Making Research Easier With Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is an amazing, yet terrifying new technology that has the potential to be used for both good and evil in schools. As information specialists, Teacher-Librarians should be leaders in the space surrounding emerging technologies and how they can impact both teaching and learning – a difficult task considering that AI is evolving faster than a Pikachu with a Thunder Stone!

This year I’ve been doing a lot of research into reading for pleasure and investigating the best ways to build a reading culture in my school. As a result, I’ve got some pretty lengthy notes on the topic and it’s getting to the point where it’s all a bit overwhelming and I’m getting lost in the sheer amount of information I’ve gathered.

Enter ChatGPT. Despite it’s potential to cause harm in education, it also has great potential as a tool to maximise our efficiency. I decided to test out its capacity to summarise my notes so far and see whether it could help me make a bit more sense of the mountains of information I’ve gathered.

First Summary:

The research discusses various episodes related to overcoming barriers to reading for pleasure (RfP) as part of the Open University Reading for Pleasure (OURfP) initiative. Here are the key points summarized:

  1. Peer Role Models: Recognize the importance of peer role models in promoting reading for pleasure, especially if students lack role models at home.
  2. Different Reading Behaviors Count: Understand that all reading behaviors are valuable and that there’s a benefit in children seeing diverse reading role models beyond typical fiction lovers.
  3. Creating Communities of Readers: Shared experiences of reading the same books can create powerful communities of readers.
  4. Personalized Recommendations: Know the books students are reading, recommend similar books, relate to their reading experiences, and know the characters they love.
  5. Normalizing Reading Choices: Avoid denigrating students’ reading choices; share the idea of readers’ rights to validate all reading behaviors.
  6. Social Approach to Reading: Foster a culture of safety and non-judgmental reading choices through book talks, reading modeling, and promotion of different interests. Encourage student-led recommendations and involve parents in discussions and modeling.
  7. Factors Affecting Pleasure Reading: Understand the various barriers to pleasure reading, including lack of access to books, time, will, skills, and peer pressure. Address these barriers by increasing access to books, engaging in reading aloud activities, involving parents, and promoting authentic reading experiences.
  8. Synergies in Promoting Reading for Pleasure: These include constructing literate identities, intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, text access, time and space, social interaction, and role modeling and connected communities.

Overall, the research emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive and inclusive reading environment, promoting diverse reading choices, and fostering positive reader identities among children and young people.

Second Summary

The ALIA Webinar: “Fostering a Passion for Reading” highlights strategies to promote reading culture and engagement, leveraging social media and community involvement. Key points include:

  1. Using Social Media: Social media platforms like Instagram can be powerful tools to connect with the community, promote reading, and engage learners. Schools can use existing popular templates but tailor them to focus on reading. Personal appearances and trending formats can enhance engagement.
  2. Collection Development: Understanding the community’s interests and needs is crucial for effective collection development. This involves community connection, consultation, and gap analysis to ensure a diverse and engaging collection. Weeding, sourcing from trusted suppliers, and regular acquisitions are essential steps in this process.
  3. Programming to Improve Reading Culture: Various programming, including reading lessons, book talks, read-alouds, and themed activities, can help foster a social reading culture. Offering a variety of activities, such as readers’ cups, staff book clubs, and themed weeks, can cater to diverse interests and preferences.
  4. Engaging Reluctant Readers: Strategies to engage reluctant readers include creating a supportive environment through social activities, targeted individual interviews to understand barriers to reading, and promoting a growth mindset towards reading. Programs like “Read with a Mate” aim to encourage social reading and provide personalized recommendations based on individual preferences.

Overall, the webinar emphasizes the importance of leveraging social media, understanding community needs, and implementing diverse programming to foster a passion for reading among students.

Third Summary

The series “Building a School Reading Culture” by Madison Dearnaley explores various aspects of cultivating a reading culture within educational institutions. Here are the key points from each part:

Part 1: Assessing Reading Culture

  • Identifying a school’s reading culture involves observing factors such as library usage, collection layout, time allocated for reading, conversations about reading, and events like Book Week.
  • Dr. Kay Oddone suggests strategically assessing and enacting organizational culture change to foster a reading culture.

Part 2: Understanding Organizational Culture

  • Organizational culture influences how an institution operates and its members’ behavior.
  • Developing a reading culture involves leadership, shared values, and aligning behavior with the desired culture.

Part 3: Strategies for Culture Change

  • Culture change requires time and understanding behavioral drivers.
  • A five-point strategy involves matching change strategies with existing culture, focusing on small behavioral shifts, honoring strengths, integrating formal and informal interventions, and measuring and monitoring progress.

Part 4: Defining Reading Culture

  • A reading culture reflects how members of a school community value and engage with reading.
  • It involves embedding reading across all aspects of school life and promoting reading for pleasure, intrinsic motivation, and autonomy.
  • Strong leadership, a shared vision, and commitment to supporting the library are essential for building a reading culture.

Part 5: Measuring Reading Culture

  • Measurement methods include surveys, data analysis, and review of strategic plans and policies.
  • Key indicators of a strong reading culture include availability, opportunity, encouragement, intrinsic motivation, engagement, and choice.

Part 6: Identifying Reading Culture Characteristics

  • Characteristics of a strong reading culture include providing opportunities for reading, promoting and supporting reading, fostering intrinsic motivation and engagement, and offering choice and autonomy.
  • Measurement involves assessing resources, time allocation, visibility, staff involvement, reader motivation, engagement, and reader-driven collection development.

Part 7: Integrating Reading with School Values

  • Integrating reading with school values such as creativity, global citizenship, entrepreneurship, and well-being can garner support for building a reading culture.
  • Demonstrating the role of reading in achieving broader school goals can help prioritize reading initiatives and gain leadership support.

Each part emphasizes the importance of leadership, shared vision, community engagement, and strategic planning in cultivating a reading culture that supports student achievement and well-being.

Fourth Summary

The article “Getting Students Reading Through Social Media” by Overdrive, Nahomy Ortiz-Garcia, Melanie Wood, KC Boyd, and Amanda Hunt highlights effective strategies for using social media to engage students, staff, and parents in promoting reading. Here are the key points:

  1. Identify Audience and Encourage Interaction:
    • Tailor content to engage with the audience by asking questions and encouraging interaction.
    • Incorporate bite-sized content and involve students in posts to showcase their reading experiences.
  2. Celebrate Reading Milestones:
    • Foster a culture of reading by celebrating reading achievements and milestones.
    • Provide content with educational value and share additional reading resources and learning opportunities.
  3. Strategic Content Posting:
    • Avoid overwhelming the audience by spacing out content and posting at optimal times when the audience is likely to be online and receptive.
  4. Content Ideas:
    • Share school events, curriculum connections, holidays, student interests, and feature authors/illustrators.
    • Make posts interactive and visually appealing to maintain engagement.
  5. Utilize Various Social Media Platforms:
    • Use different social media platforms based on community engagement.
    • Tell a unique story about your library reading program and keep posts concise.
  6. Promotional Strategies:
    • Inform, define, and promote the reading program to parents, colleagues, and policymakers.
    • Use memes, newsletters, usage tutorials, and QR codes/flyers at school events to promote library programs.
  7. Encourage Reading Through Curated Content:
    • Create themed and curated book lists and understand feeder elementary school programming to tailor content accordingly.
    • Engage in community programs and interactive scavenger hunts associated with prizes.
  8. Personal Connection and Visual Appeal:
    • Show your face to build a connection with students, especially if you don’t see them daily.
    • Use fun filters, visuals, and short videos to create exciting and relatable content.
  9. Consistent Content Creation:
    • Set reminders for regular content creation and schedule it into your workday.
    • Experiment with different social media platforms and content formats to find what works best for your audience.
  10. Useful Tools and Apps:
    • Explore apps like CAPCUT for video editing and incorporate features like short video recommendations, trending book lists, author highlights, and new releases to keep the content fresh and engaging.

