The following was published first in a discussion forum, but given the time put into this and the learning I took out of it, I decided to publish it here with a few minor edits.
Selection aids: I’ve been using them for years but not really thinking too deeply about them or evaluating them beyond a general sense of being satisfied with their output or dissatisfied. This also speaks to a lack of rigour in the selection processes over these years, but also to the great trust put in me to make quality and informed selections.
Here are three selection aids which I use to various degree and with various success.
| Selection aid | Pros | Cons |
| My book jobber, Kate, who has run a dedicated children’s book store for decades and who participates in the publishing community in various ways, such as panel judge for major awards. | Kate knows children’s books. She, and her small staff, read voraciously and have a strong and trusted sense of what makes a good book. Kate values the relationship between herself as promoter and TLs as selectors. You can give her parameters around what is required or deemed inappropriate given a school’s culture. | Book jobbers like Kate do not have an intimate knowledge of needs across the many year groups and classes at each school. They are focused on quality literature and often focus their own selection on this single criteria.
If using more than one such selection aid, there is considerable overlap. |
| OZTL-net | In theory, reviews submitted by TLs which provide context of the material and give advice on how it might be used. By Hughes-Hassell and Mancall’s standards, a quality review tool (amongst other things) | I am fairly new to this site/resource and it seems manically and stubbornly attached to a very unpleasant and unwieldy interface. Despite a long history of threads and queries in their discussion list archives, one is lucky to find matching terms. When it works, it works very well!
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| Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards “Best Book for Language and Literacy Development” and the new “Decodable book series” award |
Speech Pathology Australia publish their awards criteria which examines quality literature across a broad spectrum, including whether the book’s subject matter aligns well with language development for the intended reader:
“Each book is judged on its appeal to children, interactive quality and ability to assist speech pathologists and parents in communication and literacy development.” As of this year, they will also identify quality decodable books aligned with a phonics scope and sequence. This is exciting and unique.
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Only 6 books per year!
Some overlap with other awards lists. |
Evaluating these selection aids against the four considerations for using selection aids outlined by Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2005, p.47-48):
My bookseller, Kate, stands up against the first criteria of providing insight into materials beyond plot summaries by providing a critical write up on all texts that come with her standing orders. Sometimes these have broad personal judgements attached, but she shows where texts align with key learning areas across year groups and will often place them in context of like books (or books by the same author). Kate is choosing books for standing orders across several schools. While she makes slight adjustments for some schools, the selection process is broad and not tailored to my school per se.
OZTL_Net offers a broad range of recommendations and these recommendations vary in voice and quality thus falling short, at times, of Hughes-Hassell and Mancall’s first consideration: does the review work for my selecting needs. One can find very informed and expert reviews and recommendations from other TLs on particular resources in the context of a learning sequence or particular needs. This helps me find texts broader than those generally promoted to teachers and parents for their quality- a hit on Hughes-Hassell and Mancall’s third consideration. Also, in using this, I am not committing to any order and I can use my own local judgement prior to having this book show up in a box.
Speech Pathology Australia’s “Book of the Year” award is a very narrow selection aid given it only identifies six pieces of literature, but they are identifying quality works through a more defined set of parameters. If I want to make sure I have texts which engage in language play and development for a set of year groups, this is a reliable aid. They identify texts beyond those generally identified for literary quality and for general use. I use this selection aid because my local judgement values it for making choices about local needs.
Of these three selection aids, Kate, the dedicated children’s book seller, is the most reliable. She is knowledgeable and her lenghty career is predicated on her being reliable. I can use this selection aid for macro selection and to help me with micro selection. Kate has even gone to the level of coming to my school to meet particular classes and students to work with meeting their reading needs.
