Archive of ‘ETL402 Literature Across the Curriculum’ category
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.
A book award that I am very proud of is The Dulwich Information Book Award (DIBAS) that was created in 2016 by the library staff from the various International Dulwich Colleges. The idea came about at a conference we hosted at Dulwich College (Singapore) when one of our teacher librarians, Patricia Chandler, suggested we create a book award across the College network. Many of us had been involved in book awards that focussed mostly on fiction, including the Red Dot Book Awards and we decided to focus this award on information books. The ongoing aim is to highlight good quality non-fiction books in both English and Mandarin and promote them across our schools. The intention of the award is to encourage a wider reading of non-fiction and provide a focus for critical evaluation of content and design. In 2017 we launched our first selection and we are currently in the process of shortlisting for our fourth year. The DIBAS has been very popular with students and staff at Dulwich College (Singapore) and has kept the library staff busy in looking for excellent examples of non-fiction. The result of this has been a high interest in these titles by students and teachers and a focus of teaching and learning about the different types of non-fiction. At the end of the article, I have included all shortlisted and winning titles
Dulwich Information Book Award Information
- The award runs across 3 age ranges (DUCKS 2-7 years, Junior 7-11 years and Senior 12-18 years)
- Mandarin and English books can be selected
- Non-fiction to tie-in with National-Non-fiction November
- 6 titles maximum shortlisted in each age range
Criteria for choosing books
- Must be able to view prior to (from libraries, bookshops and so on) or we will need to ask a recommender to submit a book
- Excludes textbooks
- Aesthetics (including design, style, and integration of text and graphics in the book)
- Accurate and up-to-date
- Age-appropriate
- Appropriate for Second Language
- Available from our suppliers
- ISBN and authenticity verified
- Published in the last 3 years
- Nominations not accepted from publishers
Book Award Timeline
- Appeal for longlist to DCI teachers/staff/librarians/students/parents – nominations requested in April
- Shortlisting early May by teacher librarians, students and teachers in all participating Colleges
- Introduction of books and related activities from mid-September
- Students and staff vote and results announced across the Dulwich network in Non-Fiction November
- Authors notified if their book wins
Our longlist for the 2020 award is here and we welcome additions. This will close at the end of April.
Shortlists from Previous Years
Behind the Books: The Non-fiction Family Tree
Melissa Stewart, an award-winning author of more than 180 non-fiction books for children, has developed a Non-fiction Family Tree in an effort to understand the various kinds of non- fiction and the interplay among them. We use these categories to choose a diverse range of information books. From my point of view as the Junior School (year 3-6) teacher librarian I also use this with my year 5’s and 6’s when I teach them about the different kinds of non-fiction. Also, when shortlisting we try to include a diverse range of topics and select information books from a variety of topics. I often include teaching about the Dewey Decimal Number for the book and then highlight similar titles from that area of Dewey. For example last year I was very keen to include an art book and worked closely with the art teacher to add a selection of art books to the long list.
My personal experience and reflections
Gill (2009) discusses that no other genre of children’s literature has changed as radically in recent years as nonfiction and McNeill (2015) shares an interesting article about the trends in non-fiction for young readers here. What I have enjoyed most in the shortlisting process is enjoying the incredible non-fiction titles that are published today, which are very different to traditional non-fiction books where each title had a similar format. They usually had a contents page, index and glossary and each page would include a subheading, text boxes, photographs and chunks of facts. Whilst these books are still very useful the design of a lot of current non-fiction is very different and can include contemporary illustration and design. There are many titles now that appear to cross over between fiction and non-fiction and are produced to look more like a picture book, even if they include real stories or facts. Morris (2013) discusses these ‘hybrid’ books and poses the question, where should they be located in a library? In my library, we have recently genrefied our picture book area and two of the included genres are narrative non-fiction and information picture books.
My recent reading for ETL402 has included reading about literary non-fiction which can also be called creative non-fiction, faction or narrative non-fiction. This format of non-fiction uses literacy techniques usually associated with fiction to report on people, places and events and often includes biographies. Damaso (2011) includes more explanation here. The increase in narrative nonfiction and the popularity of this genre has been huge in my library. In fact, for the first two years the winners in the Junior School were narrative non-fiction titles. These stories are also excellent resources for embedding literacy learning into the curriculum.
