Literacy

We’ve heard from science teachers, special education teachers, media specialists and technology coordinators, and we know that there are many different ways educators use SAFARI Montage in the classroom. Recently we were asked by a reading coach how SAFARI Montage might be used to help support struggling readers. Here is our top 10 list.

The MSA Reading & Math Blast! is an action-research project designed to use 21st century technology and peer educators to increase student engagement and raise student achievement in math and reading as measured by the Maryland State Assessment (MSA) exam. This program is a model of 21st Century learning for Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) as its use of SAFARI Montage Live! removes the physical barriers of schools, utilizes untapped resources (our partnerships and our students), and connects BCPS in a collective effort to raise student achievement that has not been done in this way before now. Through the use of Safari Montage Live! students are able to interact in live peer-mentoring instructional sessions that are taped and saved for data analysis and debriefing.

This past year for the first time as a Library Media Specialist, I had the pleasure and privilege of teaching 4 different groups of students who are on the autistic spectrum. They ranged in their abilities. They also ranged in their personal preferences; likes, dislikes, expectations and routines. So far they sound like any other class but what made these groups of students unique was their ability to communicate.

Without question, this generation truly is the media generation, devoting more than a quarter of each day to media. As media devices become increasingly portable, and as they spread even further through young people’s environments—from their schools to their cars—media messages will become an even more ubiquitous presence in an already media-saturated world. Anything that takes up this much space in young people’s lives deserves our full attention.
—Kaiser Family Foundation