Competency 9: Internet Website

For my last and final competency my assignment is to search for a website that is reputable and supports my topic area which is Accelerated Reader. To begin my search quest I was instructed to use a meta search engine. Before this class I had no idea that meta-search engines even existed. I chose to use Dogpile.com but there are various others that you can also search: Clusty.com, Surfwax.com, and Copernic.com. Searching for accelerated reader in dogpile I was able to find some new websites that I had not yet discovered when using Google or Yahoo. This is a screen print of Dogpile.com:

My subject area is Elementary Librarian with a focus on the Accelerated Reader program. This reading program is a commercial product that many schools around the country are implementing to create life long readers. The question in debate is whether it truly does create life long readers. Accelerated Reader has a website that I would like to share with you to review. This is the link: http://www.renlearn.com/ar/ Here you can read up more about the program and what it entails.

Providing a commercial website is definitely one sided so I wanted to provide a second website that would give a rounded view of the program with both the pros and the cons. I found: http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/whatsnu_ar.html

This website was create by Jim Trelease. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts ('63) and native of New Jersey (Union and North Plainfield), Jim Trelease was a award- winning artist and journalist before turning his career toward education in 1979 when he began writing the first edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook. His focus of study has been to see if there is any connection in being read to as compared to a child who wants to read. In this website he offers various dissertations and articles written for and against Accelerated Reader. Although I found the site to lean more towards the cons of Accelerated Reader, it does offer another side to this program by those who have done research on this topic.

I felt that to do justice to this issue both sides needed to be offered. Commercial products will always have websites that are engaging and exciting to read. They offer professional websites and brochures that will help others to become motivated to use their product. By offering Treleases' website in this assignment, I feel I am offering another look into this program. To form an opinion on any subject you always need to study both sides of the coin. By offering these two websites, I feel that it offers a more well rounded view of the program.