At the onset of studying this unit, I had only a vague idea of the concept of ‘Literary Learning’. Put together with the title of the unit – Literature Through the Curriculum, I knew that Literary learning would involve using books and stories as ways to learn in different subject areas. I had heard about schools using resources like novels in different subject areas, however, the actual ways to do this, I was lost to.
After learning about the subject I think there’s so much potential for it. I also now know much more about what literary learning is. It’s about learning through literature. So that means taking literacy skills one step further – using literacy skills to engage in varied, quality literature to learn about subject content. But the process is reciprocal – this also means that whilst students are learning about the subject they are also continuing to develop and strengthen their literacy skills.
I have some experience with putting these ideas into practise in my teaching career. I worked in a South Western Sydney high school which utilised two whole-school programs to improve literacy amongst the students.
The first was wide reading which was mostly carried out in roll-call each morning. The students had about 10-15 minutes to read any book of their choice. Students could also read if they finished work early in class. What happened in reality was many students would grab any book from the shelf at home or what they found in the classroom and stare at a randomly selected page until the bell rang. It was that, or avoid a phone call home or some other kind of punishment. This turned what could have been a great program, into just another box ticked by students and teachers.
If a program like literature circles were introduced alongside this, then students could choose from a range of books organised into subjects, interests, curriculum content, ability level and grade level. Teachers and Teacher librarians could collaborate and students would have the opportunity to engage with quality, relevant literature whilst also meeting their interests.
The school also implemented the ‘Reading to Learn’ approach. I still use this practise in my teaching today, across discipline areas, however, the way it was taught to teachers and subsequently taught to students, meant that it became a formulaic, painful process where a single paragraph encompassed a 70 minute lesson. Again here, subject teachers could work with the teacher librarians to find resources suitable to curriculum content and student needs and interests to make the program worthwhile.
Furthermore, I have learned that literary learning does not only involve the use of novels but can encompass so much more including digital interactive texts, graphic novels, webcomics and video-games. The possibilities are endless. It is important that as educators we stay with the times to ensure literacy and education are relevant and this can be done through literary learning.
The Teacher Librarian is also in the unique role in the school to be an expert across curriculum content areas, collection and curation of resources and other teaching materials and also to be an advocate as a literary learning leader in the school and push for these programs to run.
Only by continually developing our teaching approaches will we make literature and literacy relevant for the future.