Implementing these strategies can effectively leverage social media to promote reading and foster a positive reading culture within the school community.

Overall Reflections on ChatGPT as a Research Summary Tool

As you can see, it’s done a fairly decent job of summarising the key points of my research. While ChatGPT does have great potential to save teachers time in this area, there are nonetheless a few limitations I’ve noticed:

  • It can’t directly access or view specific webpages or documents. We therefore can’t simply enter a URL and tell it to summarise the key points of a webpage or pdf.
  • It misidentified my notes as an article. There were other minor errors or parts where the AI failed to identify what I would have argued was the actual key point.
  • It has a word limit for your input, which meant that I had to break my research up into chunks which resulted in the four separate summaries above.
  • I tried to have it amalgamate these four separate summaries but it failed to synthesise the information effectively and instead created a bastardised, repetitive description rather than anything that would be of real use e.g. “Peer Role Models: Importance of peer influence in encouraging RfP.” I therefore didn’t post it here.
  • The input function doesn’t appear to allow for easy formatting of paragraphs. It also didn’t reflect my bullet point hierarchy and therefore my notes were all lumped together.
  • This is only a minor issue, but it took my Australian English spelling and spat it back out as US English e.g. ‘recognise’ became ‘recognize’. This hurt a little.

I was using the free ChatGPT version 3.5. Functionality is quite possibly improved in the upgraded GPT-4. For funsies, I also copied the summaries written by ChatGPT and asked it whether it wrote it to see whether it would potentially pick up on any plagiarism; it correctly identified this content as generated by ChatGPT: “‘Yes, I wrote the summaries you provided in your earlier message.” I’m not sure how effective it would be at picking up content generated by other AI tools, however; this might be an experiment for another day.

Overall, while it certainly saved time summarising my research, this would not be an effective way to create summary notes without having first done the initial note-taking process. We therefore need to caution our students not to rely solely on AI but to still use the old noggin to create their notes first, and always read through to fact check any content generated by these wondrous, alarming, and soon to be ubiqituous tech gremlins.

Professional Development: Overcoming Barriers to Reading for Pleasure

While I’m on school holidays and have a little more time, I thought it would be a good opportunity to watch the videos currently available in the Open University Reading for Pleasure and World Book Day webinar series, Overcoming Barriers to Reading for Pleasure.

The first video, ‘Readers Don’t Always See Genuine Role Models‘, featured some interesting discussion about the importance of being positive reading role models for our students, especially if they’re not seeing these role models elsewhere in their lives. One excellent point they raised was that there’s a difference between encouraging students to read and modelling reading. I think most teachers would do the former quite well, but due to time constraints and high workloads the second probably isn’t as common as it should be. They also referenced research from 2009 which suggests that for most younger children, their reading role models are their parents, but after year 6 this changes to peers and teachers holding this key place for our students. Its therefore vitally important that we offer ourselves as potential reading role models for our high school students, to show that that all reading behaviours count and to help them understand that reading is everywhere and they, too, can count as members of the diverse reading community.

The second video, ‘Overcoming Barriers to RfP’, drew more heavily on current research and professional practice in its lengthier discussion. They explored the 6 key aspects of reading for pleasure, as supported by the evidence provided on the World Book Day website:

  1. Being read to regularly
  2. Having books at home and school
  3. Finding time to read
  4. Having trusted help to find a book
  5. Giving children a choice in what to read
  6. Making reading fun

One key element they discussed as having an important role in overcoming barriers to our students’ reading for pleasure was to identify and discuss the barriers to our own pleasure reading. Discussing these barriers as well as the physical and mental spaces that help or hinder our reading can help normalise and destigmatise some of the feelings and behaviours our students experience, such as feeling they don’t have the time to read, like they’re too distracted to get into a book, or that they simply aren’t enjoying a book and want to put it aside.

Some of the specific barriers to reading explored in this webinar include:

  • lack of access to appropriate, interesting books
  • lack of time to read
  • lack of will (especially due to competing interests and activities)
  • lack of skill
  • peer pressure around what does and doesn’t count as reading
  • distraction
  • tiredness

Teresa Cremin provided a summary of her research, arguing that there are four main factors affecting reading for pleasure:

  1. Intrinsic motivation

Cremin revealed that the research repeatedly shows that intrinsic motivation is far more important than extrinsic (external, reward based) or social motivations when it comes to getting students reading. She said that students with intrinsic motivation read because they care about the subject, relate to the characters, and want to know what happens next. She notes that extrinsic motivation, however, dominates in professional practice where we see reading challenges and certificates promoting reading for others, rather than reading for ourselves.

  1. Choice and agency

Cremin referenced data which suggests that only 14% of students chose a text based on a teacher’s recommendations. This highlights the importance of student choice in their reading material, and we therefore need to deveop their ability to browse and select appropriate, interesting texts and to support their choices without judgement.

  1. Informal book talks

This socially motivates readers, which in turn can develop intrinsic motivation to read and allows students to see themselves as part of a wider community of readers. Cremin noted that talking about fiction is almost as important as reading it in the first place, and that “low key, relaxed blether” about books can allow us to reframe reading as a fun social endeavour which links students to the collective, communal reading journey.

  1. Role models

Cremin and the other presenters all emphasised that building relationships with our students is crucial to developing reading for pleasure as a habit amongst our students, and that we need to know our students and their interests in order to champion their emerging reader identities.

