Linking Libraries and Academic Achievement

By Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 5/1/2005

www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/Technology/OET/library.shtml

"We're banning the bird reports at our school," says Kathy Lehman, a librarian at Thomas Dale High School in Chester, VA. Having triumphed over that most uninspired of school research projects, Lehman credits the state Web site "Linking Libraries and Student Achievement" with providing engaging lessons that have helped her students develop critical thinking skills.

"In Linking Libraries, we provide a suggested lesson with an activity that ties together the content and technology standards and the standards for information literacy," explains Charlie Makela, a school library media programs and research services specialist at the Virginia Department of Education, who developed the site.

Those classroom lessons also help promote an overarching goal of the state initiative: to highlight the role of library media specialists in meeting students' academic needs. To that end, the site provides a range of other tools, from library advocacy PowerPoint presentations to the "Powerful Partnership Brochure," a PDF guide on how to collaborate with classroom teachers.