Virtual Study Visit Report
Part A: Synchronous Study Visit Sessions Monday 24th August – 7pm – 8pm – Mt Alvernia College, Brisbane – Krystal… read more
Part A: Synchronous Study Visit Sessions Monday 24th August – 7pm – 8pm – Mt Alvernia College, Brisbane – Krystal… read more
As a current primary Stage 2 classroom teacher moving towards becoming a Teacher Librarian (TL), I have found so much of this subject invaluable for working with our current TL’s more closely as well as being highly informative to assist me in my future practice. My knowledge of the current book industry and the encouragingly dominant market share Children’s and YA literature occupies within the general market expanded through Module 1. Above all I have learnt more specifically what TL’s teach (Valenza, 2011) and their value when collaborating with the classroom teacher (Purcell, 2010).
My understanding of literary learning has expanded through Module 2 with a greater awareness of genres and formats and their capacity to assist all learners (Haven, 2007), including high potential learners and students with learning support. For many students literary learning has also shown to increase the reader engagement with the text and enhance recall when compared with other textual styles (Cornett, 2014). I also learned that one of the highest values of literature is to facilitate discussion (Allington & Gabriel, 2014) and this will benefit students when engaging in classroom literary responses and cross-curricula understanding.
My knowledge of literary response strategies (Derouet, 2020) has greatly expanded as has my deeper awareness of the semantic distinction between literacy and literary learning which was explored in Module 5. Prior to this subject I was not fully aware of the clear distinctions between literacy and literary learning. This deeper learning will help me in the future when planning and selecting literary resources to suit other subject areas and cross-curriculum priorities.
Module 6 inspired me to broaden my knowledge of digital literature to give students a greater range of platforms to express ideas through technology. When I absorbed research highlighting the reported greater use of technology in secondary schools compared with primary schools (Moore & Cahill, 2016), it strengthened my resolve to expose my current and future students to more digital forms of literature and to encourage an increasing number of digital literary responses when integrating resources into class lessons. My exploration of graphic novels at the start of this subject also opened my classroom programming to include digital versions of graphic novels (Huynh, 2015) which I had not previously considered!
Overall it is my new knowledge about the capacity of literature to make connections for students between what they already know and what they are learning about; and to build new neural networks of understanding as they use literary resources to respond to curriculum subjects other than English. Furthermore, through the focus of literary learning in response to the Cross-Curriculum Priority of Sustainability I have respected how much literature can deeply enable students to respond to the wider world beyond the classroom and encourage connections of relevance to be made between literature, the student’s inner world, the local community and the global environment.
As much as I have always loved teaching literature to students within the subject of English, this newfound awareness of the wider-reaching implications of literary learning to enhance curriculum understanding and depth within other subjects will inspire me for my classroom programming for the remainder of this year and beyond.
References
Allington, R., & Gabriel, R. (2014). Every child, every day. Educational Leadership, 69(6). 10-15. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=af8a4fab-9b19-447e-835f-78f39f145c0b%40sdc-v-sessmgr02&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=73183256&db=ehh
arts integration for Classroom teachers (5th ed., pp. 144-193). USA.
Thread: Examples of literature response strategies. ETL402 Discussion Board. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_44234_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_88815_1&forum_id=_181934_1&message_id=_2891282_1
The science behind the starting power of story. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group.
A digital graphic novel adaptation. Retrieved from http://www.sbs.com.au/theboat/
Moore, J., & Cahill, M. (2016). Audiobooks; Legitimate ‘reading’ material for adolescents? Research Journal of the American Association of School Librarians. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/slr/volume19/moore-cah
Purcell, M. (2010). All librarians do is check out books right? A look at the roles of the school library media specialist. Library Media Connection. 29(3), 30-33.
