Standard+1.2+Literacy+and+reading


 * // Reflection - AASLStandard 1.2: Literacy and reading //**

As media specialists one of our main jobs is to encourage the love of reading and lifelong learning within our students. Over the past four years as the media specialist, I have worked on promoting this love of reading in several different ways such as being an advisor to the Explorer Book Club which is open to students in grades 3-5, and running 3 Scholastic Book Fairs each year. By giving students the opportunity to select a variety of reading materials, share their own love of reading with other students, and preview new literature they become excited about reading. The Explorer Book Club was one that I started the first year that I became a media specialist. From the very start, I have had an overwhelming response from the students to participate in such a club. Each year, I have had between 20 to 30 students become members of the club. While being a part of the Explorer Book Club, the students have had the opportunity to read and reflect on various literatures, as well as do read aloud sessions to students in grades pre-k through 2 several times a year. The book club members have also participated in community events such as the Eastern Shore Reading Council’s Literature Appreciation Day Event at the Center atSalisburyand have also supported author visits at our school by doing displays and book talks. I have also worked with the students on developing their own love of reading, while having them be leaders in promoting the importance of literacy to others. Since the Explorer Book Club only serves 20 to 30 members of the student population, I have also worked on promoting and hosting 3 book fairs each year to encourage reading for all the students of our school. When I first took over the promotion, and running of the school book fairs, I did not realize the full impact that they could have on the student population. At first, I only saw them as a way to raise funds to purchase additional items for the media center, and to obtain additional technology equipment such as digital cameras. In the past our book fairs were mainly set up and run without much promotion. Even though we yielded a descent profit, I thought that we could do more to raise additional money as well as get more students and parents to attend these events. So I started out by forming themes around the book fair events that Scholastic suggested in the Idea Book that included decorations as well as special theme events such as Grandparent’s Day, Family Build-A-Book nights and Family Shopping Nights. Another program that I also began promoting was a loose change drive for the One For Books Program. This program allows the school to purchase books for our students based on the amount that is collected and Scholastic also matches dollar for dollar and donates books to students in need. By participating in this program as well as using our Scholastic Dollars that we have earned, we are able to send a book home with each and every student in our school at the end of the school year to encourage them to keep reading over the summer vacation. To further encourage reading and the love of literature, in the weeks leading up to each book fair students create book talks about books that will be available for purchase, and also view author book talks that Scholastic provides. These book talks that the students create are based on a model that we created during our EDUC 717 Children’s Literature Class and SCED 518 Young Adult Literature Class in which we used Windows Movie Maker to put together images, narration and sound effects to create a book trailor in order to encourage students to read certain books. These book talks have also been successful throughout the school year in promoting author studies as well as introducing new literature genres to the students. Another strategy that we learned in our Children’s Literature Class was how to use picture books to build background information for students about informational topics. At the time we were taking the class it happened to be a presidential election year and since it was the first time an African American was running for president the students in our school had some interest in the presidential campaign. As an introduction to teaching about the presidential campaign, I pulled books in our library about past presidents as well as fictional picture books that related to this non fiction content. For class we were asked to create a presentation that we would use with our students to promote picture books in our media collection. The PowerPoint presentation that I created included books about electing a duck for president as well as a young girl named Grace to a Caldecott Award Winner: So You Want to be President? During the next few weeks after my presentation, I was not able to keep these books on the shelf. By having such clubs, events, teaching strategies, and media resources such as book talks embedded within a school media program, media specialist are guaranteed to be successful in promoting a love of literature as well as stimulating reading interests for all the students within their school. These programs are also effective in promoting community and family involvement as well as demonstrating how reading can serve as a lifelong tool for learning. **To preview the Book Talk on Maniac Magee from Our Young Adult Literature Class Click Below** media type="youtube" key="gjRMef6QEHQ" height="265" width="356"