Candidates demonstrate the ability to be reflective literacy professionals, who apply their knowledge of adult learning to work collaboratively with colleagues; demonstrate their leadership and facilitation skills; advocate on behalf of teachers, students, families, and communities.

School Literacy Plan

Collaboratively constructed, this is a literacy plan aimed at improving the approach towards literacy. Using real-life data to inform us of the needs of the school, a program was designed that would target these areas and overall strengthen the literacy skills of the students in the school from a literacy specialist’s perspective.

Professional Development Presentation: Implementing Allington’s 6 T’s

This is a professional development presentation that is designed around Richard Allington’s 6 T’s for Effective Literacy Instruction (http://www.ldonline.org/article/96/) and taking steps to implement it into the classroom.

Rationale:

A major role of the literacy specialist is to serve in a literacy role since they serve as a resource for not only students, but also staff and the system as a whole. To represent my understanding of standard 6, I have included a school literacy plan, as well as a professional development presentation as artifacts. The professional development plan that I developed speaks to my ability to consolidate my understanding of an article and use this information to “advocate on behalf of students” (ILA 6.4) because I was asked to come up with instructional strategies that could be implemented in the classroom. Also, this presentation had opportunities for audience engagement, which shows that I can use my “knowledge of adult learning to engage in collaborative decision making colleagues to design…instructional practices…across classrooms” (ILA 6.2), because just like students, learning for adults needs to be engaging. Furthermore, I collaborated on a school literacy plan that targeted specific needs of a school. With this assignment, I needed to analyze the data and synthesize my knowledge of effective literacy instruction in order to come up with solutions to overcome the struggles that the school is facing with their literacy instruction. I was able to practice my skills and “advocate on behalf of teachers and students” (ILA 6.4). Through both of these artifacts, I was able to hone in on my skills that would allow me to be able to work and present with other professionals to produce scholarly reports.