Standards for the 21st-Century Learner

American Association of School Librarians. (2007). Standards for the 21st-century learner. Chicago: American Library Association.

This eight page document created by the AASL lays out foundational beliefs around technology, reading, information literacy, and other literacies, as well as some concepts of learning and equity. It then lists the process that learners go through, over and over again through the course of their (our) lives.

For each step of this process, it lists the skills needed, dispositions in action, responsibilities, and self-assessment strategies (these four terms are defined at the end of the document) needed to succeed in each stage of the learning process.

A teacher librarian can use these standards, in conjunction with the concepts in Empowering Learners, to guide instructional planning, library programming, and collaboration. Just like a subject area teacher would start from the standards, the SLMS can use these as a jumping-off point as well.

The standards dovetail with the fluencies put forth by the 21st Century Fluency Project (http://www.fluency21.com/fluencies.cfm), and could also be used together with that as guidance.