Just when I get comfortable and think I am being an effective teacher librarian (TL), I commence a new subject. New learning comes and the ‘to do’ list grows again! ETL402 has enabled me to delve deeper into new aspects of a TLs role. My two biggest take-aways are:
- Understanding the concept and application of literacy learning and the TLs role to work with teachers to embed the use of literature and literature response strategies into the curriculum.
- An awareness of enhanced digital storytelling resources.
I have not been ensuring literacy learning is taking place in the classroom. I get excited sharing titles with staff that link to their curriculum topics. Then I hand the resources on in the hope that they are well used (and sometimes they are!) I believe a lot of classroom practice in a primary school focusses on learning to read rather than reading to learn. My future practice will involve working with teachers to apply literacy learning into classrooms to ensure that literature is being used to learn in all curriculum subjects.
The other new learning is around enhanced digital storytelling resources. O’Connell, Bales & Mitchell (2015) identify three types of enhanced eBooks including interactive story books, hypertext books and transmedia books and I reflected on these in Digital Literature: it is not just eBooks (Mounsey, 2020d). Rowberry (2018) discusses how 21st century citizens rely on decoding and analysis skills to utilise different formats of literature, including digital. TLs and teachers need to ensure students have strategies for navigating and analysing hypertext and multimodal literature.
What else have I reflected on in this subject?. Here are some important posts where I have been provided with research to back up some existing knowledge.
- Schools should provide time for reading for pleasure with self-selected texts. This has been found to have a positive impact on children’s academic performance and many schools have created effective initiatives to implement this (Allington, 2014; OEC 2011; Stower & Waring, 2018). I reflected on this in Why reading is important (Mounsey, 2020i) and discussed this in the module 1 discussion forum (Mounsey,2020f).
- Templeton’s (2020) blog on Literacy learning discussed how standardised testing has no proven benefit to improving literacy outcomes and I replied in the module 5 discussion forum (Mounsey, 2020g) where I reflected on my own experience of this.
- Module 3.3 posed the question, if libraries didn’t exist would we build them today? YES! Libraries have had to reinvent themselves in the 21st century to embrace massive technological change. In my post, Connecting with Stories and Copyright Implications (Mounsey,2020c), I discussed how library closures due to COVID-19 have provided opportunities for libraries to evolve again.
- I explored trends (Mounsey, 2020b) in children’s literature including the growth in literary non-fiction (Mounsey, 2020e, 6-7) and how these texts are excellent tools for literacy learning. Analysing trends also involved looking at diversity (Mounsey, 2020h) and censorship (Mounsey,2020a) in children’s literature.
So, that is a lot of reflecting! Literature has always played a vital role in education. This subject has helped open my eyes to the possibilities of how literature can be used across the curriculum to help students develop 21st century learning skills. So now I better get to it…time to embed literacy learning into the curriculum!
References
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/
Mounsey, S. (2020a, May 16) Censorship and developing a library collection. [Blog post]. Retrieved https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/paws/2020/05/16/censorship-and-developing-a-library-collection/
Mounsey, S. (2020b, March 8) Children’s Literature: past, present and future. [Blog post]. Retrieved https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/paws/2020/03/08/childrens-literature-past-present-and-future/
Mounsey, S. (2020c, March 29) Connecting with stories and copyright implications during COVID-19. [Blog post]. Retrieved https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/paws/2020/03/29/connecting-with-stories-and-copyright-implications-during-covid-19/
Mounsey, S. (2020d, May 23) Digital literature: it is not just eBooks. [Blog post]. Retrieved https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/paws/2020/05/23/digital-literature-it-is-not-just-ebooks/
Mounsey, S. (2020e, April 19) The Dulwich Information Book Award. [Blog post]. Retrieved https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/paws/2020/04/19/the-dulwich-information-book-award-dibas/
Mounsey, S. (2020f) Module 3.1 Read like a girl. ETL402 Discussion Forum. CSU. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_44234_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_88815_1&forum_id=_181937_1&message_id=_2840459_1
Mounsey, S. (2020g) Module 5: Blog entry for literacy learning. ETL402 Discussion Forum. CSU. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_44234_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_88815_1&forum_id=_181939_1&message_id=_2913314_1
Mounsey, S. (2020h, March 16) Thinking about diversity: shortlisting titles for the red dot book award. [Blog post]. Retrieved https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/paws/2020/03/16/thinking-about-diversity-shortlisting-titles-for-the-red-dot-book-award/
Mounsey, S. (2020i, March 15) Why reading is important. [Blog post]. Retrieved https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/paws/2020/03/15/why-reading-is-important/
