AASL Standards for Initial Preparation of School Library Media Specialists:
Standard 2: Literacy and Reading: Candidates are effective teachers who demonstrate knowledge of learners and learning and who model and promote collaborative planning, instruction in multiple literacies, and inquiry-based learning, enabling members of the learning community to become effective users and creators of ideas and information. Candidates design and implement instruction that engages students' interests and develops their ability to inquire, think critically, gain and share knowledge.
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.
Artifact Descriptions: SCED 518 Young Adult Literature - Reading signposts. This artifact provides an example of a reading response log which pulls out "signposts" developed by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst in their book Notice and Noteto enable better understanding of the text. The reader might want to keep an eye out for these elements - repetition, a memory recalled, or a tough question that is asked. ISTC 789: Practicum and Portfolio in School Library Media - Grade 5 Schoolyard habitat unit. The unit is being done in collaboration with the language arts and homeroom teacher. An inquiry strategy is embedded into the unit.
Relevance: SCED 518 Young Adult Literature - Reading signposts. This artifact is used to help the reader to slowdown and look more closely for some important clues called signposts. In a read aloud opportunity, hints of a signpost invite closer listening and looking in order to find that repetitive phrase or notice the character who says something surprisingly important. When the LMS embeds a comprehension strategy within the read-aloud to help the reader think about how to better understand the story- the better the AASL standard 2.4 for literacy strategy is met. ISTC 789: Practicum and Portfolio in School Library Media - Grade 5 Schoolyard habitat unit. This artifact uses an inquiry strategy with students. Students share what they already know, explore the schoolyard habitat to add to their knowledge and experience, and then research information to create new knowledge. The LMS meets the AASL standard 2.4 for literacy strategies when guiding learners through an inquiry model to determine information needs, search and gather, and share new knowledge.
Analysis/Reflection: Identifying signposts is a comprehension strategy for the adolescent reader which was introduced in SCED 518 Young Adult Literature. When students notice story elements that turn up again and again in stories they can become better readers. I hope to use read-alouds as opportunities for reinforcing strategies that teachers use in the classroom. In my practicum experience, I see teachers every time they bring their students to library class and can share with them any strategies that I have used during the class; in turn I will try to ask if there are any strategies that I can reinforce during library class. When working in collaboration with classroom teachers, I can support a variety of instructional strategies to help students gain meaning from text. The AASL standard is met when comprehension strategies are supported by the LMS.
In ISTC 789 Practicum and Portfolio, there are opportunities to talk about nonfiction text features. Kindergarten students have a unit on this reading strategy. The LMS can point out text features to the fifth grade students by encouraging them to reach back into their schema to recall how they comprehend informational text. In a lesson from the Grade 5 Schoolyard habitat unit artifact, students build knowledge about habitats from their own knowledge and from a walk around the school. Students will move toward an authentic communication product to describe an element of the schoolyard habitat, recommend maintaining the existing unique structures on the schoolyard, or persuading students and teachers to make an improvement. In the future, I can see that his could meet AASL standard 2.4 for literacy strategies when learners gain meaning from informational text in a planned and collaborative unit.