Inquiry with Ayanna Mayes at CHS

 Ayanna Mayes has been the school librarian at Chapin High School for the last three years, but has twelve years of school librarian experience that spans all grade levels, including elementary and middle school. As a high school librarian, I inferred Ayanna would utilize the Inquiry AASL standard frequently, as many of the high school and AP credit courses require research and inquiry based projects.  As predicted, Ayanna was a wealth of knowledge with regard to teaching research and inquiry. In our interview, we discussed many topics in relation to the following questions: 

• Can you provide an example of how you have collaborated with classroom teachers to integrate inquiry-based learning into their curriculum?
• What are some of the resources in your library program that you are using to implement these competencies?
• What are some of the challenges that you face when trying to implement these competencies?
• How do you engage in ongoing reflection and professional learning regarding the inquiry process and design thinking? What resources do you find most beneficial? 

Ayanna mostly collaborates with the English department, as they offer AP Seminar and AP Research. Freshmen are also required to participate in digital literacy lessons in their English classes.  Ayanna visits these classes right at the beginning of the year and teaches a form of the “Big 6” inquiry based learning process, as it aligns with the English and AP standards, as well as the AASL Inquiry standard.  She utilizes and facilitates the database resources the district and state provides, such as Discus. However, she realized as these AP classes are popular, she needed more options to offer and decided to purchase subscriptions to additional databases, such as Gale In Context and Gale Academic OneFile. Ayanna said that she approaches classroom lessons differently after participating in the district librarian’s book study regarding digital literacy and research. District librarians read Developing Digital Detectives and Deepening Digital Citizenship. Ayanna said that it really changed the way she approached teaching research and digital literacy.  The district provides continual PD on these subjects, so Ayanna feels more prepared to implement the AASL Inquiry standard with fidelity.  

Ayanna did mention the challenges she faced when presenting these lessons to the twenty-first century digital native. I loved the analogy she used when describing how students attempt to research a topic. She stated, “Google is now considered a verb” and as second nature as “blinking” for students. She can tell students about how to evaluate credible sources, but they are so inundated with information that it is difficult to teach them the patience and process of reliable research.  She shared a lesson with me where she uses John Green’s Crash Course episode, “Navigating Digital Information.” In this clip Green states, “Patience is a hard-earned skill for humans, especially when you’re really hungry.” I think this is a perfect way to describe students’ information overconsumption and how real inquiry requires purpose and diligence.   

When talking with Ayanna, I learned high school librarians face many of the same challenges as teachers do. The lack of time to collaborate with others is a commonality among all educators.  Ayanna said that the demands of AP classes and state standards have prevented her from planning with certain content areas, like science and social studies. While I think this also may be a challenge for me going forward, moving from teacher to school librarian might better equip me with the ability to work with reluctant teachers or those who have little time to plan.  I also know first-hand how students approach inquiry and will take this knowledge with me when creating lessons pertaining to research and digital literacy.  I feel inquiry is an essential part of all grade levels, but teachers also need to be “on board” with implementing these skills in their classroom.  If we continue to let students “Google” their way through school, we are doing them a disservice and under preparing them for lies beyond high school.