Valenza, J. (2011). What do Librarians Teach? Retrieved from http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2010/12/03/a-revised-manifesto/
Wheeler, M. (2020, May 17). A Vision for the Future of Children’s Literature [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/csurtc/2020/05/17/a-vision-for-the-future-of-childrens-literature/
My experiences of leadership prior to this subject formed my opinion of what I thought made a good leader (Wheeler, 2020, March 4). However these views have developed exponentially. My own anxieties about my personal leadership (Wheeler, 2020, April 5) have been addressed by the overall take away from this subject, which is that leaders don’t need to know everything! (Module 1 Forum) Phew! Instead my understanding which is grounded in Case Study 1 –Differentiating , Power, Control has developed and although I may not need to know it all, I have understood that I must know how to lead effectively to provide the best possible learning opportunities for students and teachers in the ever changing 21st Century learning environment. The impact of technology to 21st century learning is exciting but I have come to realise without proper implementation and leadership the changes can instead become lost opportunities. I discovered through Module 4.1 and 4.2 the importance of collaboration to leadership as a servant to staff. I identified that to meet recognised needs in the workplace I must, as TL, adopt a distributed leadership style and empower suitably qualified and capable staff by building their capacity. This transformational style of leadership is an area I know I will need to develop but one that I hope will bring the most reward.
Case Study 2 – Leadership, Communication, Relationships, further identified the importance of building capacity particularly in the “school environment which experiences ongoing change because it is closely connected to information which is changing all the time” (CSU, 2020). The response that Fleet et al (2016) advises to the complexity of change in the school environment, and its implications to the leadership of the TL, provides useful guidance on responding to change whether external or internal. Following the ideals identified highlights the way forward in my leadership as TL and involves ongoing critical reflection and analysis of any incremental changes that may occur.
The case study work in groups initially bought up feelings of apprehension but these eased somewhat as we attempted to form a collegial team in our first collaboration through Case Study 3 (Wheeler, 2020, April 9). What I discovered is that effective communication is essential when collaborating as a group. It highlighted that although I believe I am good communicator by default of the success of my profession as an educator, the online format created a barrier, and affirmed my preference of building relationships face to face. It took us a few days to find our feet as a group. One individual took on a servant leadership approach by offering ideas of how we could move forward and another used instructional leadership to offer suggestions of how we should organise and structure our responses. Although I was grateful to their leadership skills it articulated and uncovered a deeper issue of confidence and the need to work on my own servant and transformational leadership skills to build trust, respect and capacity to meet shared goals.
The collaboration that was required during Case Study 4 and Case Study 5 was put under some additional pressure due the impact that Covid-19 had on individuals and their work places. It meant communication became fractured and less frequent as both internal and external changes took their impact. The experience although stressful was positive in that it provided useful insights into how to lead through change and the importance of mitigating stress in the workplace (Wheeler, 2020, April 5).
References
CSU. (2020). Module 3.1. Change in Organisations. ETL504 Teacher Librarian as Leader. https://interact2.csu.edu.au
Voices of practitioner inquiry. Bloomsbury Publishing. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/reader.action?docID=4471164&ppg=17
Miller, S. (2020). Case Study 4. [Online discussion forum]. Interact 2 ETL504
Roberts, F. (2020). Case Study 5. [Online discussion forum]. Interact 2 ETL504
Wheeler, M. (2020, March 4). What I think I know about leadership. [Blog]. Interact 2 ETL504.
Wheeler, M. (2020, April 5). Conflict Resolution Questionnaire. [Blog]. Interact 2 ETL504.
Wheeler, M. (2020, April 9). Case Study 3 Group Collaboration. [Blog]. Interact 2 ETL504
Wheeler, M. (2020). Case Study 1. [Online discussion forum]. Interact 2 ETL504
Wheeler, M. (2020). Case Study 2. [Online discussion forum]. Interact 2 ETL504
Wheeler, M. (2020). Leadership approaches that would help mitigate stress in the workplace. [Blog]. Interact 2 ETL504.