Overall, there was a lot of useful information in these two videos, and a number of suggestions to help us incorporate evidence-based strategies into our practice. The good news is that a lot of what I’m doing with the Wide Reading Program lessons is on the right track. Some of the new strategies I noted as possibly being suitable for my context include:

  • Modelling reading and giving students a break while they develop their stamina by having the teacher read aloud from a novel’s right hand page (usually the first page of a chapter) with students reading from the left hand page. I thought that I could also incorporate ICT with this strategy by using the library’s document camera to project the pages to the class.
  • Having a discussion around the types of barriers both students and staff experience with their own reading.
  • Reading blanket: lay out a selection of books on a blanket and use them as a prompt for an informal book talk and student selection of materials. Another activity that could emerge from this is that students could vote on which books they’d prefer to read, followed by a discussion about why.
  • Students could select a number of books they feel should be highlighted through our library’s dynamic shelving. This could help them to feel a sense of ownership within the space while showing them that staff honour and support their reading choices.
  • Students choose a book for staff to read aloud to the class. Due to the fact that classroom teachers support me in these lessons, we could even split the class to ensure more students are satisfied with their grouping’s choice.
  • Engage parents in pleasure reading and as reading role models through a parents book club, breakfasts, parent teacher night discussions, by giving recommendations and allowing parents to borrow books (one presenter said that The Midnight Library never fails her in this regard!)

This is just the tip of the iceberg regarding the research and strategies offered by the Open University’s Reading for Pleasure program. Their website features a plethora of different resources to help educators like myself develop strong pleasure reading programs in our own schools, and as I move forward with my colleagues to create a school-wide culture of reading for pleasure in our own context I have no doubt I’ll be referring to their work quite frequently!

Research: Creating a School-Wide Reading Culture

A few colleagues and I are interested in developing a school-wide reading culture to support the literacy development of our students. We’re in the early stages of this process and I’ve just started doing some initial research into what works for other schools and how we can proceed within our own setting. From the early responses I’ve received for my inquiries on Facebook and Viva Engage it seems that this is something of interest to a lot of teacher-librarians, but few of us feel that we work in a school with a strong reading culture.

One useful resource I’ve investigated over the last few days is Madison’s Library, who has been on her own journey creating a school reading culture since 2021. I liked how she started her journey by considering how we know whether a school has a reading culture or not, as this forced me to consider my own assumptions about what a reading culture is and what we might already be doing to support pleasure reading and literacy development.

Her examination of organisational culture and climate was also interesting. Some of the research she referenced argues that organisational culture “is the glue that binds people towards a shared vision or goal” (Dearnaley, 2021, paraphrasing Lee, 2020) or “the way things are done in an organisation” (Dearnaley, 2021, paraphrasing Heath, 2021). On the other hand, “If culture is the values, belief systems, motivations and assumptions then climate is the patterns of behaviour, habits and feelings” (Dearnaley, 2021, paraphrasing Randhawa, 2019).

She referenced Katzenbach, Steffan, and Pronely’s 2012 Five Point Strategy for initiating effective cultural change. They argue the need to:

  1. Match the change strategy with the culture
  2. Focus on a few small shifts in behaviour
  3. Honour the strengths of the existing culture
  4. Integrate formal and informal interventions
  5. Measure and monitor cultural evolution

She also refernced Rick’s 2016 CREATE strategy:

  • C – clarify values and organisations culture.
  • R – reinforce the vision, ensuring everyone in the team knows the vision, values and culture code and how these will work towards success.
  • E – empower behaviours that support the values, culture and vision
  • A – align conversations
  • T – target efforts on high impact areas
  • E – emphasise success

She also gave several interesting definitions of what reading culture is, based on current research:

  • A culture of reading is the tangible and visible expression of how all members of the school community value reading and engage with reading (Reading First, 2007)
  • A positive reading culture provides support, encouragement, modelling, resources and opportunities to read for pleasure (Merga & Mason, 2019).
  • Reading is seen and embedded across the school, in all classes, across all areas of the curriculum and the daily life of students (Daniels & Steres, 2011). 
  • A supportive school reading culture is availability, opportunity, encouragement and support for reading (Merga & Mason, 2019).
  • A unique feature of a reading culture is that it promotes reading for leisure, rather than for just academic purposes or educational outcomes (Cochrane et al., 2022)
  • Intrinsic student motivation for reading, reading engagement, autonomy, and student choice are also key features of a strong reading culture (Daniels & Steres, 2011).

She then referenced the work of Daniels and Steres (2011), who suggest three actions towards building a strong reading culture:

  1. Make reading a school-wide goal and priority, allowing time and expectations for reading. 
  2. Provide ongoing support and training to staff to support readers, including how to talk to their students about reading and develop their own reading practices. 
  3. Commit resources, including time and money to ensure access and commitment to reading is evident and supported.

Her conclusion regarding the position of the school library in this cultural change was a profound one for me. She argues that while the library can support a school-wide reading culture, it has to be enacted and owned by all members of the school community. This will be a significant challenge moving forward, since my time-poor teaching colleagues will likely find any initiative proposed in this area as just another thing to add to their workloads, despite their good intentions and understanding of the benefits. Maintaining the momentum, especially with such a time-consuming initiative, will be a challenge for any leader.

References:

Dearnaley, Madison. (2021, October 8). Building a school reading culture – Part 1. Madison’s Library. https://madisonslibrary.com/2021/10/08/building-a-reading-culture-part-1/

Dearnaley, Madison. (2021, October 23). Building a school reading culture – Part 2 organisational culture research. Madison’s Library. https://madisonslibrary.com/2021/10/23/building-a-reading-culture-part-2/

Dearnaley, Madison. (2021, November 3). Building a school reading culture – Part 3 culture change research. Madison’s Library. https://madisonslibrary.com/2021/11/03/building-a-reading-culture-part-3/

Dearnaley, Madison. (2022, June 23). Building a school reading culture – Part 4 what is a reading culture? Madison’s Library. https://madisonslibrary.com/2022/06/23/building-a-reading-culture-part-4/

Dearnaley, Madison. (2022, July 3). Building a school reading culture – Part 5 measuring reading culture. Madison’s Library. https://madisonslibrary.com/2022/07/03/building-a-reading-culture-part-5/

Dearnaley, Madison. (2022, October 6). Building a school reading culture – Part 6 measuring the starting point. Madison’s Library. https://madisonslibrary.com/2023/10/06/building-a-reading-culture-part-6/

Dearnaley, Madison. (2022, October 6). Building a school reading culture – Part 7 reading culture characteristics. Madison’s Library. https://madisonslibrary.com/2023/11/15/building-a-reading-culture-part-7/

Adjusting the Wide Reading Program for the Tech Elect Class

While I was completing my Master of Education degree at CSU, I came across some fascinating research about the social elements of reading. This is often seen as a solitary past-time and therefore might be a turn-off for some teenagers, who are going through a development phase of seeking social interactions and determining their identities in these social settings. At the time I started to muse about incorporating more social reading activities it into my Wide Reading Program, but alas! Time was my enemy. While we’re still not exactly on the best terms, I do have a little more of it up my sleeve at the moment and therefore I’m revisiting the idea of leveraging research into social behaviours in this year’s program.

I’m lucky to have the Tech Elect class joining us again. I had them last year when they were in Year 7, and while many students enjoyed the program and found it beneficial, I’m still concerned by the number who did not enjoy the program or who reported a decline in their enjoyment of reading.

