Final Project Reflection

It was nice to have the option between planning for or completing a product for our final project since I still have much to learn in terms of tools to make the plan of a "Literacy Central" (a central local for video tutorials and exemplars of key balanced literacy components) a reality (this will undoubtedly be a multi-year, multi-contributor project). Luckily, many of my colleagues, amazing literacy leaders, are already creating some of the pieces that could be plugged into it, such as those highlighted in each section below:

Teachers, IAs, substitutes: Video exemplars of the following with text and voice-overs explaining key points:

• Reading workshop: We have a lot of footage of Maggie Moon, our visiting literacy coach modeling and coaching key components of the reading workshop. Vu Lam, a stellar 1st grade teacher has already edited footage of him leading an interactive reading session while coached by Maggie. Once I am more iMovie fluent, I will begin to edit and upload the footage we have of each component of the reading workshop at various grade levels

Administrators, Parents: Videos explaining the rationale and research base of using the balanced literacy framework and building an understanding of how readers and writers develop:

• I count on being able to find many of these already created on YouTube or other sites rather than starting from scratch. This one may be a place to start (it is highly rated) but I suspect there are even better ones out there.

Students: Video exemplars of strategies for selecting and planning for reading, effective ways of tracking and sharing thinking with others, collecting and presenting evidence as to how they're progressing as a learner in the area of literacy, etc. Such videos would include:

• Reading buddies: KG friends and excellent educators, Cindy and Susi, did a delightful video showing exactly what good reading buddies do and look like. Check it out here.
  
• How to choose a just-right book: Our upper elementary group in this course created an unBEARably kid-friendly guide. Check it out here.

Now to mastering iMovie and screen casting to begin making this plan a reality.