reading

Reading is more than just an escape (Assessment 2 – Part 2)

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Why read?

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At the beginning of this subject we were asked to consider this question and Shelley (2021, November) summed up my thinking in a comprehensive list. I currently work as an English teacher in the secondary system and we have spent the past four years building an independent program called ‘Read, Think, Succeed’. We have taken students to Readings Bookshop to choose books for purchase, created student reading ambassador roles, and successfully argued for a weekly 70 minute session for every English class from years 7-10 to participate in a literacy lesson that has discussion at its centre. I am confident that we have researched and are imparting the message that reading is everything BUT… it is everything in the context of English.

 

What’s next?

In my blog post The bright future of children’s literature (Kempinger, 2020, November 22), I identified several areas of interest, but there are two that I feel inform my next steps after completing this subject. These are critical thinking through and visual literacy.

With English teachers on the right track, my focus as a teacher librarian is across other curriculum areas. Throughout this subject my work has revolved around the humanities and this has shown me the enormous potential of using fiction to bring another layer of meaning and understanding to students’ comprehension of the (often quite difficult to image) world beyond their personal experiences.

Critical thinking

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We want students to be able to take information and apply their knowledge and experience to think critically about the information that is presented. Are they ready and able to do this without support? In my experience, rarely. Fisher & Frey (2018) identify the value of discussion between students as a way to deepen understanding. My intention this year is to collaborate with humanities teachers to understand the topics that bring with them the challenge of empathy (such as the ANZAC experience) and provide selected fiction texts in varying formats that can be used in the classroom to develop this. Without the empathy, the critical thinking will be unlikely.

Visual literacy

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Complex images surround us in the form of advertising, commentary, comedy and story-telling. If we are to understand the nuance and/or multiple meanings presented in visuals, we need to be able to interpret them. Jaffe & Hurwich (2019) explain that students needs to be able to “read’ an image before they can think critically about the message being imparted.

Although graphic novels and picture books do form part of our current library collection, more care needs to be taken when selecting these titles so that there are opportunities within them for unpacking meaning, discussion and critical thinking.

Multi-literacies

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This idea is multi-faceted. On one hand I want to bring more variety into the library and on the other hand I want students to have more opportunity to show their learning in a variety of ways (including those in the resource kit that I created).

In the discussions for module 5, I talked about the use of podcasts to engage students (Kempinger, 2022, January). This is an area that I will continue to explore to see what is available, of good quality, and listened to by students already, and how they can be best promoted.

References

Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2018). Raising reading volume through access, choice, discussion and book talks. The Reading Teacher, 72(1).

Jaffe, M. & Hurwich, T. (2019). Worth a thousand words: using graphic novels to teach visual and verbal literacy. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Kempinger, N. (2022, January 9). Podcasts [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/

Shelley, S. (2021, November 20). RE: 1.1b: Why read? [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/

The bright future of children’s literature

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What do we want? Young people who are passionate and independent readers!

When do we want it? Always and forever!

How can we achieve it?

STUDENT VOICE

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A conversation must exist between the students and those who are providing books (in this case I’m referring to the school library). Opportunities to try not only a range of genres but a range of formats allows students to develop preferences. When this is coupled with an honest and open dialogue about the different formats, libraries can make informed choices about what students will access and respond to positively.

DIVERSITY

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Although there continues to be a lack of diversity in children’s books, there is an increasing push for books that represent a wider range of cultures and experiences (Short, 2018). Students are unlikely to engage with books if their every experience centres on characters that do not represent their own selves.

Libraries (and educators) need to ensure that they provide contemporary titles that represent a wide range of cultures, gender identities, and abilities. This will allow all students to find a book that they can connect with and will also expose students to a world that they are perhaps not familiar with to develop empathy and inclusion.

CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH DISCUSSION

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As is highlighted in Wolf (2014), the discussion around the interpretation of texts needs to evolve to ensure that young people are developing the skills needed to unpack the added layers of visual and auditory elements to a narrative in order to fully and critically consider the author’s/illustrator’s purpose. To be able to do this, educators need to have experience with a range of text formats so that they are able to support the development of metalanguage and direct discussion to the ways in which these elements add to or alter the written word.

Young people are immersed in a visual culture with an emphasis on immediacy so the need for the ability to critically interpret and evaluate the information coming at them is vital (Duncam, 2002).

VISUAL LITERACY

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Firstly, educators and librarians need to have experience reading, interpreting and discussing a range of illustrated books, graphic novels, visual narratives, and multimodal reading experiences. Through this, they will be able to develop their own knowledge of what these different styles of story-telling bring to a tale and then work with students to help them to also understand the ways that visuals can affect a narrative.

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EDUCATORS

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I often come across educators who bemoan the way that students always seem to be one step ahead in terms of technological advancement and use this as an excuse to maintain a status quo in their practice. This is simply not good enough. It is the responsibility of educators to ensure that they are aware of the ways that students are interacting with their world so that they can support the development of skills that will allow them to successfully navigate and use these the tools available to them.

References:

Duncam, P. (2002). Visual culture art education. International Journal of Art and Design Education, 21, 15-23.

Short, K.G. (2018). What’s trending in children’s literature and why it matters. Language Arts, 95(5), 287-298.

Wolf, S.A. (2014). Children’s literature on the digital move. The Reading Teacher, 67(6), 413-417.

Experiments

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After reading chapter 7 of Developing Collections to Empower Learners by Sue C. Kimmel (2014), I started thinking about ways of bringing ebooks into my school library.

We have a BYOD program that runs reasonably successfully and many students choose to purchase textbooks in an electronic format, so I know that there are some students who prefer to access their reading materials via a screen. I have also come across many students who enjoy reading fiction online.

While introducing some form of ebook lending system would take more research and support from above, the idea of pre-loaded e-readers sparked my interest and I intend to investigate this possibility. I am particularly interested in having genre-specific e-readers that are pre-loaded with a range of titles from a range of reading levels. We have so many students who want to read within a series or genre and students are used to a ‘Netflix’ menu of possibilities, so why not try bringing the two together?

While there will be problems (it is not going to possible for the e-readers to go home with the students), I believe that the information we can potentially gather about the reading habits of our students and the likelihood of their accessing ebooks over paper makes the experiment worthwhile.

Kimmel, S. C. (2014). Developing collections to empower learners. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/detail.action?docID=1687658

Four Corners- Digi Kids

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After watching the Four Corners segment titled ‘Digi Kids’, I found myself thinking about my kids and my teaching practice.

As a secondary English teacher, I experience the difficulties of students coming to my classroom with such a range of abilities and experiences. I see a lack of phonics, grammar and punctuation knowledge, and the stress or disengagement experienced by those students who are lacking confidence in these areas. I, like the teachers in the segment, was never taught these things explicitly yet find the need to learn so that my students can achieve.

My school has shifted focus to lots of close reading and deconstruction of texts with a lens on word and sentence level teaching. We value reading and are bringing student choice to the fore.

Part of my motivation for choosing to go back to study and become qualified as a Teacher Librarian stems from my desire to provide the opportunities that students need to become passionate about reading and seeing learning as exciting and not a means to an end.

As a parent, I worry. I think most of us do. I worry about the impact my behaviors will have on my children. Food for thought and a good chance to reflect on whether or not we are in control of the technology in our lives, or if the technology is in control of us.