Wheeler, M. (2020). Opportunity. Module 4.1 and 4.2. [Online discussion forum]. Interact2 ETL504
Wheeler, M. (2020). What is leadership? Module 1. [Online discussion forum]. Interact 2 ETL504
Children’s literature has evolved since its inception and will naturally continue to do so. In addition to the healthy current demand for children’s literature, the future of children’s publishing is already looking promising. McLean (2015) stated that children’s print books were the highest proportion of book sales in the US in that year – despite the expansion of the ebook and digital children’s literature markets. Recent trends would indicate continued future growth of interest and therefore increased book sales in both print and digital formats for children’s literature. Despite the increasing amount of time children and young adults spend on screens and electronic devices (both for reading and other activities) the future already looks promising for the publication of children’s literature as the demand for the evolution of various formats of children’s and young adult books continues to grow.
Children’s Literature Evolving Alongside Technology
There is little doubt children’s literature will continue to evolve alongside the development of new technologies within society. McLean (2015) noted that of the top twenty bestselling books of 2014 in the USA, eighty percent were children’s books which tied in with movies or computer games released in that year. Similarly, as technologies have evolved (such as touch screen sensitivity and interactivity) children’s literature has expanded to meet these digital developments. The formats in which children’s literature is presented is constantly changing and growing as technology evolves within society.
Children’s literature (including young adult literature) stays relevant to young readers and even meets the growing markets in related children’s industries such as film, computer games and general screen interactivity. The cross pollination between books, films, games and other online activities for children and young adults – and the bestselling status of children’s/YA books – ensures the future is bright for publishing despite the ever-changing technologies manifesting within society. Children are naturally imaginative and as imagination thrives on stimulation, new technologies provide a platform for print books and ebooks to launch into new collaborations with the form and stay relevant to children’s development as technology evolves around them.
The Personalisation of Children’s Literature
Another way children’s literature is evolving from traditional forms of presentation is the increasing personalisation of children’s books. This affords young readers who enjoy other personalised items and objects they may own to enter the story as themselves and interact with the story at the same time it unfolds before the reader.
While traditional, classic works of children’s and YA literature will continue to be read, it would not be surprising if these classics and long loved literary works will be reimagined to bring the reader into a more interactive relationship with the story, especially when these books and literature are presented in an electronic format. This I feel will become a natural extension of the personalisation of some literature which has been noted to be increasing since at least 2016. (https://www.bookbusinessmag.com/article/what-we-learned-from-the-top-trends-in-childrens-literature-webinar/)
Not only are new books being created which place the reader as the central protagonist at the heart of the story, they may take the place of a character in an existing work (such as taking on the role of Robin Hood, for example). This interactivity brings the child/youth’s own imagination to the story or literary work. This may be similar to the way children may ‘become’ a character in a computer game and interact with the other characters in that game. In this sense the child in an ebook may be seen to personally interact within the story and not simply read of the characters and engage in the story from a third person perspective. This interactivity and personalisation shift the reader’s engagement with the story more into the first-person experience, potentially stimulating their imagination in ways which were not explored by simply reading the story in its original context. More interactivity through personalisation will heighten the reader’s experience and expand the forms in which traditional children’s literature is presented in the future.
Interactivity
Following the trend of children and young adults spending large amounts of their time on screens such as phones, computers, watches and tablets, interactivity within children’s literature will increase to adapt to the changing ways children learn and interact with the world. McLean (2015) noted that the most successful books which embraced interactivity recognised the need for the interactive elements to be directly relevant to the story and not exist simply as a technology which was self-contained and did not advance the story.
Ebooks will evolve to embrace new technologies in the future which keep the young reader engaged and advance the story. In a similar way to the way children and young adults sometimes wear eye goggles to view and interact movies and games, it is a natural extension of children’s literature to travel down a similar path and enable the reader to have a heightened, interactive and possibly three-dimensional personalised experience of the book they are immersed in and experiencing as a viewer. This interactivity with the literature has the potential to expand the concept of what constitutes children’s literature as the boundaries between technology, personalisation and children’s literature are blurred. This melting pot of interactivity, words and pictures has the potential to elevate children’s literature to new levels in the future and heightens the reader’s experience.
