Category: ETL402 – Literature Across the Curriculum

Semester 1, 2021

ETL402 AT2 Reflective Blog Post

Monica CoddingtonLeave a comment

Provide a critical reflection on how your views, knowledge, and understanding of the concept and application of literary learning has developed during this subject and how this will inform your future practice.

Upon reflection the unit has significantly increased my knowledge, views, and understanding of what literary learning is and how to apply it across the curriculum.  I did not know what a literary learning resource kit was or entailed at the start of the unit. A discussion post in response to another student shows my developing knowledge of literary learning elements (Coddington, 2021d). The first concept I learned about was literary non-fiction, demonstrated early in the unit in my discussion post (Coddington, 2021a) which revealed new understanding of literary nonfiction and preliminary knowledge of how to apply it to literary learning. I discussed using it to teach not only the history of Australia, but also key curriculum skills – something Flaim and Chiodo (1994, p.225) attest literature is highly useful for (Donaldson, 2001, p.24; Miller et. al., 2007, p.52; Peterson and Belizaire, 2006, p.37).

As the semester progressed it is clear from blog posts and engagement in the discussion forum that my learning had become more focused on genrefication, diversity in literature, and the potential for literature to be a lens through which complex topics are studied (Coddington, 2021f). In a discussion forum post on 27th April (Coddington, 2021b) about future arrangements of fiction collections I discussed genrefication, whilst there was a notable silence from myself in the threads discussing strategies to foster a love of reading.

I showed a shallow understanding of digital texts in discussion forum posts, mentioning only eBooks (Coddington, 2021c). Wiggins (2021), in contrast, discussed gamification of learning in her own practice, serving to highlight my lack of knowledge and experience not only about literary resources, but also how they can be applied in the curriculum through literary learning. I displayed a deeper understanding of e-Trends and how digital texts can be applied to literary learning in a blog post, demonstrating developing awareness of how digital texts can be applied to engage students in literary learning (Coddington, 2021e).

However, after completing the second assessment task, I have a much deeper understanding of what literary learning is, and how it can be applied in the curriculum, which will significantly impact in my future practice.  Literary learning is the use of literary texts as a pedagogical resource to facilitate engagement of and learning in the curriculum. It makes use of literature response strategies, such as book trailers, Socratic circles, bento boxes and literature circles, in the classroom to engage and motivate students (Peterson and Belizaire, 2006, p.37; Straits and Nichols, 2006, p.52). Using the literature as “springboards” into learning, literary nonfiction and fiction texts can be used to not only teach about subject specific language and skills (Flaim and Chiodo, 1994, p.225), but also develop critical literacy and digital literacy skills (Lintner, 2010, p.17).

This new, clearer understanding has implications for my practice. Now that I understand what literary learning is, I have already begun to put together literary resource kits in the library. In addition, I also feel significantly more confident in approaching teachers to collaborate to improve student learning. Taking my learning directly from assessment task 2, I have already begun to collaborate with the secondary Science teacher at my school to offer texts about sustainability next year in the sciences. In the future, collaboration and literary learning will only occur more frequently, to the betterment of students.

 

Word count: 550

 

Reference List

Coddington, M. (2021a, March 15). 2.2b: Literary nonfiction. Discussion forum post [ETL402 Interact2].

Coddington, M. (2021b, April 27). 3.3: Future arrangements of fiction collections. Discussion forum post [ETL402 Interact2].

Coddington, M. (2021c, May 2). 4.1: Digital publishing trends. Discussion forum post [ETL402 Interact2].

Coddington, M. (2021d, May 2). 5.2: Literate practices. Discussion forum post [ETL402 Interact2].

Coddington, M. [monica.coddington1] (2021e, April 20). e-Literature and e-Trends – How will technology impact the TL? The Learning of a Teacher Librarian in Training. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/teacherlibrarianintraining/category/etl402-literature-across-the-curriculum/

Coddington, M. [monica.coddington1] (2021f, March 7). Diversity: The future of children’s literature. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/teacherlibrarianintraining/category/etl402-literature-across-the-curriculum/

Donaldson, D. (2001). Teaching Geography’s four traditions with Poetry, Journal of Geography, 100(1), p.24-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221340108978414

Flaim, M. & Chiodo, J. (1994). A Novel Approach to Geographic Education: Using Literature in the Social Studies. The Social Studies.September/October, p. 225-227

Lintner, T. (2010). Using Children’s Literature to Promote Critical Geographic Awareness in Elementary Schools. The Social Studies, 101, p. 17-21. DOI: 10.1080/00377990903283981

Miller, L., Straits, W., Kucan, L., Trathen, W., and Dass, M. (2007). Literature Circle Roles for Science Vocabulary. The Science Teacher, 74(5), p.52-56.

Peterson, S. & Belizaire, M. (2006). Another Look at Roles in Literature Circles. Middle School Journal, 37(4), p.37-43. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23024485

Straits, W. & Nichols, S. (2006). Methods & Strategies: Literature Circles for Science. Science and Children, 44(3), p. 52-55.

Wiggins, E. (2021, April). 4.1: Digital publishing trends. Discussion forum post [ETL402 Interact2].