And the Winners are…
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2017 Winners
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2018 Early Years
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2018 Senior School
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2017 Junior School
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2018 Junior School
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2019 Junior School
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2019 Early Years
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2019 Senior School
My Top 5 for Junior School students (7-11 year olds)
Other non- fiction book awards
References
Damaso, J. (2011). Elements of creative nonfiction [Slideshare]. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/damaso2/elements-of-creative-non-fiction
Gill, S. R. (2009). What Teachers Need to Know About the “New” Nonfiction. Reading Teacher, 63(4), 260–267. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1598/RT.63.4.1
McNeill, S. (2015, October). Moment of truth: Trends in nonfiction for young readers. Retrieved from http://authornews.penguinrandomhouse.com/moment-of-truth-trends-in-nonfiction-for-young-readers/
Morris, R. J. (2013). Linking learning and literary nonfiction. School Library Monthly, 29(7), 39-40. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/1492222115?accountid=10344
Stewart, M. (2007, December 13). The 5 kinds of nonfiction [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2017/12/ behind-books-nonfiction-family-tree.html
All over the world people are being affected and challenged by the measures put in place by COVID-19 and this has been an interesting time for me as a parent, teacher and teacher librarian. Many students are learning from home and some parents are struggling with the balance of working from home and managing this whilst trying to manage the wellbeing of everyone in their family. The stakes are different depending on the age of the children and I truly believe that for primary aged children it will not matter if they do not complete any of the tasks set by the school if that causes stress for the family. However, of course, I am going to say that it does matter if they are not reading regularly! To me, this is a time that educators seize the opportunity of promoting reading for pleasure in different ways. This also comes with implications. For some without digital access, this is more challenging and for those with digital access there is a plethora of choices and it is hard to choose where to go. There are also the copyright implications of sharing other people’s work without permission and this seems to be an area that many people are unaware of.
I could talk for hours about the importance of regular reading and finding texts that children enjoy so that it is reading for pleasure, not just purpose. If you want to know more about that, have a look on my blog here at Why Reading is Important. Instead, I will share a selection of resources that could be useful for students reading at home. There are some very good online resources which give access to audio and eBooks. Many are offering free access whilst so many schools around the world are closed. My colleague Fiona Shea helped me to compose a list that we shared at work and we found Common Sense Media and Kate Messner’s information very useful if you want to look for even more great resources. I think the greatest challenge for many parents and educators at the moment is that there is so much available online that it is challenging to choose what resources to use! One role of a teacher librarian is to curate resources and help eliminate this problem of information overload so here is some of what I have curated.
My top 5 for free audiobooks and eBooks
| EPIC!
https://www.getepic.com/ |
EPIC! Is always free for teachers to create an educator account. They are offering a 90 day free trial for parents. Sign up at https://getepic.com/promo. Choose families and you will be asked for the promo code (3monthsfree) during the signup process. |
| Amazon Audible
https://stories.audible.com |
For as long as schools are closed, Audible are letting children everywhere instantly stream an incredible collection of stories with titles in six different languages. |
| World Stories
https://worldstories.org.uk/ |
World Stories is a free online interactive resource which hosts a library of over 150children’s stories. All of the stories feature in English as well as over 30 additional languages. |
| International Children’s Digital Library
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/ |
This library promotes tolerance and respect for diverse cultures by providing access to the best of children’s literature from around the world. |
| Gutenberg project
http://www.gutenberg.org |
Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. You will find the world’s great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. |
As well as finding eBooks and audiobooks there are so many authors who are streaming virtual storytimes. It was hard to narrow it down but here are a few of my favourites for primary school students:
My top virtual storytimes
Information for educators about recording stories and the copyright implications
There are copyright implications of sharing other people/s work without permission and this seems to be an area that many people are unaware of. It is an important connection for children to listen to their own teachers reading at this time and many educators are making recordings or virtually streaming storytime. In normal times, this would be breaching copyright law, although some argue that there is the element of fair use involved. Here is a link to all of the publishers who are giving permission rights for teachers to record themselves reading their stories. In most instances, the publishers ask the teacher to credit the publisher, author and illustrator and email them to inform them. In addition, it should be shared within a schools intranet and it should be taken down by the 30th June 2020 (when hopefully most schools around the world will be open again).