The Drivers of Change
The interest in mixed media such as film, games and other interactive technologies by children and young adults is already shaping the way children’s literature is being created. The demand for children’s literature which refers to and interacts with these other technological forms – as evidenced by the very significant book sales which link books, film and games together – is driving change with the way many children’s books are made and interact with other technologies and media. No longer is much of children’s literature self-contained and the form is expanding to embrace and interact with other technologies and subjects of popular interest to children and young adults. This expansion can only be an exciting prospect for the reader-demand drive for interactivity with children’s literature into the future.
Resource
https://www.bookbusinessmag.com/article/what-we-learned-from-the-top-trends-in-childrens-literature-webinar/
During Case Study 3 our group collaborated really well. Initially we used email and the discussion forum to connect with each other. The first and most organised of us adopted an instructional style of leadership by setting up our Wiki page and then contacting our group to inform us how they had done this.
As a group and through adding our thoughts to the discussion forum we then individually took on a situational leadership role by suggesting we read the case study and offer our thoughts and strategies in the discussion forum.
As the week progressed another member took charge and adopted the distributed leadership style by summarising what our main points and strategies were and suggested that we each choose a topic and submit feedback of strategies on the forum by a due date.
As a group our individual leadership styles became collectively transformational as we offered innovative strategies of change to the issues of the case study.
Throughout the process I felt my participation was accepted equally.
I think the process was easier than I first thought it would be. I feel this was due to individual group members adopting leadership styles at the right time this then brought about change at the right times.
My results of the questionnaire were mostly as I expected and highlighted that my conflict resolution style is to predominantly to avoid it whenever possible. However, as much as avoidance is a strategy, I do feel that I have good problem-solving skills and cooperate well with others to work towards a mutually beneficial solution particularly when there is a common goal.
To collaborate with others when dealing with issues of conflict means to have confidence in my convictions. The questionnaire affirmed that this is an area I could work on developing. To trust and believe in myself and feel comfortable to speak up if a situation is unjust and opposed to my interests. I must say that I often feel more comfortable doing this in small groups or one on one and feel I do this best with my students rather than my colleagues.
Improving how I handle conflict in the workplace is something to work on and I feel I could develop strategies that offer compromise so that I feel I have been heard and have had my needs met as well. I know that some of my avoidance towards conflict stems from some childhood trauma I experienced. I acknowledge and accept this and feel a strategy I could try to adopt to assist me with this is to follow a step by step procedure. An example of this is as outlined by The Fair Work Ombudsman (n.d.) which offers training on having difficult conversations. I acknowledge that not dealing with conflict will almost certainly cause further damage so it must be dealt with to ensure collaboration, trust, integrity and creativity whilst meeting and achieving curriculum outcomes.
Fair Work Ombudsman. (n.d.). Manager’s guide to difficult conversations in the workplace. Australian Government. Retrieved from http://mel0201clsprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/fairwork/programresources/ca3bcd7f-8d27-4146-879e-35cb809a87d4/c9a2d0e7-dba1-49b6-a017-2dae43fdee62/manager’s%20guide%20to%20difficult%20conversations%20in%20the%20workplace.pdf
The teacher librarian is a responsible leader within the school who has a responsibility to ensure that the library space is a welcoming, vibrant, safe and engaging learning environment and accessible to everyone, at any place on any device.
Their leadership style should range from transformational to servant to distributed depending on the circumstance and need of staff and students. For example, a transformational style would build strong relationships through good management to develop a culture of collaboration in learning between the teacher librarian and teachers. This could be in the form of co-teaching with classroom teachers and displays a distributed leadership style.
