These are my personal thoughts and views on these specific websites.
Website
Evaluation 1
Name
of Website: International Reading Association
-
Copyright
Information:
Author
and Organizational Credentials:
International
Reading Association; IRA has been a nonprofit, global network of
individuals and institutions committed to worldwide literacy. There
are more than 60,000 members who promote high levels of literacy.
Their mission statement is: “The mission of the International
Reading Association is to promote reading by continuously advancing
the quality of literacy instruction and research worldwide.” The
Strategic Direction Statements include many different areas, which
make the organization widely accepted among educators. These
statements include: professional development, partnership, research,
advocacy, councils and affiliates, technology and international
affiliates/members.
Website
design and ease of navigation:
When
going to the website, www.reading.org,
I immediately noticed that it looked very professional and clean. As
I began to click on links, I knew that it was a great website and had
a great layout. Not one of the links that I visited was broken, which
rarely happens on a website. This site is updated often with
information, new authors and publications. There is a banner at the
top that has upcoming events for members of IRA. There is a place for
searching which leads you to the link you are looking for
information. The column on the left of the page has most visited
links that are useful. The sub-headers that are widely recognized
are: Login for Members, Trending Topics, General, Resources and
Information. This website is simple to navigate and the design is
clean and easy on the eyes.
Response and
Recommendations for intended audience:
I
was immediately drawn to this website after I read some of the
reviews it had on our message board. I loved the ease of the website
and the information that it gave me. The IRA website is great for
information on reading material or topics in education that I would
like to research. This was not a familiar website to me, but after
this class, I am adding it to my bookmarks. It will be great for
struggling readers along with emergent readers, which I deal with on
a daily basis. It is going to be a great asset to my classroom and my
professional development. I think that I will visit the Resources
tab often, as it has things that benefit my early childhood
classroom.
In
addition to the resources, there is a link for many grants and awards
that have deadlines approaching. This is a great source for teachers
who want to apply for grants and receive more funding for their
classrooms.
Website
Evaluation 2
Name
of Website: Texas Education Agency
-
Copyright
Information/Update Information: ©
Copyright Texas Education Agency (TEA) 2007-2012. Each page was
modified on a different day. The most recent modification that I
found was on 9/27/12.
Author
and Organizational Credentials:
Texas
Education Agency is the author and organization of this website.
There are many different divisions from Accountability Research to
Waivers and many in between.
Website
design and ease of navigation:
The
design of this website is very clean and professional. There is so
much information, but it is well organized by hyperlinks and
divisions. Each division has an enormous amount of information, and
it is organized by subtitles and links inside the division. There are
links for teachers, administrators, funding, testing, accountability,
curriculum, reports, news, events, and links for jobs. Each one of
those links on the left side of the home page have subtitles
explaining what the link consists of in case you are unsure. It also
has a hyperlink for you to click if you just want to go straight to
the subtitle link. TEA is the home for all of Texas’ educators and
administrators and is used on a daily basis. This is the website for
teachers to find curriculum and standards for teaching. Texas
Essential for Knowledge and Skills are designed as Texas’
curriculum standards. Each of these TEKS is organized by grade
level, subject and content. They are easily accessed for teachers to
download as a PDF or print, whichever is more convenient for them.
Inside the TEKS, there are links for each grade level and then
subject so you don’t have to scroll through the information before
finding the subject or TEK that you need. Texas Education Agency’s
website is very user friendly and nicely organized for daily use from
educators and administrators.
Response and
Recommendations for intended audience:
The
intended audience for the Texas Education Agency website is for all
Texas educators and administrators.
Website
Evaluation 3
1. Name
of Website:
Children's and Young Adult Author Cynthia Leitich Smith Official Web
Site
3.
Copyright Information/Update Information: “Children's
and Young Adult Author Cynthia Leitich Smith Official Web Site”
authored by Cynthia
Leitich Smith
(cynthia@cynthialeitichsmith.com).
This web site and all images are Copyright © 1998-2011 by Cynthia
Smith, except where noted. All rights reserved.
