How Do You Teach Intellectual Freedom?
Share Your Lesson Plans in a New Professional Development Book!
Working Title: Free to Read, Free to Think: Teaching Intellectual Freedom to Teens
Published by: ALA Editions
Edited by: Jamie Gregory (FoundationsIFSecondaryLearners@gmail.com)
Calling all library professionals! Have you taught middle or high school students about book censorship, free speech, or intellectual property? How about algorithms, artificial intelligence, or misinformation? In what other ways have you integrated intellectual freedom instruction into your school library program? Please consider submitting a lesson plan proposal aligning intellectual freedom principles with AASL Standards using best practices for teaching and learning for a new book project with the working title Free to Read, Free to Think: Teaching Intellectual Freedom to Teens. Together, this compilation of lesson plans will support those working with middle through high school students to explore the meaning of intellectual freedom and the application of these principles in their own lives.
Book description
This book supports school librarians and other educators by providing ready-to-use lesson plans designed to more explicitly embed intellectual freedom principles into instruction and create authentic learning experiences for young learners to explore their own rights.
Chapters are organized around key principles of intellectual freedom drawing on insights from leading scholars as well as guidance from American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Manual.
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Access
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History
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Technology
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Legal issues
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Privacy
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Freedom of expression
Each chapter features a variety of single-class lessons for middle through high school learners, making esoteric intellectual freedom principles accessible and applicable to young learners as they explore their own rights and the rights of others. Each lesson plan includes:
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Learner outcomes and objectives
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Shared Foundations, Domains, and Competencies from AASL's National School Library Standards (2nd Edition)
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"I can" statements for students, reflective of the 2nd Edition
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Lessons materials, steps, and assessments
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Reflection questions for educators
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Tips and suggestions for embedding intellectual freedom instruction into collaborative lessons with content-area educators through the school library space
Target Audience
The primary audience for this book is school librarians serving middle and high school students in diverse educational settings. Secondary audiences include public librarians, academic librarians, and library and information science faculty and students.
Proposal instructions
Please submit lesson plan proposals using this link. Consideration will be given to lesson plans which will represent each area of intellectual freedom listed above as well as a range of AASL Shared Foundations and Domains. Potential topics may include but are not limited to relocation or removal of materials, equity of access, censorship case studies, important court cases for student rights, copyright, large-language models, misinformation, algorithms, filter bubbles, Internet filtering, privacy, student speech online. Deadline for proposal submissions is Monday, April 20, 2026 at 5:00PM ET. Please email FoundationsIFSecondaryLearners@gmail.com with any questions.
Proposals will include:
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Working title for lesson plan
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Intellectual freedom principle (based on the numbered chapters above)
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AASL Shared Foundation/Domain(s) addressed
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Lesson plan summary/overview of no more than 400 words
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Short bio (50 words)
Timeline:
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Proposal deadline: April 20, 2026
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Notification of proposal acceptance: May 11, 2026
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First draft due: June 26, 2026
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Additional dates to be communicated to authors.
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Jamie Gregory
Upper School Librarian, journalism teacher, Senior Capstone Coordinator
Christ Church Episcopal School, Greenville, SC
She/Her/Hers
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