Final Report of the Librarians as Leaders for Media Literacy Integration in NY State

Librarians for Media Literacy and Integration are now finishing their pilot program. The original proposal called for the completion of the 2-year grant by crafting a plan for statewide scaling. Thanks to the partnership with the School Library Systems Association of New York (SLSA) and the work of 19 ML3 librarians, the work is already scaling up with school librarians throughout New York State.

The strategies, resources, and approaches that the initiative has developed and piloted have been or will introduced to 26 of 40 of the New York State BOCES school library systems throughout 2022-2023. Full day workshops for librarians are delivered and trained CMD leaders work with the library directors and coordinators to deliver ongoing support for emerging librarian leaders in these regions.  PLS and the ML3 group have created professional development resources for these leaders and developed plans to grow their capacity for bringing media decoding to all librarians, teachers, and students across New York.  We are piloting a media literacy course (asynchronous and self-paced) this summer that will support librarians in learning and practicing CMD and in preparing them to become leaders of this work across our state. There are over 70 school librarians seeking to join this pilot group.

In talking with the original 19 school librarians that formed the ML3 group about their experience with CMD here is a taste of what has been said:

• I have learned how to ask better questions to push students to think deeper.
• CMD has pulled me away from a teacher centered classroom, having students reveal how they understand what’s in front of them.
• Now my lessons all have an element of CMD even if we are simply reading a book.
• Students who have been doing this work with me are now very confident analyzers of information.
• It helps students understand a topic better by guiding them to think about their own thinking.
• It’s made me more thoughtful and self-reflective.
• It has totally transformed how I teach.

The work of integrating media literacy throughout New York State through the leadership of school librarians is moving forward rapidly with multiple organizations playing key roles in leading this work. As was said before: “We are at watershed moment, with the collective recognition of the critical importance of media literacy in preparing our students to navigate our increasingly complex and polarized media ecosystem.  We need to keep the momentum moving forward, with thoughtful and sustained success, to build an educational infrastructure that will prepare our children with the agency, insight, and habits they need to maintain our democracy.”