Reflect on your own and your professional colleagues’ knowledge of literature. Identify an occasion when you successfully connected a book with a child or group of students and how your knowledge of the book facilitated this process. Identify possible opportunities for a teacher librarian to respond to this research within the library and beyond to support teacher colleagues.

On 9 March, I completed my own Stocktake of Children’s Literature. I highlighted the day-to-day rigours of teaching as a barrier to building knowledge of children’s literature over the past seven years. And, pinpointed the Redwall series, Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the Treehouse series, and Weirdo, as some of the few children’s books that I have some knowledge about.

Already, just two months on, my knowledge of literature has expanded significantly. I have taken on one of the strategies identified in my Stocktake of Children’s Literature – I’ve been reading a whole heap of kids’ books from my library. I’ve read four of the graphic novels in the Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi. I’ve read Birrung the Secret Friend by Jackie French. I’ve been reading George and the Great Bum Stampede by Cal Wilson as part of my support sessions with a student. Not to mention the selection of picture books which are great to read over my half hour lunch break!

One particular series, Dragon Blood Pirates by Dan Jerris, was donated to the library in Term 1. I read the first of the six books, to give myself an idea of the language level and content. Early this term, a student came to the library searching for ‘a chapter book’. He also specified ‘adventure’ as a favourite genre. My knowledge of Book One, Death Diamond, facilitated my successful connection of student-to-book in this instance. I told him about our new series of six chapter books about pirates and he seemed happy with the recommendation at the time.

A side note: this first pirate book reappeared in the returns trolley soaking wet!

Another time, late in Term 1, I accompanied a parent and his son as they wandered through the shelves. Eventually, we came to the Minecraft-themed graphic novels. I knew this boy liked Minecraft, so I recommended this title, and even the parent’s eyes lit up!

Many classroom teachers do not have much knowledge of children’s literature (Cremin, Mottram, Bearne & Goodwin, 2008, p. 458). This is reflected in conversations with teachers at my school. I’ve learnt that they remember books they read when they were a kid, but aren’t as knowledgeable about today’s popular titles. As such, teachers need more support in matching books to their students (Cremin et al., 2008, p. 459). The TL can provide this support by making recommendations to teachers during planning, or during class visits to the library. I’ve been filming a weekly video providing a glimpse into all the new books that are coming out at the library. While aimed at students, this is also handy for teachers as it gives them an idea of what is popular and what they might like to read.

BUT, the TL shouldn’t be doing all the work! According to Akins, Tichenor, Heins, and Piechura (2018, p. 66), teachers who read children’s books themselves will be more able to support their students’ reading journey. Recommendations and summaries from the TL might not be enough! The TL must encourage teachers to actually read books suitable for their students’ range of abilities. Perhaps, the TL could run a competition between the teachers? The teacher who reads the most children’s books within a category wins a prize … or something similar.

References

Akins, M., Tichenor, M., Heins, E., & Piechura, K. (2018). Teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature: What genres do teachers read? Reading Improvement, 55(2), 63-66. Retrieved from http://www.projectinnovation.com/reading-improvement.html

Cremin, T., Mottram, M., Bearne, E., & Goodwin, P. (2008). Exploring teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature. Cambridge Journal of Education, 38(4), 449-464. doi:10.1080/03057640802482363