O’Connell, J., Bales, J., & Mitchell, P. (2015). [R]Evolution in reading cultures: 2020 vision for school libraries. The Australian Library Journal, 64(3), 194-208. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2015.1048043
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2011, September 18). Do students today read for pleasure? PISA in Focus, 8. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisainfocus/48624701.pdf
Rowberry, S. P. (2018). Continuous, not discrete: The mutual influence of digital and physical literature. Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies, 26(2), 319-332. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856518755049
Stower, H., & Waring, P. (2018, July 16). Read like a girl: Establishing a vibrant community of passionate readers. Alliance of Girls Schools Australia. Retrieved from https://www.agsa.org.au/news/read-like-a-girl-establishing-a-vibrant-community-of-passionate-readers/
Templeton, T. (2020, May 7) Literacy learning. [Blog post]. Retrieved https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/trish/2020/05/07/literary-learning/
This month I have been reading about literature in the digital environment and it has got me rather motivated about some possibilities I have not explored before. I had some very excited “ah-ha” moments of a new direction our library can take in searching for and curating digital resources for our staff and students. Whilst our school campus is closed due to COVID-19 my team have been using it as an opportunity to promote many of the digital resources that we subscribe to including fiction (BorrowBox, Tumblebooks and EPIC!) and non-fiction (Pebble Go, Britannica and Press Reader, as well as a number of databases for the Senior school students). This has gone really well with statistics for all of our digital resources increasing. I wrote more about my findings with digital books in this post and the argument about print v’s digital rages on. We had Wheelers eBooks for two years and changed to BorrowBox one year ago because we wanted to have excellent audiobooks as well. The audiobooks have been popular and are a great resource for reluctant readers and students with additional learning needs. We need to do a lot of advocacy to ensure they are used but this results in increased use. However, it is the digital resources that go beyond just an eBook or audiobook which are my new discoveries and will research more in the months to come.
O’Connell, Bales & Mitchell (2015) describe enhanced eBooks which include;
- Interactive storybooks which have a linear story structure and have features such as oral reading, videos and possibly games and related activities.
- Hypertext and interactive eBooks which can be fiction or nonfiction and may include images, maps, audio and video elements and links to related websites. This eliterature collection includes some examples.
- Transmedia books which are non linear stories that encourage active participation through connected resources. One incredible book which uses augmented reality is Between Two Worlds.
Yokota &Teal (2014) discuss this recent trend of digital stories having the capability to be interactive story telling experiences that are film-like creations. All of these resources can use sound, images and animation to enhance a story and these elements bring an added atmospheric element than a traditional book format. I feel like I have just discovered the tip of the iceberg and know that weeding through to find the quality resources will take time. In my library our OPAC is Destiny and Destiny Discover has the capability to create collections of suggested resource lists. My goal now is to add some quality examples into our collections and then promote them to our patrons.
As well as the two examples I have linked above I will round up with a few good examples of resources that I have found and will add more as I discover them. Many of these resources are for older students.
References
Adam Savage’s Tested. (2016, October 26). Between worlds: Augmented reality in storytelling [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/YO1E7DBuqtc
O’Connell, J., Bales, J., & Mitchell, P. (2015). [R]Evolution in reading cultures: 2020 vision for school libraries. The Australian Library Journal, 64(3), 194-208. doi: 10.1080/00049670.2015.1048043
SBS Online. (2015, April 29). The Boat [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.sbs.com.au/theboat/
Yokota, J, & Teal, W.H. (2014). Picture books and the digital world; educators making informed choices (67). Retrieved from The Inside Track website: https://ila-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/full/10.1002/trtr.1262
Censorship is something every librarian has to be aware of when developing their collection and I wrote about this and about our challenged materials policy in my post Developing a Library Collection. The Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science (as cited in Givens, 2009, p. 22) defines censorship as the “prohibition of the productions, distribution, circulation, or display of a work by a governing authority on grounds that it contains objectionable or dangerous material.” There are a wide spectrum of beliefs and practices regarding censorship in libraries but there are also many policies in place to prevent censorship in libraries. Often censorship comes from the position of wanting to protect children but intellectual freedom should always be considered.