Some authors have given educators direct permission to record themselves reading their stories at this time without contacting the publisher. It is still good practice to acknowledge them and their publishers, as this is demonstrating respect for intellectual property and acknowledging their generosity. They are in essence potentially sacrificing income to do this. Here is a list my colleague, Fiona Shea, and I made of books in our primary libraries.
| YOUNGER READERS (including some lovely picture books for older readers) |
| Author |
Books in our Libraries |
| Mo Willems |
Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus, Elephant and Piggie series |
| Todd Parr |
Be who you are/ The Peace book/ The feel good book, It’s okay to make mistakes/ The goodbye book |
| Peter Reynolds |
The Dot, Going Places, I am Peace, I am Yoga, I am Human |
| Peter Brown |
Mr Tiger goes Wild, My teacher is a monster (no, I am not) |
| Karma Wilson |
Bear Snores On |
| David Litchfield |
The Bear and the Piano |
| Neil Gaiman |
All of his books including Chu’s Day, Cinnamon, Crazy Hair Day |
| James Mayhew |
All of Katie series, Boy, Bubble and Squeak and all other titles |
| Teresa Heapy |
Very Little Red Riding Hood |
| OLDER READERS |
| J.K. Rowling |
All of her books |
| Neil Gaiman |
All of his books including Coraline and The Graveyard Book, Fortunately the Milk |
| Peter Brown |
The Wild Robot series |
| Kwame Alexander |
Booked, The Crossover, Rebound, Solo |
| Saviour Pirotta |
Classics Collection including Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, Robin Hood |
Kay Oddone, who is the Head of Libraries at The Australian Internation School (AIS) in Singapore created this useful infographic for her staff. She shared it with our teacher librarian network and I will finish this post by sharing it with her permission here.
References
Messner, K. (n.d.). Read, wonder, and learn! Favorite authors & illustrators share resources for learning anywhere – spring 2020. Retrieved March 29, 2020, from https://www.katemessner.com/read-wonder-and-learn-favorite-authors-illustrators-share-resources-for-learning-anywhere-spring-2020/?fbclid=IwAR3H2lgvfdp1wyTwG-exbXthrpt_XmubD_XerM38OgAetYMFqkx8-V1Am4Y
Oddone, K. (2020, March). Copyright principles [Infographic].
Ucciferri, F. (2020, March 27). Free online events and activities for kids at home. Retrieved March 29, 2020, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/free-online-events-activities-kids-at-home-coronavirus?j=7711684&sfmc_sub=171944700&l=2048712_HTML&u=143747070&mid=6409703&jb=1986&utm_source=covid19_freeactivities_20200323&utm_medium=email
One of the things I enjoy most about being a teacher librarian is reading widely and being recommended great reads. I particularly enjoy being involved in the selection of the books for the Red Dot Award which is organised by The International Schools Library Network Singapore. Singapore is often referred to as the little red dot because we are a tiny dot on the world map, yet here in this island country, there is remarkable cultural diversity.
There are four categories for the award:
- Early Years (ages 3–7)
- Younger Readers (ages 7–10)
- Older Readers (ages 10-14)
- Mature Readers (ages 14-adult)
Shortlisted titles from recent children’s literature are chosen by a committee of teacher-librarians with the goal of offering a range of books from around the world. We look for diversity in:
- genres selected
- formats – we try to include one graphic novel and one non-fiction book in each category
- cultures/countries represented by the characters and of the authors, illustrators AND publishers
- the genders of the protagonist
Why is this important?
