Part A
Personal Philosophy – what makes an effective Teacher Librarian?
Effective Teacher Librarians (TL) work collaboratively within a school to ensure that they support the vision of the school community. TL’s are responsible for ensuring students are explicitly taught digital and information literacy and how to be responsible and safe online. A TL is proactive in their approach to curriculum and ICT changes and challenges, working with teachers in the delivery of programs which empower students and build 21st century skills. Effective TL’s create a collaborative learning environment where students feel safe to be creative and curious in their learning and ultimately become lifelong learners with a love of reading.
Part B
At the beginning of my Master of Teacher Librarianship journey, my blog post, The First Post, I shared my excitement and anxiety levels about what lay ahead of me in not only completing this course, but also my journey to becoming a working Teacher Librarian (TL) and what I hoped to become in the future. My thoughts were based on collaborating with Teacher Librarians during my time as a classroom teacher and how I had found these individuals ‘godsends’; at the time I was relieved to have extra assistance with a class. However, at the conclusion of this degree, I can now reflect on the dedication of the TL and the importance of the information literacy skills and knowledge the TL was providing to students during the lessons undertaken in the library.
Two of my favourite units completed as part of this degree have been the electives ETL402 and INF533. Both of these units opened my eyes to young adult literature and the importance of the TL to be proactive to the changes taking place within the youth literature market. The importance of the inclusion of high quality literature in the collection and promoting the use of literary activities to colleagues which meet the needs of 21st century learners while engaging and encouraging students to read were highlighted throughout these units.
Young people aren’t reading anymore…ps the Teacher Librarian can help.
One of the most resonating ideas from the literature regarding youth and reading was summed up in my blog post The Changing of the Book, where two recent articles contradict what is occuring in the children’s and young adult book market. I tend to agree with Khyiah Angel (as cited in Taylor, 2018), where she stated ‘that children are reading more, they are just reading differently’. It is important to understand these changes in students’ preferences for reading and be able to adjust our thinking of what is a book, how students read and how we can engage students with literature.
In my blog post Children’s Literature I spoke about my need to develop a greater understanding of children’s literature, while I noted some strategies I am currently using to increase my exposure and knowledge of children’s literature. Through the completion of the two units I was able to further develop my understanding of children’s literature, especially various fiction genres. Also, how I can promote children’s literature through collaborating with classroom teachers and assisting in incorporating fiction into literary activities across a variety of curriculum units. Graphic novels are a genre of fiction which is often overlooked by educators as being a valuable teaching aid as they are considered to be a form of comic book. However, graphic novels have been gaining popularity with young adult readers since the late twentieth century and are now seen as an important inclusion in educational settings (Babee, 2017, p.1; Botzakis, 2018, p.140). Including graphic novels into a library collection provides students with the opportunity to engage with a popular genre, which is now a recommended text in the Australian Curriculum; importantly graphic novels can also be used as a multimodal teaching strategy across faculties. Through collaboration with our English faculty a number of traditional texts have now been purchased in the form of graphic novels; including The Handmaid’s Tale for Year 11 Advanced English and To Kill a Mockingbird for Year 10 English. Both graphic novels, while remaining true to the original story, improve comprehension of the novel and provide students with a greater appreciation and understanding of the key concepts and themes of the novels through visual representation (Chilton, 2018; Scott et al., 2017, p.127). The integration of graphic novels has allowed teachers to enhance the existing curriculum and build on students’ multimodal knowledge as required in the Australian Curriculum.
A number of graphic novels have been added to the library collection to assist in enhancing the existing curriculum.
