Despite a decade in the role of teacher librarian (TL), several years as a classroom teacher, and several more years as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructor, I do not think I had encountered the term, “literary learning” until starting this course. That is not to say that I have not been up to my elbows in literary learning through most of those years.
I consider how valuable English language picture books were in my EFL classes of 4-6 year old Korean children as I struggled through learning how to teach in a foreign country without any training in language acquisition, nor any pedagogical notions. At that time (1999), there was no program and only some dated text books with rigidly structured conversations, often with incorrect grammar were available. I surmised illustrated narratives in picture books would be a good tool for literacy instruction because they are fun to read and hear. Now I might frame this decision in language acquisition and literacy development theory, perhaps using the Comprehension Hypothesis from Krashen et al. (2017) to describe picture books as ‘compelling comprehensible input’ (p.10).
That context may not appear to be literary learning but literacy instruction, however, in the EFL classroom, my role was to facilitate students using the language they were studying elsewhere. This approach to learning language and literacy was similar to models of reading instruction which can lead to isolated instruction of language components (Parkin, 2025, p9). We needed things to talk about and the vocabulary to talk about it. Munsch’s The Paperbag Princess, Rosen’s (1989) We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and Rathman’s (1996) Goodnight, Gorilla had captivating illustrations which supported the text, teased the viewer, and led us into discussions, craft, drama activities, and song- all in English.
I now understand literary learning to be the use of a variety of literature to help engage students with key ideas and concepts in, say, a unit of work, and to facilitate deep, critical thinking. It is closely linked to concepts in genre theory which considers social and cultural contexts of learning to be essential, with a more explicit instruction model using a variety of texts necessary for both mastery of language and engagement with content (Derewianka, 2015). ETL 514 has been particularly focused on the use of fiction to diversify texts used for instruction across all curriculum areas. This adds further considerations for collection development and resource description which have been essential to my TL growth.
Several earlyblog posts concerned having new clarity of purpose in the area of collection development and understanding of a school library collection. On Febrary 23, 2022, I reflected on how incomplete was my inital notion of a TL as a cultivator of quality resources. In another post, ‘From parts and pieces (a formal reflection)’ , I realise the importance of having a defined information literacy model to guide teaching in an inquiry learning model. ETL 514 has prompted me to consider how literary learning fits in with theory and practice, such as the school’s models of inquiry, which must influence collection development decisions. Revisiting my early criticism (‘Superlatives in selection‘)of Hughes-Hassell & Mancall’s decision tree for resource selection, I now see that what I mistook for oversimplicity is, in fact, space for my professional ideas of learning theory and pedagogy. Where Hughes-Hassell & Mancall (2005) ask if a resource meets the information needs of the community and the teaching-learning context, I must be considering the possibilities of diverse literature for all areas of the curriculum and for all of our students (p.34).
Bibliography of texts
Munsch, R. (1980). The Paperbag Princess. Annick Press.
Rathman, P. (1996). Goodnight, Gorilla. Putnam.
Rosen, M. (1988). We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Walker Books.
References
Derewianka, B. (2015). The contribution of genre theory to literacy education in Australia (Version 1). University of Wollongong. https://hdl.handle.net/10779/uow.27690756.v1
Hughes-Hassell, S. & Mancall, J. (2005). Collection management for youth: responding to the needs of learners. American Library Association.
Krashen, S.D., Lee, S., & Lao, C. (2017). Comprehensible and compelling: The causes and effects of free voluntary reading. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Parkin, B. (2025). PETAA Paper 221: Making sense of the reading models. Primary English Teaching Association Australia.