Hwang & Hindman (2014, p. 46) propose that “Multicultural literature teaches children about their heritage and the pride of their past. The illustrations, gender roles, and the language of the group should be accurate to represent the culture appropriately.” For their self esteem and sense of identity, all children need to see themselves, their family and their friends reflected in some of the books they read. My previous blog post on Why reading is important I wrote about Rudine Sims Bishop’s brilliant windows and mirrors metaphor. I also shared an amazing TED Talk where Chimamanda Adichie talks about the danger of a single story where she warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. One of my favourite organisations is Room to Read who support school libraries and girls education in the developing world. They also understand the importance of readers looking in mirrors and identifying themselves in the books they read. They produce books that are written and illustrated by local talent in the countries where they work.
Diversity of gender is also so important and I wrote about this further in Children’s Literature, past, present and future. With regards to our process for longlisting and shortlisting the Red Dot books we actually create a table that indicates all of these elements of diversity and we often end up in very heated discussions over which very high quality books we have to omit. Sometimes it is because we have too many female protagonists, sometimes it is because we have too many books from the UK or US and sometimes it is because we have more than one book from that particular genre. I am involved in choosing the older and younger readers category and often realistic fiction seems to have too many good offerings. The process is quite long and lengthy, but it is one that ensures the library staff are looking out for and reading lots of different content that does not always come from mainstream publishers.
I thought I would finish this blog post by sharing some of my absolute favourite Red Dot Books from the four years I have been involved. Just last week we almost finished finalising our shortlists for the 2020-2021 selection. Go to the red dot site above to read more about what we do in our schools to promote these books and also for the new lists which should be coming soon. You may also be interested in these three other book awards created by teacher librarians in International Schools from within Asia, Panda Book Awards, Bangkok Book Awards and the Hong Kong Golden Dragon.
Favourite Red Dot Books so far:
Early Years: Room on Our Rock, The Invisible Boy, Molly and Mae and 7 ate 9
Younger Readers: The Elephant, Stories for Kids Who Dare to Be Different, The Happiness Box, Ida Always, A Boy Called Bat, The House on Silat Road and Mango and Bambang
Older Readers: Illegal, Finding Wonders, The Goldfish Boy, Secrets of Singapore, The 1000 year old boy, Posted, Front Desk, Save Me a Seat, The Thing About Jellyfish, Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus and Sachiko
It was hard to just limit to these titles and I am afraid I could not suggest for the mature readers because I am not yet mature enough to read these texts…
Hwang, S. & Hindman, J. T. (2014). Strategies for adoption children’s refugee literature in the multicultural classroom. Journal of Arts and Humanities, 3(12), 42-53. Retrieved from https://www.theartsjournal.org/index.php/site
My module readings and thinking over the last two weeks has been about something I am very passionate about, the importance of reading for pleasure. I could write numerous blogs about this topic but will start with a short summary here:
Why read for pleasure?
- Extensive research links reading for pleasure to academic success (Haven, 2007; Johnson, 2014).
- Books can be windows or mirrors. We can read about a place or character that we recognise and identify with or they can open the reader’s eyes to a whole new world and allow them to walk in someone else’s shoes. (Bishop, 1990). They help readers experience different feelings and experiences and develop empathy.
- Literature can provide readers with a temporary escape. It can help people who are feeling trapped or vulnerable to gain control and provide them with skills and knowledge (Gaiman, 2013).
- It helps develop global understandings and cultural literacy including understanding the traditions and values of different social groups (Freire, 1983).
- It helps us to live vicariously and “to enter other lives; other selves; other times; places and cultures” (Schakel & Ridl, 2017).
- It develops literacy skills and therefore will help develop Information Literacy skills, which are so important for students to ensure they can identify bias or fake news in their reading.
- It develops the imagination.
The author, Neil Gaiman (2013) spoke so succinctly about many of these topics in his lecture for the reading agency. He also talks about how there is no such thing as a bad book and how that is “snobbery and foolishness.” I thought about that again recently when I listened to Dav Pilkey (2019), the author of the Captain Underpants and Dog Man series. He spoke about the importance of graphic novels for children who have difficulty with reading. He shared how he remembers so clearly the shame of being the worst reader in the class and thanks his mother who would let him read any books with no judgement. He enjoyed picture books and comics and realised how much he liked reading. I have this conversation often with students, staff and parents when they are trying to ‘ban’ graphic novels or make children read books they do not enjoy or are not ready for. I do agree that it is important to work with students to try new challenges with reading. A big part of being an effective teacher librarian (TL) is to work with students to stretch their reading habits when they are ready.
