I began this subject feeling quite tentative about my ability to participate as I am not currently teaching and I am on maternity leave. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by my ability to positively participate as the modules are extremely informative and the case studies and forums are presented in such a great way which enables one to not only contribute one’s own knowledge but to learn also. I have really enjoyed reading through the case study responses as I feel I have learnt so much already and I really love reading different approaches to situations from different participants.
Case study one outlined the week of an extremely busy Director of Information Services and the task was to determine how to make her week less stressful yet still remain productive. Immediately, I believed the best way to do this was to consider her external and internal demands and collaborate with others to determine what should stay and go. I also believed that delegation would have been an effective tool but I did not go into detail about this in this forum.
It was really interesting looking at others’ responses. I particularly enjoyed reading the comments on power and control, they were quite similar as most contributors wrote that it seemed strange to have such a large team yet not utilise all of them adequately. Obviously, delegation is key to overcoming this and trusting others. Within the comments on ‘control’ it was really interesting to read about peoples’ knowledge of using Google Docs to share information, Katrina Dawson (July 17, 2020) also spoke about One Note which I have not used before but this sounded like a fantastic tool also which would be very useful throughout this scenario.
Through reading a significant amount on delegation in these posts I decided to look into a journal article about this topic myself. I found one about distributed leadership theory which was quite interesting. One point that stood out to me significantly was that an individual’s ability to achieve something is far outweighed when a group brings together their ideas and strengths in order to work achieve the same outcome (Johnston, 2015, p. 39). This is exactly what many participants in the case study one forum were outlining also.
References
Dawson, K. (2020, July 17). Case study 1, module 1, thread: Control. [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au
Johnston, M.P. Distributed leadership theory for investigating teacher librarian leadership. School Libraries Worldwide, 21(2), 39-58.
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=a750c93a-9292-4112-a82a-1fa48e0aa45d%40sdc-v-sessmgr01
The amount I have learnt throughout this subject has simply amazed me. As a classroom teacher, it has been a great insight into the many roles of teacher librarians. Teacher librarians are helping lead learning and knowledge in interactive environments and there are great opportunities for them to assist students with learning how to use different types of media and working in virtual environments (O’Connell, 2012, p. 1). This, linked with working collaboratively alongside classroom teachers can only lead to positive outcomes for students.
I thoroughly enjoyed researching the literature response strategies, particularly as both that I wanted to use and learn more about involved technology. Each subject I complete throughout this course, further emphasises for me the importance of staying abreast of ways to implement learning using technology. A blog post I wrote (Catherall, May 10, 2020) about applications supporting literary learning aligns with the above statement as technology can provide information and a means of communication between students, teachers and parents in a conducive way which also contributes to literary learning. People who visit libraries in the future will have expectations of librarians to up to date with technology and ways this information can be disseminated and used (Krotoski, 2010, p. 633).
This subject has also reminded me of the importance to find ‘quality’ literature to use with students. When reflecting upon an earlier blog post (Catherall, May 21, 2020) I made during this subject, it is evident that I was aware of resources teacher librarians could go to such as Magpies, however the knowledge of these were very basic and it was not until I began the assessment tasks that I gained deeper understandings of their benefits for literary learning. For example, Magpies has a section where the genre of books can be seen so when collecting resources for classes or teachers, this is very beneficial to help teachers understand what genres they have and to find resources of different genres if they haven’t selected enough variation in their texts to promote quality literary learning.
Genres and formats is another area I have thoroughly enjoyed looking into more deeply which can be seen on my blog (Catherall, April 17, 2020). I have discovered a new love of picture books for older children and realised I had not emphasised visual literacy enough with my students. I thoroughly look forward to getting back into the classroom to discuss and explore colours, textures, sizing and placement of text. Assessment two was an excellent reminder of the literary benefits of choosing a varying range of formats and genres that link into all curriculum areas as it makes the literary learning much deeper and this knowledge can then be transferred into other areas of learning. A good library has resources that are of a high quality (Mallett, 2010, p. 373), a range of formats and genres should be included in this, which then hopefully encourages students to read more and learn more.
This subject has undoubtedly influenced my future practice. The deeper understandings that I now have, have provided me with richer information to be a better teacher, to ensure the library is resourced extremely well with a wide variety of books, implementation of technology programs to further students’ understandings and importantly collaboration between teachers as this will lead to greater outcomes for students.
