10 Must Reads - Posters

Last Term, while relieving for two teacher libarians at a Sutherland Shire High school (they share one full time position and took separate periods of leave ), I decided to create posters to promote literatuer featured in the different genres that comprise of the fiction collection, excluding the general fiction collection.

Normally, I would have created a "Recommended Reads" brochure to promote literature but decided to attempt a visual approach through the posters and identify ten items that would be suitable and enjoyable for the students. If there the item was part of a series, I would promote the first book and then list the series underneath to open up further reading options, should the student enjoy reading the first book.

Click here to access the Google Drive folder.  

The library assistant did a great job in creating a book display to promote the items featured. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in Sydney, remote learning, but also the conclusion of my work at the school, I cannot provide any feedback on the success of it, but it is a step forward.

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.

"Just Read" at Queenwood

I thought I'd share two articles relating to a wide reading program - "Just Read" by Sydney independent school - Queenwood. It is an initaitve that is working effectively in developing a whole school wide reading culture. Every staff member is also required to participate.

• Queenwood News Weekly - Article from 21 February 2020
• 'Sense of urgency': One school's bold plan to get teenagers reading - The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 2020

At the end of April, I attended a presentation by Gabrielle Mace (author of the article from Queenwood News Weekly) and was very encouraged by the results of "Just Read" to date particularly embedding the wide reading time in the school timetable but also the motivation it gave the students to read for enjoyment. I was also impressed by allocating the time on Friday to sharing book reviews within their groups as well. I think student recommendations go a long way to encouraging one to read. 

Suitable Geography Books for school libraries.

About one and half weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet with a student undertaking the Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) Degree who is currently employed at a school that I work for. We have had some discussions about the coursework as they are in the early stages of their study, and were keen to find out some insights into my experiences ten years ago.

They currently have an assignment that requires them to organise a lesson (or lessons) focusing on inquiry skills and also have to apply relevant pedogogies that have been explored in their coursework. While I'd help them with resources etc or share examples of work that I have done, 

I also investigated suitable resources for the unit of work being covered. It is from the unit Place and Livability in the Stage 4 Geography Course. Students are also undertaking project based learning as part of the unit.

The school library lacks any resources to support the students including books on urban spaces but also referene books such as Almanacs which can provide basic yet useful and accurate statistics for research. I challenged myself as well to locate and recommend suitable books for future acquisition. Many of the items that I located were well above their reading level and would usually be read by adults or those at tertiary level. Even searching for items through Educational Booksellers was also difficult and again, not many items to be found, if not nothing.

It's disappointing that no publishers or authors have stepped up to provide books with factual information that can be used by students for this unit of work that reflects the reading level etc of the students. I hope that I am wrong on this.

My concern though, is that there will be too much reliance on Google for this unit of work. 

Concerns over Reading for Pleasure

Yesterday, The Australian published an overview of the findings from OECD, 21st‑Century Readers: Developing Literacy Skills in a Digital World.

It was concerning for Australia. The research established that increased internet usage was leading to a decrease in students reading for pleasure. 32% of Australian teenagers felt that reading was a "waste of time" and 58% read because "I have to". 

Reading for pleasure has been linked to performance in reading scores. Those who read for pleasure received scores up to 86 points higher than those who dont read. 

With Australia slipping against other OECD countries in reading scores and rankings, this is suggesting that engagement with reading amongst children is on the decline.

The research also identified that teachers contribute towards higher reading scores if students were required to read texts e.g. set text or read one book per fortnight and if the texts contained more than 101 pages. It also encouraged reading for pleasure.

Click here to view the article (You will need to be a subscriber to The Australian) to access the content.

Literature Circles

I have been a opportunity to fill for a Teacher Librarian for the next few weeks. One initative that their school has been doing with a very small group of selected students in Years' 8 and 10 is to engage in a fortnightly literature circle. 

I met two groups this week and was encouraged by their participation. The Year 10 group focused this week on the concept of the literature circle, its conventions and the roles that each member will have as they commence reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I am looking forward to what they have to say in less than two weeks time. I will be reading alongside them as well which is my main reading challenge for the next fortnight.

The Year 8 group were one session ahead and for a first session, did well. Generally they were fufilling their roles well. There are areas to work on, but this will be developed over time. They definately had read the part of the book that they were required to read. Even though I have not read the book, I was listening and was interested in the discussion and was able to even pose questions to the group, because I was keen to engage with them and find out more about the book.

Literature Circles have a core benefit in encouraging critical thinking about a text that a person has read and scaffolds guide discussion, which should eventually become free flowing. The requirement to think critically also fuels their comprehension skills as the reader/s have to explore their text in greater detail.