Reflections on Big 8 Assessments

The Reading and Literacy Project that my group completed was a Teen Read Week promotion. This project was both fun and practical. We took every step that an actual MS in the field would take to promote Teen Read Week in his or her media center. This project was a great way to encourage and promote leisure reading.

This project was fun and applicable to my partner's senior English class. We decided to complete a Collaborative Unit incorporating an I-Search as a senior year research project. We tied the I-Search to several GPS standards that linked research to writing. It was a great project because the seniors were able to complete a research project on something of their choice that was meaningful to them while perfecting their writing skills.

The I-Search project was definitely one of the most fun projects throughout the program. Researching a topic of YOUR interest makes the research process so much more meaningful. The most beneficial thing to me during this project was the double entry draft method of note taking. This is something I can incorporate into my own media program and research steps. I like how double entry draft note taking can steer students aware from accidental and intentional plagiarism.

This project helped me to focus on the wide range of learners a school may have and the types of materials they would need. We focused our selection policy to include the needs of special education students and the diversity of the student body. There is a fine balance between what they are able to read and what they want to read. By incorporating accessible materials that these students want to read was the primary focus of our selection policy. This was yet another practical project that will be utilized in my future media center.

This project was a great example of knowing your patrons and finding materials suitable for them. My group focused this project on expanding the graphic novels and listening materials in our media center. Books on tape or CD are a great example of materials that can benefit students with varied backgrounds and learning styles. I enjoyed this hands on experience of "ordering" materials through Follett Titlewave. This was a very practical, meaningful project.

The Internship, which I'm sure everyone else will say, was the most beneficial project to me during the entire two years of the program. Coming from a professional career and not having ever taught students before, made the Internship all that much more meaningful to me. I was able to experience collaboration in a real school situation, I was able to teach information literacy skills, I was able to learn the Dewey Decimal numbers (silly, but true), I was able to experience the "running" of a media center in practical terms and meet some extraordinary media specialists along the way. The Internship by far has given me the skills needed to become the best media specialist I can be.