Monthly Archives: January 2021

ETL402 Assessment 2 Part B

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Reflection

Upon beginning ETL402 – see my post ETL402: Literature Across the Curriculum (Hahn, 2020, November 7), I identified that a significant skill I wanted to develop is matching of user with literature. I suspected that it involved a thorough and up-to-date knowledge of the literature landscape, collection, students, and curriculum. I hoped to expand my knowledge of each element and their interactions. And so I have.

In my post, ETL402 Module 1.1 (Hahn, 2020, November 14), I discussed the instructive nature of children’s literature: the religious focus may have shifted, but students are still learning from literature. Teacher librarians must ensure the collection is developed continually, offering a broad selection of current, quality literature in various formats, supporting the curriculum and specific needs of the school community. Resource promotion at point-of-need is important. In my post ETL402 Module 2.1 Professional Knowledge of Children’s Literature (Hahn, 2020, November 21), I discussed strategies for connecting teachers with literature. The creation of reading lists tagged with syllabus links (Cherrstrom and Boden, 2020) has been positive in conjunction with a reference interviews. Annotated bibliographies have been developed, however staff are reluctant to read them. Book talking at planning meetings proved very successful. This leads me to suspect, and Merga (2019) and Bishop (2011) confirm, collaborative magic lies in the relationships teacher librarians form with teachers.

Diversity is a goal for my school library. My module 2.3a forum post (Hahn, 2020, December 5) identified an indigenous literature focus, but it applies equally to other types of diversity. It is important for all students to see themselves reflected in the literature available to them (Crisp et al., 2016) and yet our collection does not adequately depict the lived experiences of our students. Reflecting through a censorship lens, I do not believe this was a deliberate act of exclusion, rather, a failure to pay specific attention to inclusion. I am less certain that this is true of subculture representations such as LGBTQ. Careful and deliberate selection of literature with prominent, diverse characters will be imperative.

Despite Pietschmann’s (2014) contention that primary students cannot comprehend intertextual links sufficiently to access transmedia content, it is through interaction with such content that they will develop these skills (Sukovic, 2014). It will therefore be necessary to augment the digital collection, an area currently almost non-existent in our fiction collection, a not unusual situation, according to O’Connell et al. (2015) but one that must be addressed. As my discussion post for module 5.2 (Hahn, 2020, December 28) suggests, an important notion I will take away is that the digital nature of a resource must give the reader/viewer something that cannot be accessed from the print version.

The teacher librarian is a leader of pedagogy as well as of literature and literacy. Collaboration with class teachers, promotion of resources from a literary learning perspective and provision of professional literature and development required to implement such learning is a vital part of what we do and contributes greatly to the impact the school library can have. The promotion of free reading and literary engagement is vital. My post, Expanding free reading ETL402 (Hahn, 2021, January 2), described two strategies I would like to implement during browsing sessions and discussion in the module 3.1 forum provided many others.

Part B Reference List

Allen & Unwin. (2009, June 25). Anita Heiss — Aboriginal writing: Literature as a political tool [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/0x_34uJww_E

 

Bishop, K. (2011). Connecting libraries with classrooms : The curricular roles of the media specialist. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

 

Cherrstrom, C. A., & Boden, C. J. (2020). Expanding role and potential of curation in education: A systematic review of the literature, The Reference Librarian, 61(2), 113-132. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763877.2020.1776191

 

Crisp, T., Knezek, S. M., Quinn, M., Bingham, G. E., Girardeau, K., & Starks, F. (2016). What’s on Our Bookshelves? The Diversity of Children’s Literature in Early Childhood Classroom Libraries. Journal of Children’s Literature, 42(2), 29–42.

 

Merga, M. (2019). Collaborating with teacher librarians to support adolescents’ literacy and literature learning. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 63 (1), 65-72 https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.958

 

O’Connell, J., Bales, J., & Mitchell, P. (2015). [R]Evolution in reading cultures: 2020 vision for school libraries. Australian Library Journal, 64(3), 194–208. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1080/00049670.2015.1048043

 

Pietschmann, D. Volkel, S. & Ohler.P. (2014). Limitations of transmedia storytelling for children: A cognitive development analysis. International Journal of Communication, 8, 2259-2281. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/2612/1205

 

Sukovic, S. (2014). iTell: Transliteracy and Digital Storytelling. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 45(3), 205–229. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1080/00048623.2014.951114

Expanding free reading ETL402

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Today I read some really very interesting articles about recreational reading. Krashen (2011) lays out the results of a variety of studies that, taken together, indicate that regular sustained, silent reading (SSR) results in better vocabulary, spelling, comprehension, writing, test performance, general knowledge and increased reading outside of the classroom. Fisher & Frey (2018) point out the advantages that are to be had from increasing the volume of reading students engage in outside of school They suggest that access to books – which should ideally be on a 7 books/student ratio in the classroom and 20/student in the school library – is not sufficient on its own to increase reading volume and must be backed up with teaching choosing strategies and book recommendations from people close to the students – teachers, peers, parents etc. They discuss two strategies I had not been able to articulate previously:

  • Golden lines – students share the best line from what they are reading at the moment
  • Blessed books – teachers share a short recommendation multiple times per week, including title, plot summary, character descriptions and general thoughts on the book, then place the book front facing on a special shelf. Students are invited to contribute to the blessed books also. I think these strategies could translate to the school library program well. Students could write brief recommendations for books, placing them in pride of place.

Fisher and Frey (2018) also describe the use of mini book clubs for students reading the same text by choice. I think this could be used in library lessons by having pairs of students work together to select books for the other to read, ones that they themselves have read  (or we have multiple copies so they can read it together) in the hope of prompting discussion about what they are reading.

 

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2018). Raise reading volume through access, choice, discussion, and book talks. The Reading Teacher. 72 (1) 89–97

Krashen, Stephen D. (2011). Free voluntary reading. ABC-CLIO, LLC.