Prior to commencing ETL402, I had never considered the idea of literary learning in my subjects. I’ve always used literature when teaching English because my school dictated it, but the students often struggle to deeply engage with the texts. As I have studied this subject and learnt more about different strategies that can be used to teach content with literature, my mind has been blown wide open.
Firstly, I’ve broadened my mind about the different genres of texts – particularly picture books. Through the first assessment, I learnt about different ways to embrace picture books for a History classroom and the different literary skills that are needed to interpret sophisticated picture books. While in a forum post for Module 2 I stated I was a fan of Shaun Tan’s work. Similarly, in an earlier blog post I acknowledged that picture books were good for High school students however, my first assignment built on this knowledge by introducing me to a large number of sophisticated picture books and a variety of strategies to implement them.
Haven’s (2007) book emphasises the importance of using stories to teach information as the structure makes it easier to remember and more relevant. This argument is going to form the basis for future practice and will be what I use to justify the inclusion of more stories into History classrooms. I’m also very interested in taking this learning and apply it to some of my senior classes, particularly Psychology to help students understand some of the more complex topics. Haven’s (2007) statement also highlights why it is so important to include fictional literature in the library collection.
Secondly, this subject has introduced me to the literature in a digital environment. Prior to this subject, I thought about digital literature primarily as films or eBooks. My understanding has now gone further than this and I recognise that it can include much more, with things such as interactive online story books or videos of a book that add dramatic effect with music, tone, and dramatic readings. While technology isn’t the strongest in my school, there are some ways I can already think of to make use of digital literature. I know that is will be one way to differentiate for students and provide more opportunities for engagement with the curriculum that students otherwise wouldn’t get (Lamb & Johnson, 2010). This will be something very useful in my current school which has a large percentage of inclusion support students and requires teachers to differentiate quite a lot.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, potentially my biggest take away from this subject is Pennac’s Reading Bill of Rights (2006). In a previous blog post I spoke about how much I enjoyed it when I first read it (Schembri, 2020b). Nearly one month later and that enjoyment has only grown. Pennac’s Bill of Rights (2006) not only reminds students that their choices about reading are much the same as adults, but it provides encouragement for everyone to read for pleasure.
The more that we as teachers encourage students to read, both for pleasure and as part of our curriculum, the better their learning will be.
References
Haven, K.F. (2007). Story proof: The science behind the startling power of story. ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Lamb, A. & Johnson, L. (2010). Divergent convergence part 1: Cross-genre, multi-platform, transmedia experiences in school libraries. Teacher Librarian, 37(5), 76-81.
Pennac, D. (2006). The rights of the reader. Walker Books.
Schembri, T. (2020a, November 25). Module 2.2 [Online forum comment] https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_49764_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_96426_1&forum_id=_218302_1&message_id=_3317113_1
Schembri, T. [Tess.schembri] (2020b, December 8). ETL402 – Thoughts and recap modules 1-3. Another budding bookworm: The reflective journal of a librarian student. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/tess15/