Library Department Curriculum Overview

The Derry Township School District’s libraries support the district’s mission of “Engaging all students every day to help them achieve their greatest potential as global citizens“ and serve as an integral part of the instructional program by providing the school community with the best resources and services.

The Derry Township School District’s library curriculum is designed to empower students to accomplish the following: consume information critically, enhance their love of literature and reading, research skillfully, and use information ethically and productively.  With heightened demands for critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration, our learners must develop relevant skills to succeed in our information-rich society.  All learners must be able to access high-quality information from diverse perspectives, make sense of it to draw their own conclusions or create new knowledge, and share their knowledge with others.

The curriculum framework is standards-based and built upon the Model Curriculum for Pennsylvania School Library Programs, which draws on the PA Core Standards, the American Association of School Librarian’s Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, and ISTE Standards.  It is designed to vertically articulate information literacy across the grades from kindergarten through grade twelve.  The focus is on a sequential and broad set of information and technology skills and performance standards that are necessary for academic achievement.

At the elementary level, students have a regularly scheduled library class. At the secondary level, skills are embedded in curricular objectives from various disciplines since a collaborative approach to teaching the standards is most effective in the context of content learning.