This class is a BYOD iPad class and therefore the perfect guinea pigs to trial using technology to boost the social aspect of reading for pleasure. I’ve found that my own reading habits have been positively influenced by social media such as Bookstagram, while Booktok has had an undeniable effect on the reading landscape in the past few years.

This year, I’m hoping to start incorporating these elements by getting students to create a Goodreads account and to use the Goodreads app on their devices. One of my uni lecturers, Krystal Gagen-Spriggs, has worked in this space and written a fascinating article on how she used Goodreads in her own Teacher-Librarian programs.

This will by no means be an easy feat but it is one that I definitely feel has the potential to transform my students’ perceptions of reading behaviours and hopefully will increase their enjoyment of reading for fun.

ETL504 5.2 & 5.3: Servant Leadership

Scenario: You are in your third year as a teacher librarian in a school where you had to work actively to promote the value and services of the library. Classes come to the library either for relief from face-to-face teaching (primary) or supervision for research (secondary) without planned opportunities for collaborative or shared teaching. As you engage with ETL504 you have evaluated your current library role as that of a servant, rather than a servant leader. You seem to be reacting to the immediate needs and requirements of teachers and students in regard to providing resources, responding to immediate information and digital literacy needs, supporting recreational reading requirements and providing technology support.

Task: Through the lens of servant leadership, identify and share one proactive approach to lead a shift in expectations and responsibilities that will build the capacity of either teachers or students in recreational reading.

It’s scary how accurate the give scenario for this task is – it almost exactly matches my situation! I started in the library in 2021 and when I stepped into the position the big perception of the library’s role in our school was that it’s all about books and reading. Rather than dedicate my non-existent time to pick that fight and battle this misconception while in the depths of Covid disruptions and completing the Masters on top of my library responsibilities and English teaching role, I leaned into this perception to show my value to my school community.

Inspired in large part by the work I completed for ETL402 Literature Across the Curriculum, I decided to start an Action Research Project based around my implementation of a Wide Reading Program for Year 7, 2022. That year our school restructured the timetable and removed DEAR from roll call despite our declining NAPLAN and HSC results, so I aligned this project with our School Plan to give it legitimacy and worked with several English teachers since I was still teaching English classes and part of that faculty despite my relocation to the library. I started with 4 classes but due to staffing issues and constant interruptions only maintained consistent contact with 2 classes.

I sold this as a service to these teachers which would support their teaching units and develop student literacy while saving them time. The reformed English curriculum explicitly references reading for pleasure, so this is another angle I’ve used this year to promote the program and ensure unity between my work in the library and teachers’ work in their classrooms.

Word got around about this program and its benefits, and so this year it has expanded to include 5 Year 7 classes and 2 Year 8 classes, ensuring access to reading materials and positive modelling for 190 teenagers who often otherwise wouldn’t take the time to read for fun.

Knowing what I do now as a result of ETL504, if I could go back in time I would be far more proactive about advertising this program and raising its visibility in the early stages with my Senior Executive to showcase my proactive response to community needs and my leadership potential. I did include comments and data from my research in my Annual Reportwhich I shared with my Head Teachers and the Senior Executive, though it’s hard to say if they even read this document so perhaps other tactics are needed, such as personal invitations to attend lessons, social media marketing, and professional publication of the results. I plan to leverage the success of this program and the trust built with staff and students to build collaborative planning opportunities in future, especially around information fluency and inquiry learning, and thus to slowly but surely change the perception of what a library is all about.

ETL533 Assessment 4: Part D – Critical Reflection

My understanding of digital literature has grown significantly over the last few months. From my early definitions to the creation of my own narrative, I’ve gained a solid understanding of what digital literature is, why it’s beneficial and how it can be implemented to support my school.

My preliminary definitions of digital literature focused on the distinction between the digital and the digitised (Lysaught, 2022, July 19; Lysaught, 2022, July 25). As my research progressed I consolidated these distinctions by combining Unsworth’s (2006, p.2-3) and Allan’s (2017, p.22-23) categories (Lysaught, 2022, August 7). Like my peers (Curtis, 2022, July 19), I believe digital literature should be quality and meet community needs, which led me to consider what makes quality digital literature (Lysaught, 2022, August 14) and to design my own evaluation criteria where I determined three key aspects: multimodality, interactivity, and connectivity (Lysaught, 2022, August 28). Self-evaluations and peer feedback reveals – despite the amateur multimodal features – mine’s an effective, quality text suitable for its intended purpose and audience:

Evaluation of The Shakespeare Chronicles

However, defining digital literature is arguably less important to teacher-librarians than understanding how to incorporate it effectively. Digital literature provides exciting opportunities to move students from passive consumers to active creators of content  (Morra, 2013, para.2; Kitson, 2017, p.66), and as new technologies and communication tools emerge, students require new literacies to ensure they’re critically consuming and ethically creating texts (Walker et al., 2010, p.214-216; Kearney, 2011, p.169; Leu, 2011, p.6-8; Mills & Levido, 2011, p.80-81, 89; Leu et al., 2015, p.139-140; Serafini et al., 2015, p.23; Combes, 2016, p.4). In 2009 students spent an average four hours a day online (Weigel, 2009, p.38); by 2015 US teens consumed between 6-9 hours of media a day (Common Sense Media, 2015, para.6), while Australian teens now spend an average of 14.4 hours a week online (eSafety Commissioner, 2021, p.4). Digital literature therefore harnesses our students’ preferences and familiarity with technological platforms (Figueiredo & Bidarra, 2015, p.323; Skaines, 2010, p.100-104; Stepanic, 2022, p.2; Weigel, 2009, P.38). Digital literature incorporating interactivity, multimodality, and connectivity can develop ‘nöogenic narratives’ wherein personal growth is achieved by viewing our lives as a story (Hall, 2012, p.97), a key element of the English syllabus (NSW Standards Authority, 2019, p.10). Research shows that educators can exploit digital narratives to create meaningful and authentic learning opportunities for students to create personal and academic growth (Bjørgen, 2010, p.171-172; Dockter et al., 2010, p.419; Hall, 2012, p.99; Reid, 2013, p.38-41; Smeda et al., 2014, p.19; Sukovic, 2014, p.222-226).

However, educators must carefully consider the purpose of integrating digital narratives into their programmes. While research reveals digital texts’ benefits supporting young, emerging, or struggling readers and developing transliteracy (Tackvic, 2012, p.428; Cahill & McGill-Franzen, 2013, p.32-33; Matthews, 2014, p.29; McGeehan et al., 2018, p.58), others raise issues regarding reading comprehension, retention, and attention (Cull, 2011, para.35-38; Goodwin, 2013, p.79; Jabr, 2013, p.5-30; McGuire, 2015, para.30-35). Technology should be used as a meaningful tool, not just as a gimmick. Monsen (2016) explored the idea that we are “quintessentially cyborgs” due to the symbiotic relationship between humanity and technology. My research into digital learning frameworks such as the SAMR model (Lysaught, 2022, August 6) revealed that effective implementation of technology should not replace, but co-exist with and supplement existing print literacies. Printed choose-your-own-adventure narratives arguably improve literacy (Chooseco & Hofmann, 2016, para. 8-9) and can be updated using digital features to form powerful digital texts (Farber, 2015, para.1-2). Thus, my own digital narrative was designed as an immersive, interactive, multimodal resource to develop students’ understanding of life in Shakespearean England while supplementing traditional print resources and online information sources.