Another avenue to engage and encourage students to read is through the use of audio and ebooks. The Association of American Publishers found that the audiobook market is the fastest growing publishing format, with audiobook sales increasing by over 40% in 2018 (Trombetta, 2019; Poole, 2019; Catalano, 2018), and the global market expected to grow by another 25% in 2020 (Thorp, 2020). Audiobooks are becoming increasingly popular in educational settings as digital literacy helps to engage and assist students. Using audiobooks assists students who are experiencing difficulties with reading as they are able to utilise the functionality of digitized works. Through using digitised works students can slow down the narration of audiobooks as well as increase the font size of ebooks. Increasing the font size on screen leads to greater space between letters and lines and ultimately leads to a more immersive and improved reading experience (DeLamater, 2010; Anguera, 2015), this can assist students who have dyslexia or experience reading difficulties. While listening to books can benefit students’ literacy through hearing pronunciation and intonation, as well as increasing the students’ exposure to words. Through developing my knowledge and understanding of the benefits of digitised works I was able to advocate the continued inclusion of audio and ebooks as part of the collection of our school library. I reflected on the importance of a virtual library as an addition to the library collection when completing ETL 503, having access to the virtual library assists in eliminating geographical and access constraints when students require resources; the virtual library has been especially beneficial this year due to COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions students faced accessing physical reading materials. The virtual library has also been welcomed by teachers and used extensively with students with low literacy or learning difficulties.
Opening the doors to ICT – In the library, can this happen?
A key goal for our school was to increase access to technology and ensure students developed 21st century ICT skills. I was able to successfully gain funding to set up a dedicated bank of laptops in what was an underutilised room in the library during 2018; since that time, technology in the library has exponentially grown, allowing a large number of classes the opportunity to use technology throughout the day. Ensuring students are undertaking meaningful technology lessons which meet curriculum requirements, digital citizenship requirements and student engagement was a secondary goal of the school. Teachers at the school commented on their lack of confidence and knowledge surrounding technology, digital citizenship and how they could implement technology into their lesson plans (D. Pilja, personal communication, May 18, 2019; J. Dasic, personal communication, May 18, 2019).
Through my role as TL I was able to assist teachers with technology based lesson plans and activities. As stated in my critical reflection new technology is being created and used at a phenomenal rate, with students often the first to engage and use new technology as it becomes available. It is imperative that we, as educators, stay abreast of these technological and social changes in order to keep students motivated and to learn essential information and communication technology skills, as highlighted in the Australian Curriculum, while they are engaging with technology. The use and creation of digital stories is one strategy to do this. The digital story Reginald James Charles – An Australian War Hero, while an assessment requirement for INF533, has been used within our school as an example for Stage 4 students to create their own digital texts. This enrichment activity proved to be very successful with high engagement from students; the students developed knowledge and understanding of 21st century ICT skills while embedding digital literacy skills and citizenship in the creation of their final product. Through collaborating with the classroom teacher I was also able to provide professional development and dialogue on the affordances of effectively using technology in the classroom to meet learning outcomes. Feedback from colleagues has shown they are now less apprehensive to use technology in their classes and have a greater understanding of digital citizenship (M. Walker, personal communication, March 23, 2020; A. Fenech, personal communication, May 13, 2020). The digital story has also been used by our Defence Mentor with the wider military community, her feedback has been that it is an important and relevant advocacy tool for our school (T. Carr, April 28, 2020).
Another literary activity which I was exposed to through ETL402 was book bento boxes. I used the concept of book bentos as a book week competition for students and staff to enter. Students and staff were able to create their bento for a book they were currently reading or their favourite book. I find book bentos an excellent learning experience to reflect on their reading while also developing 21st century skills. The benefit of book bentos as a multimodal strategy is that students are also being explicitly provided information regarding copyright and the ethical use of music, pictures and book covers; students are encouraged to use Creative Commons to access media and are shown the correct way to acknowledge sources they use to create their book bento. I have already planned collaboratively with our HSIE faculty to implement the literary learning program I created for assignment two of ETL402, with our Year 10 cohort when they are completing the depth study Rights and Freedoms 1945-present (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2010) in term four.
I have also been heavily involved with technology within the school as a whole. The Stem.4L kits borrowed through the Department of Education have been very successful with students. The kits have been used with specialist teaching areas and also whole year groups in the school being provided with the ability to experience virtual reality, robotics and film making. I am also a member of the school’s technology team and this year the team is trialing student devices. One class in year 7 and 8 are trialing Apple Ipads versus Google Chromebooks in order to discover the benefits for student participation and engagement with technology as well as the best device for student use. Based on the outcomes of the trial it is hoped that the year 7 cohort for 2021 will be lent a student device for school use for the year.
