Inclusive School Libraries

I have been working on the Advocacy Sub-Committee of the School Library Association of NSW (SLANSW) a flyer with strategies to develop a school library that is inclusive of the learning needs and interests of students, focusing on students with disabilities or additional learning needs.

This has built up on the OLT courses on Autism and Personalised Learning that I have undertaken with Sydney Catholic Schools. It has given me scope to learn and reflect on what I have learnt from those courses and what I can do within a library capacity. This was supported by drawing on.academic literature.

As the flyer is a benefit available to SLANSW members, I can only reflect on it briefly.

What I can point out is that I realised that I was already doing it in practice, even in a mainstream capacity such as acquiring high interest literature but contains text with low/limited vocabulary and knowing interests and needs. Visual signage can make a big difference as well but also the approaches to signage. It was broadened further. 

For students with learning needs, they love having a special or responsiblity and encouraging them to step up to roles can make a bigger difference than a student who is mainstream.

Wide Reading - Reading boxes

This week, I made a decision to apply a strategy that worked effectively several years ago when running secondary school wid reading sessions.

While it is great to see libraries with shelves full of books, some students might find their choices to be overwhelming. This is normal behaviour for humans as sometimes making a choice between many options can be difficult.

Sometimes it needs to be narrowed down, especially if kids are reluctant readers or require direction.

Yesterday, I had a small group of students from a Year 9 English class drop in for a wide reading session. Their teacher indicated that they can only read at a stage 2 level. I am already aware that options are limited for recommending books at that level and currently ordering more items suited to those students.

But I managed to load up a small cubed trolley with a selection of books - many with illustrations, humour or short stories. I even threw in graphic novels.

I placed the books on the table and students were allowed to choose books from the table to read. A few elected to browse the shelves to broaden their choices.

I was impressed with the response to graphic novels with three students (out of nine) electing to give a graphic novel a try. Their teacher was impressed with the choice of manga that requires them to read from back to front.