As a role model the Teacher Librarian’s servant style of leadership would encourage students to learn though self-directed learning, differentiation and project-based learning. This could look like maker spaces that support collaboration, problem solving and dynamic and authentic creativity.
A situational style would benefit classroom teachers to build their leadership capacity. Supporting teachers in providing both print and electronic resourcing and the digital literacy skills in accessing these to support the curriculum.
A transformational style could be used to ensure cultural diversity in the resources curated and circulated across the school, thus motivating and inspiring teachers to drive change and achieve common goals of inclusivity.
The teacher library could have a pivitol role in ensuring that the future focus of the library is motivated to make transformational changes and that there is a positive shift to achieve common goals. Adopting both a transformational and servant style of leadership could allow the librarian to be supportive and educationally relevant to teachers. As stated by Burkus (2010) a servant style includes attributes such as listening, self awareness, community, empathy, foresight, persuasion, healing and stewardship.
Further to this the servant and transformational style would inspire and motivate both library and teaching staff so that they will engage and contribute enthusiastically to common goals and values and achieve outcomes to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
Stress can mean that staff don’t feel heard, appreciated or valued. Asking staff to articulate their concerns could cause further stress. So further strategies that the Teacher Librarian could try would be team building activities and opportunities to bring staff together using the library platform so that teachers feel connected, valued and appreciated. As stated by Cross (2015) ‘This could be through mindfulness activities (after work meditation or yoga in the library), mental health support (school counselling in the library meeting rooms, IEP Access, open door policy to discuss issues related to the curriculum, technology, resources) and external specialist support (professional development in technology, organisation, collaboration etc)
http://www.research.uwa.edu.au/_data/assets/pdf-file/0010/2633590/teacher-wellbeing-and-student.pdf
The content in Colvin’s article (2000) discusses the changes that have evolved in business management practises from the 20th century to now. These include Colvin’s (2000) definition of 21st century workers as ‘knowledge workers’. Employers who can think for themselves, apply their life and work experiences to their current positions and are a valued contributor to the organisation or as Colvin (2000) puts it the ‘organism’ or ‘machine’ in which they work. As a leader the teacher librarian needs to see his/her staff as important people who can ‘create, judge, imagine, and build relationships’ (Colvin, 2000).
In the school library context, I feel this understanding relates to the importance of collaboration. As Colvin (2000) discusses people who work in small groups based on shared values and expectations can achieve significantly more than they can independently within small and large organisations. This could be adopted by a teacher librarian to ensure library staff, teaching staff and executive have opportunities to collaborate to achieve a positive, engaging and innovative learning, teaching and work environment in the school. This would need planning and reflective practise to bring together individuals with shared values, expectations and common goals. When done successfully the school library should become a central hub of positive and engaging teaching and learning that connects all of its users to achieve common outcomes.
Colvin, G. (2000). Managing in the Info Era. Fortune, Vol. 141 Issue 5.
After exploring the CSU library site I think they meet the needs of their users (academic students and staff) through a wide collection of books, eBooks, journals and journal databases, newspapers, videos, statistics, standards, dictionaries and other essential resources for research and study through the Primo Search tool. The collection is specifically curated to meet the needs of the universities users. The Primo Search link in particular make the sources accessible as resources. All students online and onsite have access through the digital capabilities of the site. This is imperative with the large amount of online study offered by CSU. The tags and annotations make the collection user friendly and specifically targeted to study groups.
This source provides access to a wide number of information sources, providing metadata to allow for sophisticated, effective searching to access information sources either physically or digitally.
This source takes the information from various referencing style guides and makes it user friendly for students and staff.
This source is used to curate information resources for targeted students and their specific courses. The source provides student access and an overview of what is included.
This source is accessed through the Primo Search source. It gives users direct access to video and news information resources that through annotations and tags is relevant to their area of study.
This source is an opportunity for users to gain information on resources directly from a CSU librarian through digital access.
After exploration of this site I have reflected on what our school library offers as sources to information resources. Could they also offer online accessibility to library users?