Stem.4L kits in action.
Making the library an essential learning common in the school – Advocacy in action.
I was lucky enough to obtain a temporary TL position in a school, the library had been traditionally managed by the previous TL, who had a long standing position at the school. The library was cold, uninviting, devoid of life and a little smelly; there was a closed door policy for certain periods of the day and silence was required at all times.
Through completing ETL402 and ETL503 I was able to begin to develop my understanding of the importance of an information professional in schools. In my blog posts The Perceptions of Librarians and Reflections I reflected on the evolving and ever changing role of the TL and how I could advocate my role in the school. I started reading, and continue to read, articles about how TL’s can be change agents within schools, the importance of school libraries and strategies TL’s can use to successfully manage and promote their role and the library.
From the knowledge gained in ETL503 I saw the importance of collaborating with staff to develop a working collections development policy, I sought out individuals in each faculty to speak with to ensure the policy would meet the curriculum needs of the school. I also asked students to provide their feedback on the library, resources they would like available to them in the library and books they enjoyed reading. I undertook surveys with students to gain a better understanding of the reading habits of the student community. This allowed me to develop a better understanding of the recreational reading needs of the students and the areas of the collection which were lacking. I found through writing the collection development policy I had a greater understanding of the school community I was working with and the areas of the collection which needed improvement. The policy assisted in decluttering the collection; a large number of especially nonfiction resources were outdated and no longer relevant to the learning needs of the school.
I started to look for activities and resources that could be used to promote the library and get students and staff engaged and excited about the library. I joined a number of professional TL groups including Yammer, NSW School Library Matters, and The School Librarians Workshop on Facebook as well as a number of Instagram accounts that are strong advocates for libraries such as misskokolib and icentremta.
A number of key activities were promoted specifically to staff in an attempt to encourage staff to utilise my services and the library. A Library Lovers gift bag was made for all staff and secretly dropped on their desks on Library Lovers Day. The gift bags included items to promote what the library had to offer as well as how I, as the information specialist of the school, can assist teachers in planning, developing and implementing lessons and programs; the bags also included a number of small gifts to bring joy to the day. Book Week was another opportunity to promote the library and the importance of reading to students and staff. With the assistance of some key staff members a whole staff book character dress up day and staff and student lunch was organised. The day was an outstanding success and led to a heightened profile of the library as key changes were promoted during the lunch and book talk took place between students and staff.
Advocacy in action.
Utilising Facebook, Instagram and the school’s regular newsletter to promote activities taking place within the library allowed for greater connection and communication with the school and wider community. I found a number of key guides to assist with social media promotions including The National Library of New Zealand, Softlink and a number of relevant articles from SCIS Connections. During my professional placement I was also able to take part in a public libraries marketing team meeting via Zoom; I found this an invaluable experience as reflected in my placement report as it provided further insight into the use of social media by informational specialists.
Part C
Personal evaluation.
As I reach the end of the Master of Teacher Librarianship degree it is important to reflect on the journey and see just how far I have come. It is important to also consider the future, as I embark on the challenges of Teacher Librarianship in a high school setting, as well as considering further career opportunities which the degree can provide with ongoing learning. The standards of professional excellence for Teacher Librarians is an invaluable tool for not only reflecting on my current professional knowledge and practice; but can also serve as a goal setting tool to assist in my continued professional learning and development to improve my professional practice and ultimately become a successful teacher librarian.
Throughout the course I have realised the importance of staying abreast of changes in curriculum and technology and ensuring that I am proactive in my approach to cross curricula library programs, with a technology focus. 21st century skills are embedded throughout the Australian Curriculum; it is one of the many essential roles of the TL to ensure they assist their colleagues in implementing technology usage, as well as equipping students with the skills to appropriately use ICT and information resources (1.1;2.2). I am now more confident to work with colleagues to explicitly teach students about the ethical use of media and copyright, through the use of sites such as Creative Commons. I am also equipped to teach the digital literacy skills required to find, evaluate and compose digital information and to correctly acknowledge sources, this will ultimately assist students to be responsible digital citizens throughout their schooling, further education and careers (State of NSW, 2020).
