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.
2.1 Literature:
Candidates are familiar with a wide range of children’s, young adult, and professional literature in multiple formats and languages to support reading for information, reading for pleasure, and reading for lifelong learning.
Reflection:
During several course throughout the program I was asked to evaluate professional resources. During those assignments I learned the importance of staying ahead of current trends and found resources that for some of the best places to find new strategies or creative ideas, as well as connect with other media specialist and authors. I was also able to evaluate professional blogs to gain knowledge, use professional resources to gain insight into award criteria and resources, and review esources of selecting materials, deselecting materials, and building a collection that represents my community.
My students think I’m a superstar because I have been able to use Twitter to connect them with authors. This has also helped them to see that authors are real people just like them and that they can be writers too. It also allows me to find new and innovative ideas that I can bring into the school library, helping the students be more engaged in the lesson presented. It also helps me provide more relevant resources for the students, which in turn makes them want to research.
2.2 Reading promotion:
Candidates use a variety of strategies to promote leisure reading and model personal enjoyment of reading in order to promote habits of creative expression and lifelong reading.
Reflection:
During the MLIS program at UNCG I researched and presented a goal based project on a strategy called “Your Next Five” to encourage reading for pleasure. Implementing this strategy helped me to better get to know my students’ reading interest and help them select a book that they would enjoy. I also completed a book talk about Battle of the Books titles to help get students excited about the upcoming Battle of the Books season. Book talks are a great way to encourage reading, By talking about books to garner interest, it also sparks curiosity about a book. I also put together an illustrator study which in turn gets the students intrigued about an illustrator or author. Which then gets students interested in reading books illustrated or written by them. During these assignments I learned how to engage students in discussions about literature and promote books by talking about them, or introducing them on a “personal” level to the illustrator or author through a student of their life or through author Skypes, where they get to connect with them live. Any time one can enhance student reading and encourage them to read for fun it improves student learning. Reading for pleasure is one of the most critical and fun parts of being literate. No one wants to read academically forever, while important, I’d still much rather curl up with a well written MG or YA book any day! Reading for pleasure helps them become better readers for information.
2.3 Respect for diversity:
Candidates demonstrate the ability to develop a collection of reading and information materials in print and digital formats that support the diverse developmental, cultural, social, and linguistic needs of P-12 students and their communities.
Reflection:
During my collection development course I developed a collection of biographies. During this assignment I made sure that all groups were represented in the collection. It is important that all of the students are able to find a person past or present that they can identify with. During my digital productions course I had to develop a digital curation. I chose to curate copyright resources. This assignment helped me to find resources that all students could understand. During these assignments I learned how to evaluate sources and choose the best ones for the intended purpose. I also looked beyond print text and choose relevant sources of varying formats. Not every student learns the same way. Students benefit from having access to a wide variety of sources in different formats. This helps them read and see things from other points of view or in a format that they better relate to.
2.4 Literacy strategies
Candidates collaborate with classroom teachers to reinforce a wide variety of reading instructional strategies to ensure
P-12 students are able to create meaning from text.
Reflection:
Throughout the course of the program I was given the opportunity to work collaboratively with a fourth grade teachers on famous North Carolinian Research lesson, with fifth grade teachers on famous Americans biography poems, and with other school librarians to create a lesson in a human body systems unit, in which we also collaborated with a maker in residence at UNCG. During these assignments I learned that collaborating with other teachers is an important way to encourage student growth and help reinforce what is being taught in the classroom. The students benefit from this because the more exposure you have to a strategy the more proficient you will become at using it. As well as the more exposure you have to the content the better you will be able to recall it later.