What is literary learning?

I’m sitting here trying to brainstorm my second assessment and struggling to wrap my head around the concept. I think about literacy and learning language and then I get stuck. Through my Googling, the best I’ve been able to come up with so far is using literature to learn. I feel like I need to go deeper though. Module 5 then talks about being multiliterate, that is being able to analyse and deconstruct a range of texts, including a variety of text types. So together, being able to read and interpret different types of literature to learn about information…

When I look at my first assessment, it seemed so clear to be able to talk about using picture books in the History classroom – there are so many different books that come under the banner of Historical Fiction, narrowing down the list was the challenge. However, when I think of other subjects and topics, choosing just one book seems hard. How can you fit in reading a novel (or even a picture book) when there is so much content in the curriculum that needs to be covered?

I am looking forward to researching this for the second assessment and seeing different strategies that are possible. From Module 6 and the online lectures so far, I have thought about a few.

• Literature circles are something I have done as a student, but they seem so time consuming.
• Bento Book Box – this seems like a lovely activity that requires students to really think about the key concepts and ideas in the book and how to visually represent them.
• Making Connections – this seems very do-able, and very relevant to students, it helps to avoid the eternal question of ‘when are we ever going to use this?’, by making the relevance to real life clearly evident.
• Book Trailers – A very interesting idea, but am unsure if technologically it would work at the school I currently work at, so something to keep in the back pocket for future.
• Newspapers – an oldie, but a goodie, creating a newspaper / newsletter with all of the key information. This allows for referencing, book reviews, interviews and so much more to be included, if it is done well.

My next question stems from wondering how to integrate these texts to make them relevant for the curriculum and assessment. This is something that I am interested to learn more about through my research for assessment two in order to help with future planning.