Throughout ETL533 I have examined how I currently incorporate digital literature into our school and considered ways to increase this in future (Lysaught, 2022, July 31; Lysaught, 2022, August 7; Lysaught, 2022, August 13). As discussed with my peers (Macey, 2022, September 24; Barnett, 2022, September 27; Facey, 2022, September 29) difficulties arise surrounding cost-effectiveness, storage, access, and user preferences that often impede digital literature’s success in schools. Despite these challenges, after creating my own digital narrative I strongly believe that student-created digital texts can enhance their own learning and connections to content, and integrate well with Guided Inquiry units and literary learning (Lysaught, 2022, January 27; Lysaught, 2022, August 14; Lysaught, 2022, September 3; Lysaught, 2022, September 16). Peer feedback also supports this (Lysaught, 2022, September 3). Due to this unit I am more aware of my students’ discussions around digital literature (Lysaught, 2022, July 25; Lysaught, 2022, August 28), revealing these are powerful texts with which students are already engaging. Literature in digital environments allows teacher-librarians to show our value to our school community, as we can support time-poor staff as they include more captivating, rich resources and utilise digital narratives to support our students with various interests and literacy needs.

 

 

Word count: 806

Reference list: https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2022/10/04/etl533-assessment-4-reference-list/

ETL533 Assessment 4: Part A – Context For Digital Storytelling Project

The Shakespeare Chronicles is a digital choose-your-own-adventure narrative created using Canva. Also known as a pick-a-path story or a gamebook, these narratives were popular during the 1980s due to their interactivity and appearance of choice for children who otherwise lacked agency (Hendrix, 2011, para.29; Jamison, 2022, para.4). Falling out of favour due to the rise of video games in the 90s (Jamison, 2022, para.46), these printed narratives can be updated for new audiences and technologies in our electronic age by incorporating the digital features which once superseded them (Stuart, 2011, para.1-2; Figueiredo & Bidarra, 2015, p.330).

The Shakespeare Chronicles was designed to support EHS’s Year 7 English Guided Inquiry Design unit ‘Shakespeare’s Bawdy Mouth’. It can also be used to support revision for Stage 5 and 6 English students studying a variety of Shakespeare’s plays. In this narrative, students follow the adventures of an actor in Shakespeare’s theatre company. They are presented with choices to guide the narrative and learn about life in Shakespeare’s time. Utilising interactivity, multimodality, and connectivity – key elements of quality digital literature (Lysaught, 2022, August 28) – it supports students as they explore the following questions:

  1. How different or similar are our experiences to peoples’ experiences in Shakespeare’s time?
  2. Why is Shakespeare considered a significant composer?
  3. How can understanding Shakespeare’s works and the experiences of people living during his lifetime help us understand ourselves and our world?

Due to its historical focus, stage-appropriate language features and dual function as a research pathfinder, this resource allows teachers to meet multiple English and History outcomes, while the inclusion of ICT and the cause-and-effect nature of this interactive narrative allows staff to link to a number of General Capabilities:

This digital narrative taps into what Figueiredo and Bidarra (2015, p.324) call the ‘ludic’ or game-based learning model and draws on students’ predilections towards digital, interactive media (Figueiredo & Bidarra, 2015, p.323; Skaines, 2010, p.100-104; Stepanic, 2022, p.2; Weigel, 2009, P.38). Introduced in the Immerse inquiry stage as a resource to assist student engagement and build background knowledge (Kuhlthau  et al., 2012, p.61-66, 70; Maniotes, 2017, p.8), its secondary purpose as a research pathfinder supports students as they move into the Explore, Identify and Gather stages of Guided Inquiry (Kuhlthau  et al., 2012, p.75-82, 93-98, 109-116; Maniotes, 2017, p.8-9).

Currently the summative assessment for this unit requires students to produce three diary entries from the perspective of someone living during Shakespeare’s time, to be viewed and marked by a teacher. The Shakespeare Chronicles provides a model for students to create their own digital narrative, supporting their digital literacy and social development in interesting and relevant ways with an authentic audience of peers to promote engagement (Dockter et al., 2010, p.419-420; Weigel, 2009, p.40). Multimodal aspects build understanding of life during Shakespeare’s time, supporting students’ use of visual and auditory imagery in their own writing and moving students from consumers to creators of content – a key element of digital literature (Morra, 2013, para.2; Kitson, 2017, p.66).

In designing this resource, I considered the questions posed by Reid (2013, p.41) to ensure my community’s learning needs were being met. EHS is a comprehensive, co-educational public school in South-West Sydney. Enrolments increased 10% in the 2016-2020 period, though decreased in 2021 (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2021a). New housing developments changing our catchment demographics lowered our ICSEA score from 1017 in 2014 to 995 in 2021 (ACARA, 2021a). NAPLAN results are below average (ACARA, 2021b) while Sentral data shows increasing disengagement, with suspensions increasing 96.6% and expulsions 600% since 2014 (Sentral, 2021).

This digital narrative engages students visually and emotionally with the experiences of past people, supporting a variety of literacy needs and growing student independence (Foley, 2012, p.8; Cahill & McGill-Franzen, 2013, p.33, 35-36; Chooseco & Hoffman, 2016, para.8-9; Towndrow & Kogut, 2020, p.4, 14, 147-148). Access to 1:1 devices is limited to shared, bookable banks of often unreliable laptops or iPads, so the resource is accessible on a variety of devices (including student phones) via an easily shared Canva link and can be uploaded to subject learning platforms and the library website for future reference and to support social connection. While our students frequently engage with digital media, they often lack the skills to effectively navigate web content or critically evaluate online information; hyperlinked resources provide students with quality information to use in their own research. Teaching time is limited, as are student attention spans; a short narrative counteracts this peripatetic “grasshopper mind” (Weigel, 2009, p.38), though multiple pathways invite replay and continued enjoyment. Choice encourages interactivity and engagement (Hendrix, 2011, para.19, 29), aiming to overcome disengagement and encourage students to make personal connections with the content (Weigel, 2009, p.40; Bjørgen, 2010, p. 171; Hall, 2012, p.99; Lambert, 2012, p.37-38; Towndrow & Kogut, 2020, p.148).

