Reinforcing literacy skills for the next generation
ReflectionAny time a student interacts with information, fiction or nonfiction, is an opportunity for the media specialist support student understanding and comprehension. By being aware of the curriculum expectations of all content areas, the media specialist is an asset to teachers who want to connect their students to appropriate texts and resources. Knowing the assessment demands also makes the media specialist readily prepared to assist students and teachers in meeting curricular objectives.
In my current role as a literacy specialist, I know our English teachers struggle to find engaging activities that reinforce literacy strategies, especially when preparing for the English High School (HSA). To assist them during my librarian internship, I developed five different activities connected to Poetry Month that also required students to apply different reading strategies. Four 10th grade teachers signed up to participate. The levels of the students and classes varied. The media center provided the perfect stage for these activities because of its space, resources and technology. These centers required a lot of preparation, from creating materials to organizing the library. I asked teachers to group students for the rotations, which decreased possible behavior problems. Teachers also readily participated and enjoyed the centers themselves. Nearly all students gave positive feedback. Most enjoyed the movement, quick pace and variety. Some students said the poetry chain link center made them think “too hard” when trying to connect themes so I know I will keep this! The poetry and HSA center gave us important feedback on which skill and strategies students still needed to review before taking their assessment. Having a teacher stationed at that center also enabled students to get immediate feedback to correct their understanding. While the centers were a success, I again learned how things always take longer than expected. Time was an issue, and I felt we rushed through the planned activities. In the future, I may space it out over a week in which each day is set up for a particular center or I may cut out one of the centers. I also learned that it takes a team to make something like this work. The teachers, the current media specialist and myself communicated extensively. We were so fortunate to have a library assistant who could handle the daily business of the media center. In the past, I thought it was easier to “just do it myself,” but when we support each other, we accomplish much more. This support depends on building relationships, while includes developing trust and reliability. The teachers relied on me to organize and prepare quality activities that would make it worth giving up two class periods a few weeks before the HSAs. I had to ensure that I followed through on all my plans and ideas in a timely manner. But one of the most transformational moments came with I fully realized that the media specialist is indeed not just a teacher, but an instructional partner who supports student understanding of not just print, but a variety of materials. For students to be career and college ready, they must be able to process and manipulate information from multiple forms of texts. Media specialists are invaluable in helping students make meaning from resources while also being responsible for developing activities and materials for teachers. Unfortunately, many people view the media center as just a place for pleasure reading and class research, but I plan to make it a destination for building content-literacy skills. |
2.4 Literacy strategiesCandidates collaborate with classroom teachers to reinforce a wide variety of reading instructional strategies to ensure students are able to create meaning from the text.
ARTIFACTS |