Southern Utah University

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Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Fall Semester 2025

Learner Development in the School Library (Online)

LIS 6100-70I

Course: LIS 6100-70I
Credits: 3
Term: Fall Semester 2025
Department: LIB
CRN: 32839

Course Description

The course provides a foundation for educators’ awareness of learners’ development within the context of a school library. The course examines promoting cultural competence and respect for inclusiveness, integrating the National School Library Standards, considering learner development, diversity, and differences while fostering a positive learning environment. This class helps prepare librarians to positively impact student learning so that all learners are prepared for college, career, and life. (Fall - As Needed) [Graded (Standard Letter)] Registration Restriction(s): School Library Program students only

Required Texts

Optional: Hilda K. Weisburg. (2020). Classroom Management for School Librarians
Links to an external site.. Chicago: ALA Editions. ISBN: 978-0-8389-4804-0.

Additional resources will be provided in the course modules.

Learning Outcomes

Course Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate the ways learners grow within and across cognitive, psychomotor, affective, and developmental domains. Candidates engage learners’ interests to think, create, share and grow as they design and implement instruction that integrates the National School Library Standards. 
  2. Articulate and model cultural competence and respect for inclusiveness, supporting individual and group perspectives.
  3. Cultivate the educational and personal development of all members of a learning community, including those with diverse intellectual abilities, learning modalities, and physical variabilities.
  4. Create both physical and virtual learner-centered environments that are engaging and equitable. The learning environments encourage positive social interaction and the curation and creation of knowledge.
  5. Demonstrate a wide variety of skills, procedures, and techniques to keep students focused, on-task, orderly, and productive.
Learning outcomes will be provided by the instructor.

Course Requirements

Assignment Category | Points | Percent
Discussions |  120 | 30%
Practicum Hours | 70 | 17.5%
AASL Standards Lesson Plan | 30  | 7.5%
Diversity Needs Assessment  | 30 | 7.5%
Adapting Lessons for Learner Diversity  | 20  | 5%
Floor Plan Assignment | 30 | 7.5%
Classroom management assignment | 30 | 7.5%
ePortfolio | 70 | 17.5%
Total | 400  | 100% 

Course Outline

Discussions

You will have 6 collaborative discussions with your peers throughout this course. Each discussion will consist of your original posting related to the readings and a response to at least two of your classmate’s posts. Your initial post is due by Friday and all response posts are due on Sundays by 11:59pm.

Topics: 

  • Introductions, experience, and goals
  • Inquiry-based learning and the National School Library Standards
  • Concepts within cultural competence and how it applies to learning environments
  • Providing opportunities for all learners to be engaged and learn from each other
  • Building relationships with learners that demonstrate compassion and caring
  • Effective strategies to create a positive, structured, and efficient learning environment
LIS 6100: In addition to the LM 4100 assignment described above, comment on at least two additional classmates’ posts


Practicum Hours


You will select a school library and mentor, and spend 10 hours gaining experience and developing artifacts, or evidence, or your learning. Your artifacts will be displayed in an ePortfolio.


AASL Standards Lesson Plan

Build an inquiry-based lesson plan that includes National School Library Standards in the design. Allow learners to choose topics that are relevant and of interest to them and that allows multiple ways to present information.

LIS 6100: In addition to the LIS 4100 assignment described above, discuss what teaching this lesson implies for you as a professional. What are some of the difficulties you foresee teaching this standard? Are there specific skills you’ll need to develop or bring to the table? Use as many words as you think you need but more than 500 and less than 1,000.

Diversity Needs Assessment

Conduct a needs analysis of diverse curricular and personal needs of the learning community to ensure the library provides resources in a variety of formats and with multiple perspectives.

Floor Plan Assignment

Create a plan for the library that addresses spaces for diverse intellectual abilities, learning modalities, and physical variabilities. Ensure that it includes spaces for individual and group work and allows for virtual activities.

Adapting Lessons for Learner Diversity

Find an existing school library lesson plan (use one of your own or find some here: https://www.uen.org/core/core.do?courseNum=6512

Links to an external site.) and edit it to greater support learner diversity.  Consider adapting instruction so that both individual and group work is included, assigning groups that will allow for diverse perspectives, or including a variety of literature that encompasses diverse perspectives.

LIS 6100: In addition to the LM 4100 assignment described above, include supplemental materials to enhance and differentiate your lesson

Classroom Management in the School Library

Create a classroom management plan for your school library, which should include two parts: a visual communication of your classroom expectations for your students (posters, PowerPoint, signage) and a reflective essay that describes your philosophy.

LIS 6100: In addition to the LM 4100 assignment described above, include an annotated bibliography of sources that inform your classroom management philosophy

Practicum and ePortfolio

Choose a school library (other than one you work in) to earn 10 hours of practical experience related to Standard 1: The Learner and Learning. Then, develop a portion of your ePortfolio. Have an artifact that represents evidence of your learning and a reflective essay for each of the following five sub-standards: learner development, learner diversity, learning differences, learning environments, and learning management. The reflection, which should be a minimum of 150 words and needs to specifically address how the artifact is tied to a specific standard. 


Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

 Late work will not be accepted unless there are extenuating circumstances and you have received prior approval from the instructor. It is the instructor's discretion if the circumstances are extenuating. 

Attendance Policy

An online course requires regular and consistent participation to be successful. This means you should log into our course multiple times throughout the week. Participate in discussions beyond the minimum requirements. 

As you have questions throughout the course, utilize the Bulletin Board Discussion to ask questions, get clarification, and share resources you are utilizing.

Course Fees

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.