 

 

Word count: 798

Reference list: https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2022/10/04/etl533-assessment-4-reference-list/

ETL533 Assessment 4: Reference List

Allan, C. (2017). Digital fiction: ‘Unruly object’ or literary artefact? English in Australia, 52(2), 21-27.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA] (n.d.a). Literacy (Version 8.4). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/literacy/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA] (n.d.b). Information and communication technology (ICT) capability (Version 8.4). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/information-and-communication-technology-ict-capability/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA] (n.d.c). Personal and social capability (Version 8.4). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/personal-and-social-capability/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2021a). Elderslie High School school profile. My School. https://www.myschool.edu.au/school/41597

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2021b). Elderslie High School NAPLAN student progress. My School. https://www.myschool.edu.au/school/41597

Bjørgen, A. (2010). Boundary crossing and learning identities – digital storytelling in primary schools. Media, Technology & Life-Long Learning, 6(2), 161-178.

Cahill, M., & McGill-Franzen, A. (2013). Selecting “app” ealing and “app” ropriate book apps for beginning readers. Reading Teacher, 67(1), 30–39.

Combes, B. (2016). Digital literacy: A new flavour of literacy or something different? Synergy, 14(1).

Common Sense Media (2015). Landmark report: U.S. teens use an average of nine hours of media per day, tweens use six hours. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/press-releases/landmark-report-us-teens-use-an-average-of-nine-hours-of-media-per-day-tweens-use-six-hours#:~:text=Other%20key%20findings%3A,than%208%20hours%20with%20screens

Chooseco & Hofmann, M. (2016, May 19). Choose your own adventure books increase kids’ reading comprehension and literacy rates more quickly than linear stories. Choose Your Own Adventure [blog]. https://www.cyoa.com/blogs/press/117605637-choose-your-own-adventure-books-increase-kids-reading-comprehension-and-literacy-rates-more-quickly-than-linear-stories

Cull, B. W. (2011). Reading revolutions: online digital text and implications for reading in academe. First Monday, 16(6). http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3340/2985

Dockter, J., Haug, D., & Lewis, C. (2010). Redefining rigor: Critical engagement, digital media, and the new English/Language Arts. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(5), 418-420.

eSafety Commissioner (2021). The digital lives of Aussie teens. https://aifs.gov.au/media/australian-children-spending-more-time-screens

Farber, M. (2015, August 14). Interactive fiction in the classroom. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/interactive-fiction-in-the-classroom-matthew-farber#:~:text=Research%20suggests%20it%20only%20holds,for%2010%20to%2020%20seconds.

Figueiredo, M., & Bidarra, J. (2015). The development of a gamebook for education. Procedia Computer Science 67, 322-331.

Foley, C. (2012).  Ebooks for leisure and learning. Scan 31, 6-14.

Goodwin, B. (2013). The reading skills digital brains need. Educational Leadership, 71(3), 78-79.

Hall, T. (2012). Digital renaissance: The creative potential of narrative technology in education. Creative Education, 3(1), 96-100.

Hendrix, G. (2011, February 17). Choose your own adventure: How The Cave of Time taught us to love interactive entertainment. Slate. https://slate.com/culture/2011/02/choose-your-own-adventure-books-how-the-cave-of-time-taught-us-to-love-interactive-entertainment.html#pagebreak_anchor_2

Jabr, F. (2013). The reading brain in the digital age: The science of paper versus screens. Scientific American. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/

Jamison, L. (2022, September 12). The enduring allure of choose your own adventure books: How a best-selling series gave young readers a new sense of agency. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/09/19/the-enduring-allure-of-choose-your-own-adventure-books

Kearney, M. (2011). A learning design for student-generated digital storytelling. Learning, Media and Technology, 36(2), 169-188.

Kitson, L. (2017). Exploring opportunities for literary literacy with e-literature: To infinity and beyond. Australian Literacy Educators’ Association. Literacy Learning, 23(2), 58-68.

Kuhlthau, C., Maniotes, L., & Caspari, A. (2012). Guided Inquiry Design: a framework for inquiry in your school. Libraries Unlimited.

Lambert, J. (2012). Digital storytelling: capturing lives, creating community. Routledge.

Leu, D. J. et al (2011). The new literacies of online reading comprehension: Expanding the literacy and learning curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(1), 5-14.

Leu, D. J, Forzani, E., Timbrell, N., & Maykel, C. (2015). Seeing the forest, not the trees: Essential technologies for literacy in the primary-grade and upper elementary-grade classroom. Reading Teacher, 69(2), 139-145

Maniotes, L. (2017). Guided inquiry design in action: high school. Libraries Unlimited.

Matthews, J. (2014). Voices from the heart: The use of digital storytelling in education. Community Practitioner, 87(1), 28-30.

McGeehan, C., Chambers, S., & Nowakowski, J. (2018). Just because it’s digital, doesn’t mean it’s good: Evaluating digital picture books. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 34(2), 58-70.

McGuire, H. (2015, April 22). Why can’t we read any more? Can books save us from what digital does to our brain?  Medium. https://hughmcguire.medium.com/why-can-t-we-read-anymore-503c38c131fe

Mills, K.A., & Levido, A. (2011). iPed: pedagogy for digital text production. The Reading Teacher, 65(1), 80-91.

Monsen, Y. (2016, December 16). Brave new literature; Digital textuality, technology, and cyborgian humanity. Medium. https://medium.com/publishizer/brave-new-literature-digital-textuality-technology-and-cyborgian-humanity-5d8f40bf3094

Morra, S. (2013). Eight steps to great storytelling. EdTeachTeacher [Blog]. http://edtechteacher.org/8-steps-to-great-digital-storytelling-from-samantha-on-edudemic/

NSW Education Standards Authority [NESA] (2012). History K-10 syllabus.

NSW Education Standards Authority [NESA] (2019). English K-10 syllabus.

Reid, K. (2013).  Creating e-books in the classroom. In J. Bales (Ed.), E-books in learning – a beginner ‘s guide. Australia: Australian School Library Association.

Sentral (2021). Elderslie High School: wellbeing. Retrieved September 24, 2022.

Serafini, F., Kachorsky, D. & Aguilera, E. (2015). Picture books 2.0: Transmedial features across narrative platforms. Journal of Children’s Literature, 41(2), 16-24.

Skaines, R. L. (2010). The shifting author-reader dynamic: online novel communities as a bridge from print to digital literature. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 16(1), 95–111.

Smeda, N., Dakich, E., & Sharda, N. (2014). The effectiveness of digital storytelling in the classrooms: a comprehensive study. Smart Learning Environments 1(6), 1-21.

Stepanic, S. (2022, May 20). ‘Dracula Daily’ reanimates the classic vampire novel for the age of memes and snark. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/dracula-daily-reanimates-the-classic-vampire-novel-for-the-age-of-memes-and-snark-183084

Sukovic, S. (2014). iTell: Transliteracy and digital storytelling. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 45(3), 205–229.

Stuart, K. (2011, January 11). Interactive fiction in the ebook era. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2011/jan/11/interactive-fiction-ebooks-apple-kindle

Tackvic, C. (2012). Digital storytelling: Using technology to spark creativity. The Educational Forum, 76(4), 426.

Towndrow, P. A., & Kogut, G. (2020). Digital storytelling for educative purposes: providing an evidence-base for classroom practice. Studies in Singapore Education: Research Innovation & Practice 1. Singapore: Springer.

