AASL Standards Interview - Stacy Welden

Ms. Stacey Welden is a K-5th grade school librarian at Sherman Elementary School in Dry Ridge, KY. She has been teaching for over seven years at the same school. Ms. Welden and I met some time ago and is a very good friend of mine and was one of the librarians that encouraged me to attend library school. We completed our interview via zoom and I must say, this was by far, the best conversation ever. I believe we stayed on for almost three hours just talking about library stuff. Ms. Welden’s shared foundation, domain, and competencies are listed below: Shared Foundation I. Inquire Domain- B. Share Competencies: School Librarians guide learners to maintain focus throughout the inquiry process by: • Assisting in assessing the inquiry-based research process. • Providing opportunities for learners to share learning products and reflect on the learning process with others We started the conversation by talking about examples of ways in which Ms. Welden utilizes the above competencies in her library program. She expressed that students participate in several research projects throughout the year. One way that she incorporates inquiry-based research is by collaborating with teachers, especially in social studies. Ms. Weldon’s school’s S.S. standards are inquiry based, so having students develop their own research question and research strategies helps her to cover standards as well as the grade level standard in the classrooms. She also stated that students share their research by creating a digital presentation. Fourth grade students presented their research about the Revolutionary War by researching loyalists/patriots and which side they would "be on." Then they took their research and created a class debate. As for her primary age students, she conducts a lot of shared research. Her focus is primarily on creating a question to help focus research (she tries to implement the Big 6/Simple (?) 3 as much as possible. Students are able to self-assess/reflect by using the success criteria based on their learning targets. Some resources in Ms. Welden’s library program that she utilizes to implement these competencies include using the standard print text for research, digital databases such as BookFlix, TrueFlix, KYVL (Kentucky Virtual Library), etc. She is also in the process of purchasing Follett's (Titlewave) and LightBox for interactive texts (nonfiction). Other sources include personal interviews, BrainPop, PBS, and various websites. Ms. Welden did express that the above competencies does require her to collaborate with classroom teachers. She tries to collaborate with classroom teachers to help them address their standards (mainly areas that they feel they need covered more thoroughly). She also collaborates with a lot of social studies/science for 3-5. With her K-2 students, her goal is to draw from their literacy themes and expand on the standard being taught. Her biggest challenge when trying to implement these competencies is time and help. Implementing these competencies is very doable. Also, keeping activities relevant and interesting helps tremendously. She has the resources or know where to find them. However, finding the time to complete an activity from start to finish is very difficult because there is so much to be taught and practiced. She also finds that research with the little babies can be difficult if you do not have additional help available. Another issue that she finds challenging is to figure out what a standard really means-they are sometimes written so broadly or incomprehensible, that it takes longer to figure out what the meaning is than to plan to teach it. I have also struggled with understanding the standards and I try to work on those as often as I can. When asked if Ms. Weldon had any additional comments, she stated that she did not and would clarify any other answers if needed. All of these interviews were very helpful, and I am certain that I will be able to use them as I begin my career as a school librarian.