So this semester I’ve decided to undertake two units as I figured with school finishing I would have more time…hmm I may be incorrect about that, we’ll see. I’ve just submitted assessment 2 for EER500 to Turnitin, so it’s time to think some more about ETL402 Literature across the curriculum. This subject is actually an elective and one I was excited to take. Module 2 suggests we blog about children literature and what strategies I could use to learn more so here goes.

Prior to beginning this unit if I had of been asked this question I would say I had a reasonable amount but that literature stopped being for children about 12 years of age. I have now come to understand that teen and even young adult books (YA) are also considered ‘children’s’ literature. So maybe I knew less than I originally thought.

https://www.instagram.com/lavalla_library/

I love young children’s picture fiction, the imagery they allow a child to be immersed in, is for me a wonderful thing. I used to enjoy buying copious amounts of books for my young son and reading them over and over again – he never got sick of some books and they were on high rotation.  Now as a mum to a teenager and a teacher in a secondary school, one mainly based at a senior campus, teen and YA books are my standard reading material these days.

So much so that one of my first endeavours upon starting work in the library was to discover what were the preferences of my readers and then work to increase the size of our collection and introduce cataloguing and shelving by genre. Cataloguing by genre had a number of effects on our library, increased readership, students and teachers could find books they were interested in easily and re-shelving became a lot easier for causal staff.

I decided to promote the genre system wider and started a library Instagram account which has a steady amount of followers who are interested in our new deliveries. I try to follow and then link to various other instagrammers such as Insideadog, Children’s Book Council Awards and Literacy shed to name just a few. These site proved a wealth of information on children’s literature, new and upcoming authors as well as established authors’ new books.

But now I ask myself what strategies can I use to improve my knowledge? I guess what I need is a broader overview. Not just what the students already like to read, but books they may not be familiar with that provide then with context to help them in their studies. I need to find time to read more myself and attend professional development seminars online to increase my knowledge. Paying more attention to local sites like the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) and attend my local School Library Association (SLAV) meetings. Study makes these things tricky but to increase my knowledge I will have to make time.