 

e-Literature and e-Trends – How will technology impact the TL?

Monica CoddingtonLeave a comment

Libraries are changing – this is no secret for those of us who are patrons to and managers of libraries. They are adapting and growing and developing – changes that are being made in light of, most significantly, Web 2.0 technologies. The school library I work in, and the libraries I visit, look vastly different from the libraries I had access to as a teenager even 8 years ago. There is a growing movement towards eBooks, where students can access the library collection online from any device. What a world to live in…

On the rise is the newer trend, one that appeals to young students’ love not only of engaging with stories, but also with technology – a source of much contention and yet such potential as a learning device (Stasiak, 2011). Since iPads have risen in popularity, producers have worked to create interactive eBooks for younger audiences – some as young as 18 months old (Stasiak, 2011). In these apps, children can direct the story themselves. They see the effect of their actions as they make decisions to drive the story along a path of their own choosing, listening to and watching their “character” interact with the space they inhabit. Children and students can now be more immersed in a story than ever before.

However, consider this: in a world where library patrons can access the books they require and desire using a tablet whenever they please, and when young children can (and might prefer) interacting physically with a story that they guide themselves on a tablet device, working independently and at their own pace, what role does the TL now play in schools?

Haughton (2015) provides a comprehensive list of quality interactive eBooks for young children, highlighting the educational benefits of each. Some have explicit links to STEM, some inspire curiosity and wonder. Others re-create classic texts with more interactivity (seemingly for the sake of it). Here the TLs role shifts. Now, there is opportunities for TLs to introduce worlds to students through print-based books, and then guide deeper exploration in such worlds through interactive apps. The possibilities of integrating STEM into library lessons also becomes more possible and engaging with interactive digital books such as “TinyBop: The Human Body” for primary school aged children. The TL can move towards fostering curiosity and wonder-driven immersion in books where students can immediately explore cause and effect and learn in a more interactive manner than ever before. Still, then, in this sense is the TL a facilitator of student-driven learning.

However, Haughton also makes clear that there is an abundance of such texts in the digital world. It is important, now more than ever, that the TL acts as collection manager of a collection of quality, and conducts thorough research into these programs and books prior to adding them to the collection. If students are to explore digital story-telling in a meaningful fashion, with meaningful results, then they should be exposed to quality literature and literature programs.

Even with the changes heralded by this e-trend, the TL must still stand as the expert selector of quality educational resources for their students.

 

References

Haughton, C. (2015, January 4). Top 10 book and bookish apps for young children. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/jan/04/top-10-book-and-bookish-apps-for-children-chris-haughton

Stasiak, K. (2011). iTots: True Digital Natives. https://www.slideshare.net/KatStasiak/itots-true-digital-natives

Transliteracy Reflection

Monica CoddingtonLeave a comment

Think about ‘your’ library – as teacher librarian. What evidence is there that the library supports transliteracy practices? What do you think could be done better?

Currently, I am working as the TL at a small central school in NW NSW, and am at the beginning of my TL education. Perhaps it is for this reason that, as I reflect on what evidence exists for the support of transliteracy at the library I manage at the school, I am coming up short. We have a bank of 8 computers, and I have recently been in discussions with the Principal and the Technical Support Officer to obtain a bank of laptops for the library space. Our Oliver site provides access to a range of digital resources, but these were added to the collection by the previous TL. I had a casual conversation once last year with another member of staff about the possibility of adding eBooks to the collection in the future, but have not progressed any further with this.

Clearly, my library space does not support transliteracy as well as it could. This is due, I believe, to a lack of knowledge on my part, a gap that I am eagerly seeking to address now. Transliteracy needs to be supported more in our school library, as these are the skills that students will need to develop to become informed and literate 21st century citizens. To be able to navigate society and the workplace, our students will need these skills, and the lack of updated digital and multimodal texts in our collection is therefore very concerning, to say the least.

Steps and Learning for the Future

Work needs to be done to add to the digital collection on a regular basis – not just webpages and videos, but digital literature, augmented and virtual reality and interactive literature too. This is but one method to support the development of transliteracy in our students, but it is, I believe, a crucial step in the process. Reflecting on my own practice, it is clear I will need to engage in more thorough research about digital literary texts and transliteracy, so that I may offer more support for the development of this vital skill.

My knowledge of children’s literature

Monica CoddingtonLeave a comment

Module 2.1: Conduct a stock take of your knowledge of children’s literature. List some strategies that you use, or could use, to increase your professional knowledge of children’s literature.

At present, I employ a number of strategies that I use to start afloat with Young Adult fiction (YA) when curating and managing the library collection for the secondary cohort of students at my small K-12 central school. Goodreads, for starters, sends me weekly emails of upcoming debuts, sequels, and highly anticipated releases for each month, and provides me with the option to browse categories and genres at the click of a button. Social media is another strategy I use to keep myself updated. I follow a number of ‘bookstagramers’ on Instagram as well as publishing houses (e.g. Bloomsbury) and artists who create merch for a range of YA texts, both those with well-established fan bases and upcoming releases. On Facebook I am the member of a range of YA fiction groups where members post recommendations, ask for recommendations, or converse about their favourite books or new releases they’re most excited for. More physically, once a month I travel two hours to my closest bookstore (Collins Booksellers in Tamworth) and spend at least an hour browsing the shelves. Here, I make more use of Goodreads; I use the scanner function to scan books of interest that I think would be a positive addition to the library and add them to my ‘wish list’ shelf on my TL Goodreads account. This means I always have a list of books ready for when I place new orders.