Unsworth, L. (2006). E-literature for children: Enhancing digital literacy learning. Routledge.

Walker, S., Jameson, J., & Ryan, M. (2010). Skills and strategies for e-learning in a participatory culture (Ch. 15). In R. Sharpe, H. Beetham, & S. Freitas (Eds.), Rethinking learning for a digital age: How learners are shaping their own experiences. New York, NY: Routledge

Weigel, M. (2009). The best of both literacies. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 38-41.

ETL505 Assessment 3 Part C: Genrefication Essay

The literature provides good arguments for arranging primary school library collections by genres. Is this also the case for high school library collections? Choose two of the advantages and disadvantages mentioned in the literature and critically discuss these in relation to arranging a high school library collection by genres.

When deciding to genrefy a high-school library’s collection, teacher-librarians should consider the multiple roles a library performs within a school community, the specific needs of their adolescent users, and which aspects of genrefication (if any) best suit these purposes and user needs. While genrefication has gained popularity amongst practitioners for its ability to increase circulation and promote lifelong reading habits, issues around logistics and lack of standardised organisation remain.

Genrefication is a relatively new topic in information sciences (Outhouse, 2017, p.43). Broadly speaking, genrefication constitutes organising resources by a system other than the traditional Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) (Outhouse, 2017, p.44). Organisation can be based on resources’ formats, literacy levels, subject headings (such as those assigned by SCIS), or literary genres (Wall, 2019, p.11). Genrefication exists on a spectrum, from labelling books in their original DDC location, to separating ‘mini-collections’ in distinct displays, to completely reorganising the layout and position of resources (National Library of New Zealand, n.d., para.33-36; Gray, 2019, p.25; Wall, 2019, p.11). There is also an imbalance in the treatment of fiction and non-fiction collections in genrefication discussions, with greater emphasis on its benefits to fiction collections (Wall, 2019, p.11).

School librarians espouse numerous benefits to genrefying their collections. Increased circulation statistics are cited as one crucial benefit (Gray, 2019, p.18-22). Many practitioners claim that genrefication has made their collections more accessible and more appealing (Davenport, 2017, p.7; Dawson, 2019, p.23; Mathur, 2019, p.6; Wall, 2019, p.14; Davenport, 2021, p.12). Hider (2018, p.24) argues that effective information resource description should help users obtain information, and librarians should therefore understand their users’ specific needs. In high-schools, when student pleasure-reading declines (Dickenson, 2014, p.10), genrefying fiction can be a game-changer. Many teenagers prefer to browse to find interesting and relevant resources (Bessman Taylor et. al., 2019, p.862); therefore, organising fiction according to similar subjects or themes is a useful way to promote positive reading habits in adolescents. Pleasure-reading has numerous academic and social benefits which overcome socio-economic disadvantage (Krashen, 2011, p.1-9), and research shows that access to reading materials increases adolescents’ reading motivation (Manuel and Carter, 2015, p.126). Therefore, genrefication supports adolescent information behaviours, encouraging browsing and selection of resources relevant to their needs, interests, and abilities.

While reading promotion is one aspect of high-school librarianship, promoting information literacy is also crucial. Forsaking standardised methods of organisation like the DDC is a frequent objection to genrefication (Gray, 2019, p.23; Wall, 2019, p.13) since students require the skills to navigate standardised systems utilised by most libraries worldwide. Greater emphasis is placed on genrefication’s benefits to fiction than on non-fiction collections, possibly because the DDC already groups similar resources by discipline to facilitate browsing (Hider, 2017, p.193). However, Outhouse (2017, p.36) argues the DDC is not a browsable system for today’s students due to its technical nature. The DDC has been described as a ‘secret code’ that students today do not understand (LaGarde, 2018, para.10). Outhouse (2017, p.41-42) argues that one of the DDC’s faults is that it is difficult for young children to search effectively due to its reliance on mathematical knowledge and seemingly unrelated subject order; high-school students with poor numeracy or pre-existing negative perceptions about the library would likewise be frustrated by its complicated numerical classification system. Some high-school teacher-librarians have therefore partially genrefied their non-fiction resources to support specific subject areas such as English, or to support specific groups of students, such as senior students (Dawson, 2019, p.23).

One frequently cited disadvantage of genrefication relates to the logistics of such reorganisation. Rearranging sections of a collection, let alone the entire library, takes time, effort, money, and training to ensure effective organisation and cataloguing of the changes (Gray, 2019, p.24; Mathur, 2019, p.6; Wall, 2019, p.14). However, LaGarde argues that if we value improving our users’ reading experiences and volume, then genrefication is worth prioritising (2018, para.26). Yet it must be stated that by replacing the ‘secret code’ of the DDC with genre classifications such as those assigned by SCIS, teacher-librarians might just be replacing one code with another, and replacing the standardised DDC subject groupings with another, non-standardised genre grouping (such as SCIS categories) might not suit all texts and users (Hamm, 2019, para.1; Wall, 2019, p.14), especially considering recent trends towards genre-blending (Barone, 2010, p.15-17). The ongoing flexibility needed to maintain a genrefied collection and keep it up-to-date with teen reading needs and expectations might be more than some teacher-librarians are willing or capable of providing.

Teacher-librarians considering genrefying their own collections should thus weigh the benefits to their specific clientele against the logistical realities of such an undertaking. They may choose to genrefy ‘mini-collections’ or to label resources in their current DDC position, using SCIS categories and user input as a guide. Ultimately teacher-librarians must use their technical expertise alongside their knowledge of their specific users’ needs, abilities, and interests to make the right decision for their context.

 

Reference List

Barone, D. M. (2010). Children’s literature in the classroom: Engaging lifelong readers. Guildford Publications.

Bessman Taylor, J., Hora, A., Steege Krueger, K. (2019). Self-selecting books in a children’s fiction collection arranged by genre. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 51(3), 852-865. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000617743088

Davenport, S. (2017). Genrefying the fiction collection. Connections, 102(3), 6-7. https://www.scisdata.com/media/1511/connections102.pdf

Davenport, S. (2021). Genrefication 3.5 years later: Reflections. Connections, 117(2), 12-13. https://www.scisdata.com/media/2283/scis_connections_117_web.pdf

Dawson, T. (2019). Genrefying nonfiction at Parkes High School. Scan, 38(2). https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/scan/past-issues/vol-38–2019/make-a-difference-mad-spotlight-on-teacher-librarians#tabs1

Dickenson, D. (2014). Children and reading: literature review. University of Western Sydney, Australian Government, and Australia Council for the Arts.

Gray, M. (2019). Genre fiction collections in Australian school libraries. Scan, 38(10). https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/scan/past-issues/vol-38–2019/genre-fiction-collections-in-australian-school-libraries

Hamm, S. (August 5, 2019). Why I chose not to genrify the fiction section. Teen Services Underground [blog]. https://www.teenservicesunderground.com/why-i-chose-not-to-genrify-the-fiction-section/

Hider, P. (2018). Information resource description: Creating and managing metadata (2nd ed.). London: Facet.

