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ALA's Sara Jaffarian Award Presents - Teaching the Tulsa Race Massacre with Guided Inquiry Design

Shawnee Middle School was the winner of ALA's 2020-2021 Sara Jaffarian School Library Program Award for Exemplary Humanities Programming.

In their program, they first taught students about how assumptions create conflict in society using the Tulsa Race Massacre as an example. Using Guided Inquiry Design, they then encouraged students to think about where they see assumptions causing conflict in the world today or in their own experience. Students chose a topic to research further.

Recycle a Ton in 2021!

Submitted by harata on Wed, 2021-07-21 11:21

Photograph of blue recycling bin with the recycling logo.

Recycle a Ton in 2021! is Benton Middle School Tiger Library's successful community service recycling program.

The ability to pull off any type of community service project this year, during COVID, was a feat. To do it at a new middle school, on a new campus, with a new staff and students who had never stepped foot on this campus before this year, was unbelievable. This put the library as the center point, the gathering place, the hangout and the place with the answers. Fostering collaboration of our faculty and community is essential to the life of an exemplary library program.

Elf on the Bookshelf

Submitted by harata on Fri, 2020-12-04 09:17

You've heard of Elf on the Shelf. I've found that the elf is the best low-cost passive program to engage patrons through pandemic times and advocate for our library. My library elf, Tinsel, promotes programming, library services and reading.

The inspiration came from how teachers utilize their elf for classroom management around the hyperactive holiday season. Libraries can use an elf to promote library events and excite patrons with the silly hijinks that the elves get into.

Junior Ambassadors Program

Submitted by harata on Mon, 2020-08-31 15:47

Photograph of Junior Ambassadors loading a bus of donated items to be sent to children in Haiti.

In 2015, the United Nations established 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with the intent that these goals be met by 2030. In May 2019, the UN began an SDG Book Club for young people. The UN encourages young people to read the books that they hope “will inspire the children to help make the world a better place for everyone.” 

Spalding/Sign Language

Submitted by soakley on Thu, 2018-10-04 15:58

Child signing a letter in front of a blackboard

Spalding/Sign Language is a year-long humanities program for kindergarteners. Our goal is to inspire a love of reading and offer a distinctly different idea for teaching literacy from the classroom. We have been able to do this by teaching letter sounds using the phonetic Spalding method and American Sign Language (ASL).

Sign language is a fabulous way to communicate. For those students who need alternate ways to communicate in front of others, it is the perfect solution. Even those students who don’t have any inhibitions love learning to speak in sign language.

Everybody Has a Story: Creating Cultural and Historic Preservation Programs with Impact

Everybody has a story. Each person is unique in their background and what they bring to the world. Culture and history are part of this uniqueness. While schools teach about endangered species and our effects on the environment, we don’t always look at other endangered aspects of our world. Students enjoy learning about the people who are invested in cultural and historic preservation, because everybody has a story and these stories are making a difference.

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