References
Catherall, E. Strategies to increase professional knowledge of children’s literature. (March 21,
2020). [Emma’s Learning Journal- Blog]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/emmasonlinelearningjournal/2020/03/21/strategies-to-increase-professional-knowledge-of-childrens-literature/
Catherall, E. Reflection on assessment one. (April 17, 2020). [Emma’s Learning Journal-
Blog]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/emmasonlinelearningjournal/2020/04/17/reflection-on-assessment-one/
Catherall, E. Seesaw as an application to support literary learning. (May 10, 2020). [Emma’s
Learning Journal-Blog]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/emmasonlinelearningjournal/2020/05/10/seesaw-as-an-application-to-support-literary-learning/
Krotoski, A. (2010). Technology: Libraries of the future. Nature, 468(7324), p. 633.
doi: 10.1038/468633a
Mallett, M. (2010). Choosing and using fiction and non-fiction. 3-11 a comprehensive guide
for teachers and student teachers. Retrieved from Proquest Ebook Central
O’Connell, J. (2012). Teacher librarians stepping into the third place. Incite, 33(10).
Retrieved from https://search-informit-com-au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/fullText;dn=803275632680351;res=IELHSS
Teacher librarians are in a position to provide students with opportunities to work across different platforms in order to help them learn and communicate in schools and the world. The idea of being ‘transliterate’ is a term I believe we will continue to hear more and more about and as information providers it is important that teacher librarians have a strong understanding of this. We can work collaboratively with classroom teachers to ensure students are exposed to this and have an understanding of how a range of different platforms work.
Seesaw is an app which definitely helps with literary learning. This app allows staff to upload information which could be a video, text, spoken language or a picture and a task can be allocated to this. Students are able to respond in a range of ways which includes typing, writing on the screen, speaking, taking a video and uploading this and taking a photo and uploading this with a written or spoken description. Staff and students are able to respond with a comment and record a message. This app provides so many different ways that students can receive information and present this as well which is what is so great about it. It is great for collaboration between teaching staff and library staff as library staff can access teachers’ pages and classes to assist them with their students’ learning.
The learnings I took away from the first assessment task have been extremely beneficial, not only as a future teacher librarian but as a current teacher.
I have always loved picture books and for this assessment I decided to focus on picture books for older children. I am amazed by how much I learnt and I am excited to share this with colleagues of mine. I am surprised that I was not aware of some of the features of picture books as I don’t think I had thought enough about the textures, colours and sizing of pictures and placement of text enough. I was always aware of these but had never explicitly discussed these with my students and I believe I should have invested more of my own time in learning about visual comprehension.
I strongly believe that features of picture books is an area which should be explicitly taught in all year levels and as a result I believe there will be such great improvements across the entire curriculum. Firstly, children will be more engaged with reading, secondly children will have greater literacy and problem solving skills and thirdly children will have the ability to make inferences regarding the text and textual features.
What a fabulous assessment piece that will make me a better teacher and hopefully inspire children further with their reading.
“Read like a girl: Establishing a vibrant community of passionate readers” (Stower & Waring, 2018) was such an inspiring article to read. The impact these teacher librarians had on girls in schools to encourage reading for pleasure was simply phenomenal. To read that the amount of books borrowed in the schools actually tripled over an eighteen month period as a result of this is evidence that encouraging literature for pleasure amongst these girls was effective.
The way in which they exposed girls to different authors and books immediately assisted these girls with exploring different genres to help gain their interest. There were a range of events conducted at the two schools when this began, including: book launches, a book night with fathers or a significant male, International Women’s Day breakfast and writing workshops to name a few.
These events and strategies immediately give students access to a range of books which encourages reading which also expands on what they are reading as well as the amount, assisting with fluency (Allington, 2014, p.15). Further reading went on to discuss that motivation for reading comes as a result of purely enjoying it (Guthrie, Klauda, & Ho, 2013, p.10) which compliments the sentiments of having access to literature and a wide variety of it so that students can find different genres that appeal to them. If children are reading voluntarily and enjoying it shows their scores on comprehension tests increase (Howard, 2011, p. 47) which is fabulous that their understandings of texts are clearly improving by simply increasing the amount they read.
In our library, I would love to increase the events held with family members. I believe that involving the students’ families would be a great benefit as all families would be gaining the same positive experiences at school and hopefully be able to take these back to their homes. Therefore, one would hope that there would be more discussions around literature in the home which would hopefully lead to further reading for pleasure which consequently assists these students in all facets of their life and learning in the future.
