Reflecting on who I am and where I want to be…
Fiction is a powerful tool to enhance learning. Embedding it into lessons supports the acquisition of curriculum content and outcomes, by presenting information in engaging and readily accessible ways, but also enhances it, by further expanding student understanding of key content at the same time as embedding valuable cross-curricular concepts. Using literature as a pathway…
What is literary learning? A simple answer would be that literary learning means learning by reading literature. However, I am learning that it is not just about being exposed to literary texts, but it is the strategies that are embedded within the learning, that encourage dialogic processes and critical and creative thinking. It is the…
An integral part of the role of TL is engaging students, teachers and the broader school community to ensure fictional texts are valued and embedded into teaching and learning programs. TL’s are in a unique position to support learning within a school as they work with teachers across all learning areas, and therefore should engage…
Climate fiction is often categorised as a sub-genre of speculative fiction, which draws on the contextual fears of its composers and encapsulates the anxieties of its era, in order to transpose these issues into a possible future. Unlike typical science fiction, speculative fiction tends to focus on the human condition and response to this new…
It is hard for me to consider how to foster a love of reading in young people who might not already do so, simply because it has always come so naturally to me! I’m coming to this degree from a secondary English teaching background, but driven primarily for my deep passion for literature. To appropriate…
I’m not sure I’d ever truly considered the complexity of developing and managing collections. Buying fiction titles? No problem, as I outlined at the beginning of semester (Montgomery, 2021, March 9). Developing a modern and relevant non-fiction section? I knew I could do it. Naively, I didn’t consider how I could develop a collection to…
The role of the Teacher-Librarian (TL) is constantly evolving, as does my understanding of it. At the start of the semester, I thought the Library was predominantly about books, not realising that the increasing digital world and the projected future needs of our students means TLs need to revolutionise their practice in order to meet…
As someone who has utilised project-based learning extensively in my English classes, I am surprised by how inspiring I have found the idea of Guided Inquiry. I was thrilled to discover that my Library had a copy of ‘Guided Inquiry Design: A Framework for Inquiry in Your School’ by the amazing Kuhlthau, Maniotes and Caspari,…
Undoubtedly, the information landscape has changed significantly in recent years, leading to the proliferation and saturation of information that can be confusing and overwhelming to all but the most discerning and literate of consumers. The last few decades have recognised the essential need for multiliteracies and digital literacies as our previous understanding of literacy failed…
The Australian Curriculum’s cross-curriculum priorities have been designed to allow learners to engage with contemporary issues, which not only benefits each individual learner but the community and society as a whole. They allow regular curriculum content across key learning areas to be enriched, allowing students to think deeply and critically about the priority areas and…