Catalogues that come through school are my next source of knowledge regarding children’s literature. Scholastic Book Club and the Boomerang Books catalogues are delivered fairly frequently, and these are the resources that I use the most for increasing my professional knowledge of literature for the younger cohort of students as they are frequent and easy to browse. Alternatively, browsing the CBCA list of notable, shortlisted and prize winning books is a strategy I have used in the past, but admittedly could utilise more frequently. This is also the case with the PRC book lists and the yearly Goodreads Choice Awards.

Whilst I feel relatively in-tune with the updates and demands of YA literature, it is the literature for the younger demographics that I find myself in need of professional development in. Collaboration with Primary staff members about quality literature enjoyed across all primary stages is one strategy I anticipate could have some positive results, as could subscribing to Primary English teacher social media pages and other relevant groups to stay updated on children’s literature. Already, I have found following more Primary English teachers on sources such as Instagram has been a great asset to my professional knowledge of children’s literature. Now my feed is filled with book recommendations, promotions about upcoming releases and fanart of classic and new literature, all set to inspire and inform.

What more could a budding TL want for their downtime scrolling?

Diversity: The future of children’s literature

Monica CoddingtonLeave a comment

The collapse of Angus & Robertson bookstores in Australia in 2011 brought with it an onslaught of doomsayers: the ringing cries of “books are dead! Publishing and reading novels will be a thing of the past soon! It’s the era of the EReader!” brought a sense of trepidation and sadness in many booklovers across the country. And yet the printing and consumption of print books remains as steady as ever, particularly for teenagers (Harvey, 2015, para. 2; Short, 2018, 287).

Reflecting now on the literature that I had access to as a teenager compared to what is available now, it is clear that, out of all the trends discussed by Short, (Short, 2018), diversity in children’s literature stands as both one of the areas that has experienced the most growth, and yet still has so far to go. In my teenage years, protagonists of the young adult (YA) fiction that was being published in my genres of interest (fantasy, historical and contemporary) were typically young, straight and Caucasian. In my first year of acting TL (last year) this was perhaps the first thing I noticed of our school library’s collection: it was not diverse, and did not accurately reflect the diversity of our student cohort or the wider world. It was the first change I sought to make in the collection. Now, even two years in, I am finding it easier than ever to find diverse books for our collection.

Despite having only seen the changes in this trend in two years, this is one area I am happily awaiting a boom in: the increase in books published about more diverse characters (and not just supporting characters, but diverse characters in protagonist roles), by more diverse authors, about more diverse topics.

Mossholder, T. (2019). sourced from Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/zs-PAgqgenQ
Mossholder, T. (2019). Sourced from Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/zs-PAgqgenQ

On the other side of this coin is the potential for the rise in transmedia stories and storytelling. Resources such as Inanimate Alice were created years ago, and yet the potential for innovation in storytelling through multimodal forms has yet to be fully realised, I think, by both educators and public consumers alike. As an English-trained teacher I learned of this text in university. Would I have discovered it or others like it if I had chosen to pursue another career path? I think, unfortunately, the answer is ‘no’. As a TL I see some picture books come with a CD still, or instructions on how to view the song version of the book on YouTube (see The Wonky Donkey). Transmedia storytelling has such potential, and I expect it will continue to grow.

But who will be the drivers of this change?

I believe it has already started, and that it will continue to grow with us: the passionate readers, the educators, the authors from diverse backgrounds, the independent publishing companies, and also, to some extent, social media. Networking sites such as Instagram and Facebook have created a space for authors and aspiring authors from around the world to connect not only with each other and publishing companies, but also with new readership. Finally, reader voices are being heard (including the criticism toward publishers and even authors without diversity in their texts), and new authors are able to connect directly with their audiences and put their diverse stories out in the world – sometimes even without the aid of a publishing house.

The shelves – thankfully – finally present and represent a much broader world than they did when I was discovering reading. There is, however, still a long way to go to ensure that more books about diverse characters and by diverse authors are known (Cooperative Children’s Book Center [CCBC], 2020).

 

Reference List

Cooperative Children’s Book Center [CCBC] (2020). Books by and/or about black, Indigenous and people of colour (all years). https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/literature-resources/ccbc-diversity-statistics/books-by-and-or-about-poc-2018/

Harvey, E. (2015). 5 Trends Affecting Children’s Literature. Book Business: Your Source for Publishing Intelligence. https://www.bookbusinessmag.com/article/what-we-learned-from-the-top-trends-in-childrens-literature-webinar/

Short, K. (2018). What’s Trending in Children’s Literature and Why it Matters. Language Arts, 95(5), 287-298.