Reference List
Allington, R. L. (2014). How reading volume affects both reading fluency and reading achievement. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 7(1), 13-26. Retrieved from https://www.iejee.com/
Guthrie, J. Klauda, S. & Ho, A. (2013). Modeling the relationships among reading instruction, motivation, engagement, and achievement for adolescents. Reading Research Quarterly, 48(1), 9-26. doi: 10.1002/rrq.035
Howard, V. (2011). The importance of pleasure reading in the lives of young teens: Self-identification, self-construction and self-awareness. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 43(1), 46-55. doi: 10.1177/0961000610390992
Stower, H. & Waring, P. (2018, July 16). Read like a girl: Establishing a vibrant community of passionate readers. In Alliance of Girls Schools Australia. Retrieved from https://www.agsa.org.au/news/read-like-a-girl-establishing-a-vibrant-community-of-passionate-readers/
It is vital that Teacher Librarians are abreast of new literature being published. They need to purchase these and promote them to students so that students can extend themselves in what they are reading. Teacher librarians need to be aware of resources to support them in finding a range of different books and genres to assist them with purchasing such as: Magpies the source, Goodreads, subscriptions to publishing companies, blogs and subscriptions to educational magazines.
As I continue to learn more throughout this subject, I hope to add further resources to this list.
Further Resources Discovered:
The children’s book council of Australia website is a must for teacher librarians. I am surprised with myself for forgetting to add this in earlier as it is extremely informative and such a useful resource when looking to increase knowledge in relation to children’s literature.
I believe that children’s literature is definitely in a good place and will continue to be popular. Harvey’s article showed that print books are still popular, as are books linked to media sources and personalised books (Harvey, 2015). It is quite positive to see that print is still a popular choice for children and for parents who purchase these books. However, this article did not discuss the number of patrons who frequent libraries or who buy other types of books.
I believe it is important that ‘parents’ are aware of the benefits of lifelong reading from the moment their children are born. The sooner parents from all backgrounds are empowered with this knowledge, the sooner they will hopefully begin healthy habits around reading with their children. It is also the responsibility of the government to provide programs for parents who may not understand the benefits of reading so that they can go on a journey with their children into the world of reading.
I believe that it is so important for children to ‘just read’. It does not matter what they are reading, as long as they can find something they love and embrace it. Over time, they will eventually find other genres they enjoy, however it is so important for children just to make a start. Therefore, I believe that it is the responsibility of firstly parents to encourage their children for find a passion for reading.
Teacher librarians must continue to work in schools to promote reading. It is vital that students have the opportunity to work and talk with a teacher librarian to pursue their interests of books and help them find books they love so that it is not a chore but something they really enjoy. Librarians in public libraries are also needed to continue the excellent programs they have for children and parents.
References
Harvey, E. (2015, December 8). Five trends affecting children’s literature. In Book Business.
From looking at the American Library Association’s, workbook for selection policy writing, it became evident very quickly how important a selection policy is not only for just now but also for the future. If there is not a policy in place, “haphazard patterns of acquisition will result in waste because some—perhaps many—materials will overlap in content, or will be unrelated to changing patterns of instruction,” (workbook for selection policy writing, 2017, para. 1) can occur.
According to the American Library Association, the main components which should be covered include: Objectives, responsibility for selection, criteria, procedures, policies on controversial materials and a range of procedures considered necessary for the reconsideration of resources (American Library Association, 2017). However, this is only one of many different ideas as to what should go into a collection development policy.
It is clear from this document that policy writing is not only important for a library’s current collection but it is also important for the future proofing a collection to ensure that the best possible resources can be found in this collection. This can be particularly evident with digital pieces as Shankar states, “digital curation should involve both current and future use of digital data. It’s not enough to take care of research data for today’s use and users; the future users of the data (which may be those who created it, but maybe not) are an essential part of the digital curation value proposition (2016, p.55).” Shankar goes on further to say that as a result of effective digital curation, people all over the world now have the opportunity to access this (2016, p. 55).
American Library Association. (2017). Workbook for selection policy writing. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=dealing&Template-/ContenManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=11173
Shankar, K. (2016). Future proofing the digital society: An introduction to digital curation and data practices. ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, 46 (1). Retrieved from https://dl-acm-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au
From looking at Barbara Braxton’s sample collection policy (May, 2016), she clearly outlines the reasons for needing a clear purpose, audience and usefulness.
Purpose- It is clear that the purpose of the collection is what underpins the entire document and is the reason behind decisions being made (Braxton, B., May 2016,) which is why this needs to be clearly stated and quite thorough.
Audience- It is vital that that there is a clear understanding of who the users of this document are so that their needs can be addressed. In the case of Barbara Braxton’s policy the users are teachers and the public in a primary school aged setting where English is the second language for many students who have internet access at home which also enables them to access online resources as well as texts (Braxton, B, May, 2016).
Usefulness- This document is extremely thorough as it covers such a wide range of areas which immediately displays the usefulness of this document, particularly for teacher librarians who are coming into the school at a later date so that they immediately understand the direction of the collection policy and where they need to be focusing.
Braxton, B. (May, 2016). Sample collection policy, collection development [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://500hats.edublogs.org/policies/sample-collection-policy/