Rhode Island School Library Curriculum Guide: About This Project

Welcome to the Rhode Island School Library Curriculum Guide!

This resource provides schools and districts with a quality, state association approved guide to inform the development or revision of their school library curriculum. This curriculum guide is aligned with the 2018 AASL National School Library Standards and includes grade level benchmarks, lesson plan ideas and graphic organizer assessments.

This guide is adopted from the work of the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum led by Barbara Stripling, who developed the inquiry research process model. Standard 1 emphasizes inquiry learning but there are also standards on multiple literacies, digital citizenship and civic responsibility, design thinking, personalization of learning, multiple perspectives, student voice and agency, and social and emotional growth. This resource provides an introduction to the curriculum guide and then organized the content into five sections: 1) a framework overview, 2) an introduction to the curriculum guide, 3) priority skills for each grade level, and 4) graphic organizer assessments by grade and 5) by standards.

School librarians in Rhode Island who were looking to develop curriculum found this resource spent considerable time researching it. They interviewed school librarians who were using it in New York, shared it with administrators and teachers, and piloted lessons using the resources to guide instruction in their school. A committee of SLRI members reviewed and vetted the guide and then in the fall of 2019, the SLRI board approved it as the statewide school library curriculum guide. The guide has a Creative Commons license and the committee also received written permission from the executive board of the School Library Systems Association of New York State to use and modify it. We appreciate their effort in creating this quality resource and sincerely thank them for their generosity in sharing!

It's our job to make sure students have equitable access to quality school library media programs. Having a statewide guide gives us a common ground to base our curriculum and library instruction. You are encouraged to use it and modify it to best fit the needs of your school community. This guide can also be used as a tool to promote and advocate for school libraries.

Please explore the guide, share with your teachers and administrators and use it in your library to support student learning!

Co-chairs: Marianne Mirando and Mary Moen

Members: Martha Badigian, Michelle Bressler, Sonya Capuano, Carina Cournoyer, Ruth Donahue, Nicole Galipeau, Sarah Hunicke, Kristin Mitchell, Michelle Steever, Bevin Winner, Esther Wolk