4. Author
and Organizational Credentials:
Cynthia
Leitich Smith is the author of her own website, but was designed and
maintained by Lisa Firke. Cynthia Leitich Smith is a New York Times
best-selling and award-winning author who writes fiction stories for
children and young adults. Some of the children’s books published
are: Holler
Loudly,
Santa
Knows,
Indian
Shoes,
Rain is Not
My Indian Name,
Jingle
Dancer
among some other short stories. Some of the young adult books
published are: Tantalize,
Eternal,
Blessed,
Diabolical
and Sanguini’s
Store
among more and some short stories, too. Cynthia’s husband is also
an author and is talked about often on her website.
5.
Website design and ease of navigation:
Cynthia’s
website is very user friendly and fun to visit. I love the way that
she has the links set up so you just click on it to read more. All of
the headers are simple and clean, and you know what you’re going to
when you click on it. I visited almost all of the hyperlinks and
none of them are broken. The navigation of the site is flowing and
very easy to use. Some of the links include: About Cyn, Cyn’s
Events, Books for Kids, Books for YAs, FAQs for All, Goodies for
Writers, and Children’s and YA Resources. There is more than enough
information on Cynthia’s website to learn more about her as not
only an author, but as a person. I feel like I gained a better
knowledge of her personality of writing through just reading about
her life. The complete site map is a great link for an overview of
the website.
6.
Response and Recommendations for intended audience:
I
loved this website! Out of all of them, this has been my favorite. I
liked that Cynthia seems so down-to-earth and isn’t afraid to put
some personal information out there. Her link to her blog is posted
under her About Cyn section and is a fun read, also. Although I
didn’t know much about Cynthia before visiting the website, I have
learned many things about her and would love to work her books into
my classroom library. This website, and literature, are for an
intended audience of older children than what I am teaching, but I
would still like to have a few of her books for my personal nieces
and nephews. Cynthia’s writing has earned many awards, and her
website should, too! I loved visiting it!
Website
Evaluation 4
1. Name
of Website:
Dr. Jon Allan Reyhner
3.
Copyright Information/Update Information: Copyright
© 2012 Northern Arizona University, All rights reserved. There was
no information on an updated web page date.
4. Author
and Organizational Credentials:
Jon
Reyhner is the author of his own website. He has written many
articles, book chapters and visits conferences often. Dr. Reyhner
has given over 100 workshops, presentations and speeches at various
conferences at the regional, national and international level. He is
the author of Education
and Language Restoration
(Chelsea House, 2006) and co-author or American
Indian Education: A History
(University of Oklahoma Press, 2004). He is also the author of
Language
and Literacy Teaching for Indigenous Education: A Bilingual Approach
(Multilingual Matters, 2002). He has edited many, many articles.
Not only is Dr. Reyhner an author and editor, he is a teacher. He
taught junior high for four years, before becoming a school
administrator for ten years in Arizona, Montana and New Mexico. He
then left school administration to become an assistant professor at
Montana State University--Billings. In 1995, Reyhner became a
professor of bilingual and multicultural education courses at
Northern Arizona University, where he currently resides. American
Indian / Indigenous Education
(http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/AIE/index.html)
and Teaching Indigenous Languages
(http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/TIL.html)
are two websites developed by Dr. Reyhner.
5.
Website design and ease of navigation:
Upon
first visit of Dr. Jon Allan Reyhner’s website, I noticed that
there was going to be a plethora of information. There are many
links and many different subjects to learn about. From American
Indian Education to Parent Involvement, these links are for
information of visitors to his website. Also, there are many
resources such as study habits and writing resources for students.
The website is not as professional and clean as some of the others
that I have visited, but the information is plenty!
6.
Response and Recommendations for intended audience:
To
me, as a reader, this website is easy to navigate, but also somewhat
overwhelming. If I was coming to this website to look for a few
things, it would be easy to find them. If I was coming to learn more
information that I did not know about, I wouldn’t know where to
begin! If the intended audiences of this website are primarily
students and teachers, it is a great website to peruse. If you are
looking for information about Dr. Reyhner, it is also a great
website. I find it hard to focus on just one piece of information, as
there are many aspects over the home page.
