We Can Teach That

Ewa Dziedzic Elliott has spent over 10 years as a K-12 school librarian in the state of New Jersey. As an executive board member and a president of New Jersey Association of School Librarians she stood at the helm of the association during the time when teaching information literacy became a law in January 2023. She has exercised the state standards revisions and writing: NJDOE State Standards: Information and Media Literacy 2019-2020; NJ Students Learning Standards Review 2019; ELA Instructional Unit Standards 2019. Dziedzic-Elliott recently published articles focus on college readiness and closing the research gaps between K-12 and college/ academic institutions, such as (Valenza, J. K., Dalal, H., Mohamad, G., Boyer, B., Berg, C., Charles, L. H., . . . Dziedzic-Elliott, E. (2022). First years' information literacy backpacks: What's already packed or not packed? The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 48(4), 102566. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2022.102566). Based on experiences accumulated through working on state standards and research, Dziedzic-Elliott strongly believes that information literacy instruction can be the response to the question of closing the college readiness and research gaps between K-12 and higher education.

Foreword Barbara Stripling Preface Ewa Dziedzic -Elliott Chapter 1: Visual Literacy Rachel Anne Mencke Chapter 2: Navigating Developmental Milestones: Information Literacy for Elementary School Students Amanda Harrison Chapter 3: Preparing for the Unknown: Media Literacy in Elementary School Katherine Counterman Chapter 4: Health Literacy Eleanor Layo Freed Chapter 5: Information Literacy in Middle School Beth Thomas Chapter 6: Visual Literacy in the Age of AI Cathy Collins Chapter 7: Teaching Tech Literacy from Toddlers to Tweens Tricina Strong-Beebe Chapter 8: Shifting Our Thinking From "Digital Natives" to "Digital Awareness" Steve Tetreault Chapter 9: Preparing School Librarians to Integrate Visual Literacy Using Artificial Intelligence Lesley Farmer Chapter 10: Multicultural and Cultural Literacy in K-12 Ewa Dziedzic-Elliott Chapter 11: How Images Manipulate Us Robbie Barber Chapter 12: Developing Information Literacy Habits for College and Beyond Holly A. Weimar, Elizabeth A. Gross, Ashley B. Crane Chapter 13: Information Literacy in High Schools: Designer Librarians Needed Brenda Boyer Chapter 14: High School Students Learning Media Literacy Olga Polites Chapter 15: Teaching Students to Decode the World: Librarians as Leaders for Media Literacy Chris Sperry Chapter 16: Student Inquiry Moves: Customizing Performance Evaluation for School Librarians Deborah Lang Froggatt and Mary H. Moen Chapter 17: Academic and School Library Partnerships focused on Professional Development in Information Literacy Neil Grimes and Gary Marks

We Can Teach That offers actionable strategies for launching meaningful collaborations, tailoring evaluation methods, and spearheading professional development. This volume is a vital toolkit for school librarians aiming to convert their spaces into vibrant centers of learning and creativity - and how to tell the story of their impact and importance. It is an essential companion for school library advocates to positively influence the trajectory of education. --John Chrastka, executive director, EveryLibrary We Can Teach That: Information Literacy for School Librarians is a valuable resource for school librarians at all grade levels and for school library educators. The essays provide a variety of perspectives as well as practical examples to enable school librarians to say 'yes, we can and do teach that' and to support their leadership in teaching information literacy in their schools." --Kathy Lester, past president, American Association of School Librarians With the dramatic increase in misinformation, disinformation, and fake news, the need to teach students information literacy skills has never been more important. Dziedzic-Elliott's We Can Teach That: Information Literacy for School Librarians is a welcome and timely work that tackles this critical topic, and is particularly useful as school librarians are re-thinking what types of information literacy skills are needed as generative AI and other technologies change the information landscape. The book draws together leading school and academic librarians and library scholars who offer thought-provoking chapters that provide illustrative examples, practical strategies, activities, and other suggestions for teaching all types of information literacy (visual, media, health, technological, multicultural) to students from toddlers through to college. --Sandra Hirsh, associate dean for academics, College of Professional and Global Education, San Jose State University