Reflecting on Modules 1, 2 and Assessment 1
From a personal standpoint studying in the Summer semester has by no means been easy thus far. All the normal shenanigans of the end of year school workload as well as prepping the family for Christmas day celebrations has been overshadowed by fears of growing COVID 19/Omicron cases.
Despite an unsteady beginning I have found the readings and debate online interesting and as a teacher librarian (TL) I am beginning to think more deeply about how I can support my school (both teachers and students) in the selection of quality literature to enhance learning.
I have so far come across some great literature (I particularly enjoyed McDonald, L. (2018). A literature companion for teachers (2nd ed.). Primary English Teaching Association Australia – PETAA have an excellent back catalogue of literature to support classroom teachers/TLs that I vow to promote heavily as I complete my Masters and begin to utilise my new found knowledge and practical experience [thanks to the many practical assessments I have completed] in my role) that has discussed fiction genres and formats. I have been prompted to think about the school library collection and reflect on the importance of providing a collection that displays diversity and relevance in multiple genres, formats/forms. Equally I have revisited my CDP, thought about the school community I am serving, their personal as well as their literacy learning needs and delved more deeply into the General Capabilities and Cross Curriculum Priorities to enhance the collection with supporting quality fiction.
The focus given to the General Capabilities and Cross Curriculum Priorities in this and other subjects I have completed have really allowed me extra guidance and permission to some extent to examine these aspects of the curriculum and understand how they are instrumental in intrinsically weaving the curriculum content together. Bringing attention to skill development and social and ethical awareness amongst other things encapsulates the notion of 21st century learning and it really is by embedding these elements (GC and CCP) across all teaching and learning in the school that this can be truly realised.
Assessment 1 tasked students to develop a rationale for a school/library fiction collection in the form of a journal article describing the value of including fiction in the library collection in terms of learning. Once again the assessment gave us the chance to put our readings and growing knowledge of fiction in the curriculum to a ‘practical’ use framed within a real world scenario. I chose to focus on Indigenous fiction as a genre in a primary school setting. Taking the time to read across a fair amount of professional and practitioner articles as well as publishing houses, author, illustrator and Indigenous websites I felt that I was only able to scrape the top of the iceberg. In doing so I learned so much about Indigenous perspective and reflecting not only on our current library collection but the inclusion of Indigenous perspective in my school curriculum I can see how far we still need to go. I have learned that I must be more purposeful about my selection of Indigenous fiction, take care with it, respect it and promote it across the teaching staff. I realise that our school must seek Indigenous advice and input into our curriculum T&L. I felt that I had read and had a good basic understanding about the nature, trends and issues around Indigenous fiction and writing about it was a great honour. As many Indigenous authors argue, their voice, their words are vital as first hand authentic reflections of their culture and understandings in their fiction. It does not however mean we need to leave it to Indigenous people to present a case for the vital place of Indigenous fiction in our school libraries. This genre provides a platform for Indigenous people to tell their stories, share their experiences and their beliefs. These may not always be positive and may include harsh reflections of maltreatment and misunderstandings. They offer a place for truths to be told beyond any efforts made by NF books documenting the history of Indigenous people – in a way that gives greater depth to their experiences and perspectives as they emerge as a result go carefully chosen words and images to engage the audience. A fiction collection I believe needs to reflect the world in which we live, it is a culturally, politically, physically, socially, religiously and gender diverse world that we all need to understand and embrace. It is through the reading of stories that we are given the chance to see, accept and empathise and we can do no better than to share these stories to children as they develop their understandings, becoming our future global citizens.