Education in the libraries of Deerfield Public Schools District 109 will be a little different when the next term begins in August, when they'll become more of an adjunct classroom than they have been before.
District teachers, administrators and staff have been busy over the summer, tweaking the curriculum from kindergarten through eighth grades with a special emphasis on research and digital citizenship.
The libraries are a key component in the implementation of those changes, according to Marcie Faust, the district's director for innovative learning.
Each class has been assigned specific library time over the years, but this year the librarians and Faust have been huddling to come up with a new learning plan to fit the district's new, individualized technology. A year ago, District 109 put an electronic device — iPads for kindergarteners through second graders and a Chromebook for everyone else — in the hands of every student.
"The library has traditionally been a place where we warehouse books and shush kids," said Andrea Trudeau, the library information specialist at Shepard Middle School. "It's become much more than that. Now it's more about flexibility and collaboration."
Faust said the library curriculum this year will have students doing projects that are tied to their classes.
Carrie Light, the library information specialist at South Park Elementary School, said students at all grade levels will be dealing with a research question that they will develop. In the lower levels, like kindergarten or first grade, she said it may be a class-wide question, but she hopes the more advanced children will individualize the project.
"Each grade will be provided with a topic and the kids will come up with a research question that will be important beyond the classroom, like cleaning up the school," Light said. "It might be something (affecting) the community or the country."
Digital citizenship was taught last term, but will be given even greater emphasis in 2015-16, as students adjust to their new, individual electronic devices, according to Faust.
"We want to teach kids to be responsible for anything they put online. If they see something that troubles them, we want them to be able to go to a teacher, trusted adult or parent," she said.
"We want to engage all kids and err on the oversensitive," added Jeff Zoul, the assistant superintendent for teaching and learning. "The teachers will be there to listen."
While Faust said the general rule of not putting anything online that could embarrass a student's grandparents holds true, they feel one of the best methods of building digital citizenship is to begin early.
"We start from the time they're very young, in kindergarten and first grade," Faust said. "We're trying to build a culture."
Information literacy is another topic that is being stressed this year, according to Zoul and Faust. They want students to be aware of the integrity of their research, gathering information while avoiding plagiarism.
Another new program this year will be Spanish instruction for kindergarten students. Zoul said it is possible because of the full-day program being implemented for the first time this year. Beside Spanish, he said the extended hours will help the teachers cover everything they want in their lesson plans with time left over for fun.
"It's kindergarten," Zoul said. "There should be some time for play."
Steve Sadin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.