Standard 2: Literacy and Reading
Candidates promote reading for learning, personal growth, and enjoyment. Candidates are aware of major trends in children's and young adult literature and select reading materials in multiple formats to support reading for information, reading for pleasure, and reading for lifelong learning. Candidates use a variety of strategies to reinforce classroom reading instruction to address the diverse needs and interests of all readers.
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Elements of Standard 2
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Reflection
When deciding to continue my education in search of my Technology & Media Specialist Certification, two primary ideals made this decision: a strong desire to show others how to integrate technology in the classroom, and the chance to teach students that learning extends beyond the classroom. One of the most enjoyable aspects of my practicum and coursework throughout this program has been the work towards this standard. While there were always tasks assigned to meet this standard, I always found myself extending or adding additional units and material. Accelerated Reader (AR) was a very powerful motivator that was pushed by my supervising media specialist. At the beginning of my practicum, the AR program was in danger of losing funding. However, my supervising media specialist worked tirelessly to find the extra funds to make it happen. Throughout the year, various media displays and awards were given to those students who went above and beyond in their AR reading and tests. Also, in an effort to promote reading for information, students were always asked to check out at least one non-fiction book when coming into the media center. Another project I helped to promote was Read Across America Day. On March 3, Gould celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday. Students were given cupcakes, a free book, and every class was able to help decorate their class door to promote reading. During this time I lead Dr. Seuss centers, allowing students to read interactive eBooks on the iPad, watch books read aloud on the computer, create birthday cards for Dr. Seuss, and create Fakebook pages (a single Facebook page) for Dr. Seuss characters. I also created an interactive display on the gym doors for all students and parents to see. The door was designed as a "Readbox" where 5th grade students wrote summaries of their favorite books, and placed them on images from the books they choose. This helped give the Readbox the look of showcasing movie posters for sale, when in fact they were books. From there, I created QR codes for each poster, which lead to games, summaries, and book trailers for the stories chosen by the 5th grade students. I also helped promote reading for pleasure by creating a March Madness themed reading face-off. At the end of March and beginning of April, students voted on favorite storybook characters in order to determine which character would receive the title 2014 Character of the Year. Sixteen fictional characters were chosen and then ranked according to book sales. From there, characters were placed in a bracket similar to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Each week, students voted for each matchup. At the end of the week, a winner was announced, and moved along the next face-off along the bracket. Students also tried to predict who would win by completing their own brackets, and then defending their brackets with a short persuasive paragraph. Students also created posters for their favorite characters in order to persuade others to vote for their favorites. |