Recently in Book Week one of my TL colleagues suggested that we share some short TED talks about reading with staff and parents. She then asked on social media in the TL community for some suggestions and she curated some very powerful ones. All of these talks elaborate on some of the reasons I have mentioned above. I will finish this blog by sharing these and suggesting you get comfortable, watch, listen and enjoy!
The first is Rebecca Bellingham (2015) talking about Why we should all be reading aloud to children even when they can read independently. This talk demonstrates the magic of reading aloud and reminds us all why reading aloud is so essential and how reading helps us make powerful connections.
The second is Jessica Wise (2012) discussing How fiction can change reality and about how reading and stories can be an escape from real life, a window into another world and talks about how popular fiction can spark dialogue and shape culture.
The third is The danger of a single story and is by novelist Chimamanda Adichie (2012) who tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice. She warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
The fourth is Lisa Bu (2013) talking about the magic of books and How books can open your mind.
References
Bishop, R. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors. Perspectives: Choosing and using books for the classroom, 6(3). Retrieved from https://scenicregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf
Bu, L. (2013, May). Lisa Bu: How books can open your mind [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_bu_how_books_can_open_your_mind?language=en
Freire, P. (1983). The importance of the act of reading. Journal of Education, 165(1), 5-11.
Gaiman, N. (2013). Why our futures depend on libraries, reading and daydreaming. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming
Haven, K. F. (2007). Story proof: The science behind the startling power of story. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Johnston, R. (2014). Literary literacies: Digital, cultural, narrative, critical and deep literacies. In G. Winch, R. Ross Johnston, P. March, L. Ljungdahl & M. Holliday (Eds.), Literacy: Reading, writing and children’s literature (5th ed., pp. 556). Retrieved from Proquest Ebook Central.
O, #8217 Donnell, Alina. (2019). WINDOWS, MIRRORS, AND SLIDING GLASS DOORS: The enduring impact of Rudine Sims Bishop’s work. Literacy Today (2411-7862), 36(6), 16–19.
Pilkey, D. (Presenter). (2019, November 18). How graphic novels help children with learning disabilities. Speech presented at Singapore Book Council, The Arts House, Singapore.
readingagency. (2013, October 22). Neil Gaiman Reading Agency lecture 2013 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/yNIUWv9_ZH0
Schakel, P. & Ridl, J. (2017). Approaching literature: Reading, thinking, writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.
TED. (2012, August 23). Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
TED-Ed. (2012, August 23). Jessica Wise: How fiction can change reality [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctaPAm14L10
TEDx. (2015, December 30). Rebecca Bellingham: Why we should all be reading aloud to children [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBuT2wdYtpM&t=2s
Four years into my masters and I am finally completing a subject about children’s literature and I am delighted. The start of ETL402- Literature Across the Curriculum has involved reading about the changes in both parenting and the experience of childhood and how children’s literature has evolved over time. We have been asked to reflect on our vision for the future of children’s literature and who will be the drivers of change. I have had a lot of thoughts regarding this and my biggest hope is that the lack of diversity in children’s books is addressed. I also hope that digital technology can continue to enhance the reading experience, without taking over from print and if the last decade is any indication, I believe that is where we are headed.
Short (2018) and Harvey (2015) talk about how there is still strong growth in the print book market, whereas other readerships have stagnated. I also reflected on this in a previous post, Digital and Print books for children where I had discussed how there used to be fear that the demand for print books for children would decrease as digital took over. The children’s book market is one area where this has not occurred and many enjoy the benefits of using both digital and print. In fact, in a recent survey I conducted in my school students indicated a preference for print but an openness to use both. There are many studies to back up this reading preference. We recently changed to a different eBook library at school, because we wanted a company that also offered audiobooks. We are now using BorrowBox and have discovered so far that students have a preference for audiobooks to eBooks.
