Exposing the Evidence: School Libraries Support ELAR TEKS Success

by Dorcas Hand

Looking for a new way to work with both teachers and administrators? Apply the new ELAR TEKS to your campus work at the same time you implement the Texas School Library Standards. Take full advantage of the new ELAR TEKS to illustrate your direct impact on student growth. The ELAR TEKS will be fully implemented in 2021-22; until then only TEKS in both the 2009 and 2017 editions will be tested. Full implementation means the new TEKS will be used in the STAAR tests from then forward. (K-8 official info)

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission Supplemental Resources and Crosswalks for the 2018 Texas School Library Standards webpage offers a Side-by-Side for the new ELAR TEKS and the Texas School Library Standards. I have adapted the document a bit to make it even more obvious where the links are: Using ELAR TEKS to illustrate School Library Impact based on TX SL Standards. More useful in your library classroom than this overview will be the full ELAR TEKS, which you can find on the ESC19 ELAR page. 

The ELAR TEKS focus just where you would expect: on reading and writing skills, on auditory and visual comprehension, vocabulary construction, and improved capacity to discuss ideas orally and in writing. The Texas School Library Standards focus on the resources that support these goals most broadly. You already know that, so let’s get specific. Here are a few examples; you will have a hundred other ideas.

In Kindergarten, Strand 4 is Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--self-sustained reading. The student reads grade-appropriate texts independently. The student is expected to self-select text and interact independently with text for increasing periods of time. You will use your library’s curated collection to provide both students and teachers additional grade appropriate texts for students to read independently, texts that the students can choose according to their own interests and abilities and in addition to classroom offerings. This is a direct impact on student learning. And I have offered the driest suggestion - your collaboration will be colorful and focused on your specific teacher and campus needs and enthusiasms.

In Grade 3, Strand 10 is Author's purpose and craft: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the authors' choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author's craft purposefully in order to develop his or her own products and performances. The student is expected to: a. explain the author's purpose and message within a text; b. explain how the use of text structure contributes to the author's purpose; c. explain the author's use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes; d. describe how the author's use of imagery, literal and figurative language such as simile, and sound devices such as onomatopoeia achieves specific purposes; e. identify the use of literary devices, including first- or third-person point of view; f. discuss how the author's use of language contributes to voice; and g. identify and explain the use of hyperbole. Listening to students discuss the books they are borrowing today, or the book they loved last week, supports this goal directly as well. With a bit of guidance, these discussions can go right into the classroom to teach skills that will be tested - and enthusiasm can remain high because the students themselves own the book choices. Palacio’s Wonder, Harry Potter, Riordan’s Lightning Thief series - I could go on.

In Grade 6, Strand 12 is Inquiry and research: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student engages in both short-term and sustained recursive inquiry processes for a variety of purposes. The student is expected to: a. generate student-selected and teacher-guided questions for formal and informal inquiry; b. develop and revise a plan; c. refine the major research question, if necessary, guided by the answers to a secondary set of questions; d. identify and gather relevant information from a variety of sources; e. differentiate between primary and secondary sources; f. synthesize information from a variety of sources; g. differentiate between paraphrasing and plagiarism when using source materials; h. examine sources for: i. reliability, credibility, and bias; and ii. faulty reasoning such as hyperbole, emotional appeals, and stereotype; i. display academic citations and use source materials ethically; and j. use an appropriate mode of delivery, whether written, oral, or multimodal, to present results. Our TX School Library Standards are built around an Inquiry Process with a very specific eye on your ability to tie your work to student growth in the classroom. Any research project offers you a place to start.

The first four strands of the Library Standards focus on all the skills around reading and inquiry, the strands that align with the ELAR TEKS. Library Strands 5 & 6 focus on the behind the scenes work of librarians: maintaining a safe and nurturing environment, and demonstrating leadership. Both of these standards will be in play as you offer leadership in connecting your resources and teaching expertise to classroom curricula, and in welcoming all your students to an inviting library space that encourages them to read to succeed. 

These new ELAR TEKS currently in implementation in all our TX public schools offer school librarians a gem of an opportunity to raise awareness of our direct impact on student achievement. You can start small to take full advantage of this opportunity by working on these Action Items:

• Choose a target skill: look at campus test scores from the previous year for a specific weakness to target. Play to your own strengths and that of your existing collection.
• Choose one class or grade to align a project; develop & implement a specifically targeted program (display, classroom collection, teaching opportunity, …) for this project. Start small.
• Let your administrator & teachers know. Speak up and out to build awareness and support. Mention specifically the connection to the TEKS.
• Choose a second project. Repeat.
• Over time, build your collection in ways that support a broader range of targets, whether new skills or more levels.     
• Always keep campus administrators alert to your work with students, with teachers and in collection development.

This is a long game, yes. But so important. Start. Keep moving forward step by step. Make the ELAR teachers your friends by supporting them and their students to success.

Many thanks to Liz Philippi of TSLAC for organizing the Supplemental Resources for easy access, and to Terry Roper, Library Consultant at ESC Region 10, for leading the organization of the ELAR/Standards Crosswalk.