As I posted my first entry for ETL402 in my Thinkspace Blog, Defining Children’s Literature (Gonye, 2023, March 2), I hadn’t considered how writing these two paragraphs defining my understanding of children’s literature would lead to a deeper comprehension of the endless possibilities of teaching and learning for myself as a future teacher librarian and the students whom I am yet to meet.

This subject explored in detail many facets of children’s literature. According to the Library of Congress; Collections Policy Statement, Children’s Literature is described as items that are created and written specifically for children and young adults for their entertainment or to acquire knowledge. In addition, the definition encompasses works that are fiction and non-fiction in digital and physical forms (2022, para.1).

When I initially thought about literature in the digital environment, eBooks, video clips, and film were the resources that came to mind. However, I hadn’t considered interactive online stories or enhanced video versions of books that use dramatic readings or music and sound effects to enhance the emotional connection with the reader. Cullen (2015) adds that children engage multiple senses in interactive media that uses touch, audio, animations and illustrations. As children become more engaged in interactive media, the Teacher Librarian can harness this enthusiasm for discovery and learning by providing a more individualised program allowing them to progress at their own pace.

In my post titled, Literature in the Digital Environment (Gonye, 2023, April 28), I referred to how students can engage in reading and learning anytime using technology. There is an expectation that students can navigate competently in a digital environment to access information quickly and instantly. According to Brueck (2014), today’s students use smartphones to access data quickly from one source to another. Transliteracy describes how to interact with different literacies, as outlined in my blog entry What is Transliteracy?  (Gonye, 2023, May 10)  The teacher librarian’s role is to teach students the necessary digital and multiliteracy skills to navigate confidently and effectively in the digital landscape.

As an early childhood teacher, I was familiar with using picture books to enhance learning of new concepts for young children. A book read aloud to a group of children was often used as a springboard to learning mathematical and scientific ideas or historical and cultural perspectives. As I have never taught within a school setting before, I somehow thought that using fiction books to enhance or even consolidate learning concepts across the curriculum was a practice that wasn’t implemented. The use of non-fiction books and resources ‘took the place’ of picture books and other fiction forms. I was happily surprised to find this was not the case. Literary learning describes using fictional or poetic texts to support a learning process separate from reading books to gain competence in literacy (Spinner, 2019, p.161).

As a future Teacher Librarian, I am excited about the direction of literary learning. Not only will I promote a wider variety of books in physical and digital formats for reading for pleasure and support their reading choices, but I plan to implement richer learning experiences through the complementary use of fiction with non-fiction resources to support learning across all curriculum areas.

References

Brueck, J. [ideastream]. 2014, November 18). 2014  IDEA talk: Jeremey Brueck – Developing Transliteracy [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/BpQrfPQA1Ao

Spinner, K.H. (2019) ‘Literary learning’. Film Education Journal, 2 (2): 159–74. DOI https://doi.org/10.18546/FEJ.02.2.06