Part B – Reflective Blog Post
This subject has given me a better insight into literary learning. Although I was aware of literacy learning, a term very often used in primary school context as we develop students’ ability to read, write, speak and listen across various key learning areas. I have gained a huge understanding of this concept now and have realised its importance for our students where they can appreciate literature and acquire a set of skills through it in order to become successful in 21st century society.
I am eager to plan collaboratively with our literacy team to implement the literary learning program this year. In my role as school’s TL, I feel that I have an essential role to collaborate with classroom and support teachers and highlight the importance of fiction collection and the different ways it can be embedded into school curriculum. John Hattie, (2012, p.74) identifies collaboration as a key influence on quality teaching. “The co-planning of lessons is the task that has one of the highest likelihoods of making a marked positive difference on student learning”. Often teachers are extremely busy fulfilling the vast curriculum requirements and rely on expert’s knowledge to source a range of high interest quality literature. TL are rightly called information specialists and through their knowledge of literary strategies, books, students’ reading preferences, multi-literacies, copyright expertise and excellent collaboration, they can equip students with the skills and strategies required for a global active citizen. I am eager to apply various Literature Response strategies to make learning relevant, engaging and exciting for our learners. Engagement with response strategies encourages students to respond deeply to the literature, share ideas with others by carefully considering multiple perspectives (Larson, 2009).
I have realised that one of the vital roles of a TL is to provide students with regular opportunities to connect with literature and this is only possible if a TL regularly organises literary events like Author Visits, Literary rotation activities during Book week/Education week, reading challenges, displays about various genres, participation in literary fest etc. that could expose students to quality high-interest literature and hence promote reading. In this era of information overload and technological disruptions, I am keen to embrace technology and regularly train myself so I can use it effectively to design engaging curriculum-focussed activities like Digital Storytelling, Infographics, Book trailers, Word Clouds etc. ETL 402 has taught me interesting strategies and has exposed me to a variety of tools to implement those strategies. I have learned that student learning should happen across various genres, formats etc. for their well-rounded development. Learning outcomes can only be met if learning is shared rather than isolated as text discussion with other readers helps improve understanding. Reading is a social process of meaning construction (Leland, C. et al., p. 196, 2012). Literary learning should help students understand real world issues cooperatively and develop cognitive skills to critically evaluate the texts that they read (Grasso,2016).
I am extremely enthusiastic to use my passion and commitment to make our school library a success where students feel passionate about literature and books.
References:-
Grasso M. (2016). The importance of multicultural literature. SCIS. 1(96). https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-96/the-importance-of-multicultural-literature/
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. New York, NY: Routledge.
Leland, C., Lewison, M., & Harste, J. (2012). Teaching children’s literature: It’s critical! Routledge.
Larson, L. C. (2009). Reader response meets new literacies: Empowering readers in online learning communities. The Reading Teacher, 62 (8), 638-648. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/stable/20486619#metadata_info_tab_contents