According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) of the American Library Association (2002), “in general, there are four basic motivational factors that may lie behind a censor’s actions.” These are family values, religion, political views, and minority rights. In module 3.4 we were asked how our various roles based on age, family, back ground, societal position, religious beliefs influenced our stance in censorship of children’s literature. I think it is fair to say that for most people all of these life experiences play a massive role in our beliefs and how we translate those beliefs into the library collections we manage. However it is important that decisions are not made on personal opinions but on library policy. The Australian School Library Association’s (ASLA) Policy Statement – School Library Bill of Rights (2018) states that “School libraries are concerned with generating understanding of freedom and with the preservation of this freedom through the development of informed and responsible citizens.”
One of my author heroes and someone who has constantly challenged censorship, Judy Blume, said “I’ve always said censorship is caused by fear” (Baker, 2015). I would agree but I would also add that it can come for a place of ignorance and life experience. I have had some interesting experiences in my current school with regards to challenged materials where a parent or staff member has raised an objection. Each time has been a learning experience to all but after the first experience it highlighted to me how prepared I needed to be for opposition. It also taught me the importance of how important it was that I made the leadership teams in school aware of our challenged materials policy and our collection development policy so that they could not make knee jerk reactions to ask for materials to be removed. It has also highlighted to me how the country you live in and their laws and politics can make challenging censorship and welcoming open minded views difficult. In my context the conservative views and Singapore’s laws on homosexuality have certainly been a barrier to this.
Librarians are tasked with the job of of being an advocate of freedom of speech and in module two we looked at diversity in children’s literature and I blogged about that here. Diversity includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) literature which can often be considered a sub genre of realistic fiction. There are so many quality titles with LQBTQ themes. I was very pleased to discover the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table (GLBTRT) which is a group in the American Library Association and they have a useful toolkit of resources to help librarians faced with challenges to LGBTQ materials in their libraries
The picture book, And Tango makes three (Parnell & Richardson, 2005) is based on the true story of two male penguins in New York City’s Central Park Zoo who adopted an abandoned penguin egg and raised Tango after he hatched. This story was removed and pulped from the National Libraries of Singapore and has been included on Banned Book Lists and censored in US libraries for years. Magnuson (2011) studied the challenges of this book in Perceptions of the Self and “Other:” An Analysis to the Challenges to And Tango Makes Three. As interesting reflection is that all of the conversations and controversy that surrounded these decisions resulted in a lot of publicity, both positive and negative.
Despite my open minded views, the reading this week made me think how much we do censor to a degree in my library and how some censorship is arguably appropriate. My library is for primary school aged children and we shelve, label and display books for the appropriateness of the population we are working with. We have a restricted borrowing section which includes books on puberty, safe touch and reproduction and also labelling on books that could be scary or confronting for some children. We also have reminders set in our catalogue of books that may not be appropriate for younger children and will talk to them, their teachers or parents before allowing them to borrow.
In a secondary school or adult library there are different implications. Our secondary school library enjoys promoting Banned Book Week, This is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. This is such a perfect way to entice the teenagers who are often more disengaged with reading to be enticed into interesting conversations about this very important topic.
References
American Library Association. (1996-2015). Banned books week. In Banned & challenged books. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/bbooks/
Baker, V. (2015). Battle of the bans: US author Judy Blume interviewed about trigger warnings, book bannings and children’s literature today. Retrieved from Indexoncensorship.org
Givens, C. (2009). Hidden forms of censorship and their impact. Bookbird, 47(3), 22-28. Retrieved from http://www.ibby.org/bookbird/
Magnuson, M. (2011). Perceptions of the self and “Other:” An analysis to the challenges to And Tango Makes Three. School Library Research, 14. Retrieved Oct. 2016.
Office for Intellectual Freedom (2002). Intellectual freedom manual (6th ed.). Chicago: American Library Association.