Preface This book encourages school librarians to think about the many ways that they can help students successfully clear the many hurdles they encounter through their years in K–12 education along the way toward that diploma. This kind of student support goes beyond the role of managing the room in the school called many different names, from “library” through “media center” and “learning commons.” It goes beyond helping students learn to read and enjoy reading and goes well beyond teaching them how to become information literate. It goes beyond those lessons librarians teach, as a part of a directed unit of instruction, when classes come to the library with their teachers. It moves into very different ways to use your library to help students grow. In asking you to consider taking on these new assignments that might not fit easily into your already busy day, you will find an icon that indi- cates an activity to help you implement the text. These activities are found at the end of each chapter. Many of them can be done almost as an aside to your other plans with students. Others will require working with another teacher or the guidance counselor, and yet others will require administra- tive support. What is most important is that students learn from their ear- liest time in school how to be prepared for life after graduation. By providing additional programming opportunities, those activities given during student “off” time from recess in elementary to study hall in the upper grades, lunch hour, and before and after school, you are intro- ducing students to the many “real-life” issues they face as they move through the grades toward graduation and when they step into that real world. This book shares activities from school library colleagues, from government and educational sources, from observations and ix
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