What I Learned This Week(ish) #7

1. Tempe Splash Playground will make summer bearable.  It is large, in charge and staffed with lifeguards and a first-aid station.  We finally got over there for the first time this afternoon.  Olivia particularly enjoyed the slide.

2. Strange things are afoot. Based on casual observation, I'm guessing there must be 50 Circle K's within a 1 mile radius of where we live in Tempe. The other, sad, washed-out looking Friendly Marts must have something to offer to stay in business, but standing in their poorly maintained parking lots, there is no way to tell what it might be. Circle K. What else do I need?

3. I have a lot to study for this reading endorsement test.  I think.  I waver from confidence to despair every time I sit to study.  I need to find out what percentage the written portion represents.  I can do multiple choice.  Oh, yeah.

More later, blogsumers.  

Sites and Resources for Reading Endorsement AEPA

I'm gathering websites and resources to study for my AEPA reading endorsement exam (More materials available here).  I'll add more as I find them, so check back.

1. Professional Standards. 

• Here are the NBPTS standards (though they are for early-middle childhood): http://www.nbpts.org/sites/default/files/documents/certificates/nbpts-certificate-emc-lrla-standards.pdf
• The IRA also has its standards of course: http://www.reading.org/General/CurrentResearch/Standards/ProfessionalStandards.aspx
• The American Federation of Teachers put out a statement about what reading teachers should know and be able to do: http://www.aft.org/pdfs/teachers/rocketscience0304.pdf  This one is from 1999, but most of the concepts should still be valid.

2. Theoretical & Research Foundations. 

• This is a VERY cool interactive cognitive framework for learning to read, created by SEDL: http://www.sedl.org/reading/framework/welcome.swf.  This theory of adolescent readers seems like a good complement: http://www.adlit.org/article/19751/
• Center on Instruction Effective Instruction for Adolescent Struggling Readers. It has been difficult to zero in on good resources for adolescents in particular. Yay!  Lots of research meta-analysis and info about implications for practice.  If you want a brief overview of effective practice, you can skip to this doc: http://www.centeroninstruction.org/files/Practice%20Brief-Struggling%20Readers1.pdf
• This article "Learning to Read Words" helped me understand some of the researched approaches to learning to read words and build vocabulary. 

3. Flashcards and Study Sets. Here are some sets of flashcards various people made (I already noticed some spelling errors...):
A.

B. Then, the Reading Specialist Praxis II flashcards.

C. And these flashcards.  I stole 136 of them from someone else and have been adding and editing.


4. Study Guides for Other Tests. Here is a downloadable study guide for the Teaching Reading Praxis test:

Teaching Reading - ETS Home

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5.  Glossaries:

• From Florida Center for Reading http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/glossary/glossaryOfReading.pdf
• From Education Oasis: http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/Reading/glossary_reading_terms.htm
• A glossary of adolescent literacy which looks very useful, considering that most of the resources so far focus on the younger grades.  Thanks, Adlit!  http://www.adlit.org/adlit_glossary/

6. Practice Tests & Test Questions:

• Arizona AEPA (Elementary, anyway.  Lots of overlap?)
• RICA practice questions
• Oklahoma OPTE/OSAT practice test
• TExES Reading Specialist practice questions
• Colorado's PLACE assessment
• Praxis Reading Specialist practice questions: 0300

7. Other Sites:

Big Five-- Anita Archer-- RTI

• Dr. Archer's workshop handouts from MiBLSI http://miblsi.cenmi.org/MiBLSiModel/Implementation/ElementarySchools/TierISupports/ArcherHandouts.aspx
• http://oregonreadingfirst.uoregon.edu/inst_big_five.html

Developmental Stages of Reading: Chall's six stages of reading development. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/collateral_resources/pdf/r/reading_bestpractices_assessment_red_c1_L02_tr_alookrsrch.pdf



Other Resources Recommended in Online Chats:
Beating them All (book)

More City Lights, Bats and Teacher Voice

Here I am, on almost the same balcony in the same resort watching the city of Tucson dim before my eyes, and the lights twinkle ever brighter through the rising heat of the desert. The bats flit and dive, and I am luxuriantly perched with a picture window view of it all, framed with climbing vines, mesquites, mountains and the tips of saguaros.

I could not want for more. Any more, and I would be spoiled. This week I reunited my family by moving to Tempe, landed a job which excites me in a school seven minutes from home, reconnected with colleagues at the Teacher Leadership Institute and learned ways of defining my role as a teacher leader that make a lot of sense to me. 

Next week I will spend time with my mom and my brother's family, get our new home set up better, and meet with my new department chair.

I thought about writing a poem tonight, but I am challenged by the idea of writing about satisfaction. There are unknowns in life, of course. But I embrace these moments free of worry. Perhaps I can recapture them poetically at a later time when I nostalgically remember: Remember that one time when everything was good?

Live from the Teacher Leadership Institute...

My latest Stories from School AZ blog entry, reflecting on the ideas presented yesterday at the Arizona K12 Center Teacher Leadership Institute by guest experts Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves.

Enjoy!
http://www.storiesfromschoolaz.org/2013/06/a-cat-a-washing-machine-and-a-tornado.html