Creating a space where 21st century skills can be explicitly taught and practiced is also an essential requirement of current school libraries. School libraries are evolving to become places of significance within schools as they take on the dual role of literary and technological spaces (2.1). Ensuring the library space is well resourced and meets the needs of the school community is a challenging aspect of the role of the TL. Through my growing understanding of the needs of the various stakeholders of the school, I will strive to ensure the library is effectively meeting the diverse needs of our school community.
Advocating the role of TL’s and essential services that can be provided by the library are key personal goals I have for the future. Greater promotion of the opportunities I can provide to staff in their teaching and professional development is also important to me in my role as TL. I am looking forward to having the time to read a greater range of young adult books from various genres and creating a strong reading culture within the school community. Joining professional associations & network groups will also assist in my professional development and provide further ideas on how to future proof the school library and ensure that I am pivotal in meeting the vision of the school.
References.
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2010). Year 10 content descriptions. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/history/
Australian Library and Information Association. (2004). Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. https://www.alia.org.au/about-alia/policies-standards-and-guidelines/standards-professional-excellence-teacher-librarians
Babaee, R. (2017). Realities of Graphic Novels: An Interview with Frederick Aldama. International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, 5(3), 1-4. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijclts.v.5n.3p.1
Botzakis, S. (2018). Comics in the Classroom. In Wooten, D. A., Liang, L. A., & Cullinan, B. E. (Eds.). Children’s literature in the reading program, fifth edition: Engaging young readers in the 21st century. 140-152. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Catalano, F. (2018, August 11). Listen up: Digital audiobooks now the ‘fastest growing format’ as tech and titles improve. GeekWire. https://www.geekwire.com/2018/listen-digital-audiobooks-now-fastest-growing-format-tech-titles-improve/
Dunn, B. (2017, July 20). The first post. [Blog post]. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/bellid/2017/07/20/the-first-post/
Dunn, B. (2020, March 6). The changing of the book. [Blog post]. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/bellid/2020/03/06/the-changing-of-the-book/
Dunn, B. (2020, March 20). Children’s literature. [Blog post]. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/bellid/2020/03/20/childrens-literature/
Dunn, B. (2019, May 27). Reflections. [Blog post]. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/bellid/2019/05/27/etl-503-reflections/
Dunn, B. (2019, October 5). INF533 Critical reflection. [Blog post]. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/bellid/2019/10/05/inf533-assessment-4-part-c-700-words/
Dunn, B. (2017, July 13). The perceptions of librarians. [Blog post]. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/bellid/2017/07/23/the-perception-of-librarians/
Dunn, B. (2020, September 9). Professional placement report. [Blog post]. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/bellid/2020/09/09/professional-placement-report/
Poole, S. (2019, July 13). Listen up: why we can’t get enough of audiobooks. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/13/listen-up-rise-of-audiobooks-steven-poole
Softlink. (2020). Social media ideas for the school library. https://www.softlinkint.com/blog/social-media-rise-your-school-library/
State of New South Wales [Department of Education]. (2020). Copyright and creative commons. https://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/articles/copyright-and-creative-commons
Stower, H., & Donaghue, M. (2016). Using social media to support school library services. School Catalogue Information Service. https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-98/using-social-media-to-support-school-library-services/
Taylor, A. (2018, September 16). ‘Technology can bring books alive’: Harry Potter inspires novel with moving images. The Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/technology-can-bring-books-alive-harry-potter-inspires-novel-with-moving-images-20180915-p50407.html
The National Library of New Zealand. (n.d.). Social media and the school library. https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/school-libraries/library-services-for-teaching-and-learning/your-school-library-online/social-media-and-the-school-library
Thorp, C. (2020, January 6). Audiobooks: The rise and rise of the books you don’t read. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200104-audiobooks-the-rise-and-rise-of-the-books-you-dont-read
Trombetta, S. (2019, May 24). There’s actually a scientific reason for why you love audiobooks so much. Bustle. https://www.bustle.com/p/why-audiobook-listening-is-growing-in-popularity-with-readers-17186269