As a teacher who has unreservedly and loudly argued that literacy instruction is the responsibility of ALL teachers, I chose “Fostering Literacies to Empower Life-Long Learners” to explore in the Canadian Library Association’s Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada (2014). The framework identifies key themes in fostering literacies to empower life-long learners: literacy leadership, engaging readers, information literacy, critical literacy, digital literacy and citizenship, cultural literacy, literacy partners. This theme explores how educators support students with new technologies and new ways of knowing while balancing this with the need to develop students’ love of life-long learning and literacy.

“New technologies and evolving methods of communication and sharing drive expanding understanding of literacy. This reality has made the refinement and demonstration of strong literacy skills ever more important for learners. Exploring and connecting various ways of knowing and learning is part of…