

Instructional collaborations between classroom teachers and school librarians often involve the "research project." These annual assignments (typically) are opportunities to put the inquiry process into practice and provide a rich context for learning. The National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School…

How can school librarians change the view of school librarians to better match the reality of their work? One way is to increase their explicit connections with broad, recognizable initiatives, like digital fluency and computer science. The The New York State Computer Science and Digital Fluency (CS/DF) Standards, in alignment with the "AASL…

In an effort to carry out the work of Bismarck (ND) Public Schools, while implementing the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) "National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries," the district has started training school librarians to be the backbone of the project-based learning (PBL)…

Fixed scheduling is well-researched in the school library literature. We know from this research that information skills taught in isolation from curriculum content are not as relevant to students as skills taught in the context of what they already know (McGregor 2006). Constructivism is an approach to learning that posits individuals construct…

When the author attended a "weekend" conference on the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner", she was filled with uncertainty about the AASL standards and how to implement inquiry in her fixed-schedule environment. Her uncertainty grew as the presenters introduced themselves. However, her uncertainty began to subside as one of the presenters…

Today's students find it difficult to develop an understanding of what it is they need to know, and more importantly, why they need to know it. Framing this "need to know" has been called by various names, such as "inquiry," "inquiry process," "essential questions," "knowledge construction." Inquiry, however, goes much deeper than casual…

Students learn best from well-designed instruction. To what extent can a school district design a curriculum that supports inquiry learning? How can a district implement consistent inquiry practices in forty schools? In this article, the author discusses Newport News Public School District's journey to inquiry which began in 2004 with a…

While many robust library programs engage students in problem-finding, inquiry-rich curricula, other programs might benefit from addition of a few key strategies. Discussion strategies might be used during read-alouds or as enhancements to an instructional strategy like jigsaw. Writing strategies might be integrated into research projects or might…

Describes the modeling of effective teaching and learning strategies (choosing a topic, finding and using information, timelines, journals, interventions, questions for peer editing, and conferencing questions) during an inquiry-based, student-centered "I-Search" unit taught by a high school library media specialist and an English teacher.…