Wolf (2014) argues that technology can enhance the world of story and gave examples of beloved books where this has been done. These included Lane Smith’s It’s a Book, Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret. She discussed how when movement, sound and interactivity enter the scene an enhanced experience can occur. There is no disputing this. In fact, in this subject module, we have been shared these incredible interactive stories, which I will be sharing with staff. My belief is that the concern should not be what content is being used by our children, but whether they have opportunities to discuss and evaluate after consuming the print or digital resource. Are their teachers, parents and friends engaging with them in meaningful literary discussions?
Short (2018) in her study into children’s literature trends expressed concern regarding trends in cultural diversity and also put the responsibility onto teachers to ensure they are “selective in the books shared in classrooms to avoid establishing and reinforcing stereotypes” (p.295). Short was very much looking through the lens of American publishing but from my experience, it is the same globally. My experience is mostly with British and Australian books and the concerns are similar. There are not enough books where the main character is not middle class and white, there are more male characters than females and there are more male authors published than females. The Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls phenomenon started a brilliant movement with creating awareness and promotion of inspiring women in books. I often share this video, The Ugly Truth in Children’s Books with parents, staff and students and it starts some fascinating conversations. In my school, this has led to us changing some of the texts that were studied in English. We reflected on how the majority of them had a male character which related to the mistaken belief that boys will not want to read about female characters, yet girls would be less discerning with regards to the gender of the protagonist. When changing some of our texts though it did prove more challenging to find some middle-grade books with strong female characters that appealed to the masses. We were also looking for cultural diversity and we were trying not to choose realistic fiction because we were already using some excellent examples of that genre. For our new Year 6 text the strong contenders were Rooftoopers by Katherine Rundell, Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi, Thief by Mallory Blackman and The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis.
The topic of cultural diversity in all literature, but particularly children’s literature is one that teacher librarians aim to address when developing their library collections. Living in Singapore, which is a melting pot of cultures, allows me to be exposed to a plethora of children’s literature from around the world. One experience that really helps with that is being in the Red Dot Book Award committee, where we longlist and shortlist a selection of books in different age categories. One major criterion is for us to look for Diversity. Diversity in the countries where the books have been published, a range of countries represented in the story and the genders of the protaginists and of the authors is also part of the selection criteria. More on that in a post to follow. Another committee that I am involved in is the organising committee for the Asian Festival of Children’s Content. Our theme for the 2019 festival was Diversity and particularly exploring books published and set in Asia as a focus. I reflected on this with a Singaporean colleague recently when she connected so deeply with the main character in Kelly Yang’s Front Desk. She mentioned that she had hardly ever read a book as a child with an Asian character. As Short states “the continued lack of diversity in children’s literature is devastating for children as readers, many of whom rarely see their lives and cultural identities within a book” (p.293). Fortunately, I have seen first hand that Asian publishers are growing stronger in the marketplace and my hope is that the future sees more of theses titles included in mainstream publications.
So although, I can not do any crystal ball gazing my hope for the future of children’s publishing are backed on some research and experience. The drivers to this change needs to be the consumers, including educators so that publishers react to this demand of needing more diverse stories. My hope is that every reader can see mirrors as well as doors in their reading experience.
References
Chibana, N. (2015). 10 mind-blowing interactive stories that will change the way you see the world [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://visme.co/blog/ 10-mind-blowing-interactive-stories-that-will-change-the-way-you-see-the-world/
Favilli, E., & Cavallo, F. (2017). Good night stories for rebel girls: 100 tales of extraordinary women. London, U.K.: Particular Books.
Harvey, E. (2015, December 8). Five trends affecting children’s literature. In Book Business.
Potter, B. (2006). The world of Peter Rabbit: Box one. London, UK: Frederick Warne.
Rebel Girls. (2017, March 7). Goodnight stories for rebel girls [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Jbd4-fPOE
Short, K. (2018). What’s trending in children’s literature and why it matters. Language Arts, 95(5), 287-298.
Selznick, B. (2008). The invention of Hugo Cabret. London, UK: Scholastic.
Smith, L. (2011). It’s a book. New York, N.Y.: Roaring Brook Press.
Wolf, S. (2014). Children’s literature on the digital move. Reading Teacher, 67(6), 413-417. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1002/trtr.1235