Krashen, S. D. (2011). Free voluntary reading. ABC-CLIO, LLC.

LaGarde, J. (October 24, 2018). Genrefying your collection without changing call numbers. The Adventures of Library Girl [blog]. https://www.librarygirl.net/post/genrefying-your-collection-without-changing-call-numbers

Manuel, J., & Carter, D. (2015). Current and historical perspectives on Australian teenagers’ reading practices and preferences. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 38(2), 115-128.

Mathur, P. (2019). Genrefication @ The Kings’ School Senior Library. Scan, 38(9). https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/scan/past-issues/vol-38–2019/genrefication—the-kings-school-senior-library

National Library of New Zealand (n.d.). Arranging library fiction by genre. https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/reading-engagement/libraries-supporting-readers/arranging-library-fiction-by-genre

Outhouse, A. R. K. (2017). Genrefication: Introducing and explaining the exponential trend in public and school libraries. https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/masters_papers/kk91fq479

Wall, J. (2019). Genrefication in NSW public school libraries: A discussion paper. Scan, 38(10). https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/scan/past-issues/vol-38–2019/genrefication-in-nsw-public-school-libraries

ETL402 Assessment 2 Part B: Reflective Blog Post

ETL402 has greatly expanded my understanding of how children’s literature is more than a literacy tool only useful in the English classroom. This unit has built on the knowledge I’ve developed over the last 10 years as an English/History teacher and expanded my understanding of new literacies and text types that have evolved (largely due to new technologies) since I finished my Master of Teaching in 2011.

Literary learning – teaching curriculum content through literature – is a powerful tool to develop students’ multiliteracies. In a changing information landscape, it is crucial that we develop multiliterate students who are flexible, have the skills to reformulate knowledge and practice, and can make meaning via multiple modes and formats (Anstey & Bull, 2006, p.19-21; Gorgon & Marcus, 2013, p.42). Sometimes as classroom teachers we can get stuck in a rut and it’s hard to find the time to explore new developments. ETL402 exposed me to new, exciting text types such as digital narratives (Lysaught, 2022a, para.4-6) and emphasised that teacher-librarians, acting as a mediators for time-poor classroom teachers, should seek out, explore, and curate useful resources to ensure that our colleagues have the best tools possible to teach our students (Braun, 2010, p.47; Lysaught, 2022b, para.6).

While many ETL401 readings emphasised that libraries were about more than just books (Lysaught, 2021a, para.8-9; Lysaught, 2021b, para.7-8, 15), ETL402 reminded me about reading’s importance and the value of literature across the curriculum (Lysaught, 2021c, para.1, 5). Like my peers (Poyitt, 2021, para.1), it troubles me that so many teens I work with simply don’t read. ETL402 made me question my own practices, preferences, and habits (Lysaught, 2021e, para.1-2). Many readings and discussions explored the reasons why people read or don’t, leading me to create these infographics:

These readings gave me valuable insights and inspiring strategies to inform my future practice as I work towards building a whole-school reading culture (Fulton, 2021, para.1; Shaw, 2021, para.2-9; Lysaught, 2022b, para.5; Lysaught, 2022c, para.2-3; Lysaught, 2022d, para.4-6). Literary learning is a particularly exciting way to build whole-school reading culture which I plan to implement to benefit my school community, as summarised in my infographics which I plan to share with my colleagues:

Moving forward, I understand that as information specialist, curriculum leader, and literacy expert, I should:

  • Offer professional development opportunities for staff wishing to engage their students with literary learning;
  • Collaboratively plan for the implementation of literary learning with classroom teachers;
  • Implement literary response strategies with my own classes and support colleagues’ implementation e.g. Book Bento Boxes, Literature Circles;
  • Curate appropriate resources to support staff and student needs and interests;
  • Encourage further investigation and continued pleasure reading with a diverse, relevant, accessible collection;
  • Effectively display and promote relevant materials as well as successful literary learning units via parent bulletins, social media, staff meetings, and school reports;
  • Work with other stakeholders (e.g. Head Teacher Teaching and Learning, Literacy Committee Co-ordinator) to collect and analyse data determining the efficacy of literary learning;
  • Draw upon the expertise and strengths of numerous staff to build a more effective whole-school reading culture which supports students’ personal and academic needs;
  • Be responsive to the changing information landscape, time-pressures, and other issues (e.g. Covid restrictions) which may hinder implementation of collaborative practice

 

Bibliography:

Allington, R. L., & Gabriel, R. E. (2012). Every child every day. Educational Leadership, 69(6), 10-15.

Anstey, M., & Bull, G. (2006). Chapter 2: Defining multiliteracies. In M. Anstey & G. Bull (Eds.) Teaching and learning multiliteracies: Changing times, changing literacies. International Reading Association.

Barone, D. M. (2010). Children’s literature in the classroom: Engaging lifelong readers. Guildford Publications.

Braun, P. (2010). Taking the time to read aloud. Science Scope, 34(2), 45-49.

Brugar, K. A., & McMahon Whitlock, A. (2019). “I like […] different time periods:” elementary teachers’ uses of historical fiction. Social Studies Research and Practice 14(1), 78-97.

Carrillo, S. (2013, June 14). The power of a single story. Facing History & Ourselves. https://lanetwork.facinghistory.org/the-power-of-a-single-story/

Combes, B., & Valli, R. (2007). Fiction and the twenty-first century: A new paradigm? Paper submitted to Cyberspace, D-world, e-learning. Giving schools and libraries the cutting edge, 2007 IASL Conference, Taipei, Taiwan.

Daley, P. (2014, November 6). Anzac and Gallipoli are the novelist’s terrain as much as the historians. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/australia-books-blog/2014/nov/06/-sp-anzac-gallipolli-novelists-terrain-as-much-as-historians

Dickenson, D. (2014). Children and reading: literature review. University of Western Sydney, Australian Government, and Australia Council for the Arts.

Donnelly, D. (2017). Multi-platformed historical fiction: Literacy, engagement and historical understanding. SCAN 36(3), 43-47.

Earp, J. (2015, March 3). The power of a good book. Teacher. https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/the-power-of-a-good-book

Fulton, A. (2021, November 17). Re: 1.2: Affirmative action – examples of practice [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_58477_1&conf_id=_115076_1&forum_id=_259135_1&message_id=_3855912_1&nav=discussion_board_entry

Gaiman, N. (2013, October 16). Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming

Gorgon, B. & Marcus, A. (2013). Lost in transliteracy: How to expand student learning across a variety of platforms. Knowledge Quest, 41(5), 40-45.

Howard, V. (2011) the importance of pleasure reading in the lives of young teens: Self-identification, self-construction and self-awareness. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 43(1), 46-55. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000610390992

Ipri, T., & Newman, B. (2017). Beginner’s guide to transliteracy: Where did the term transliteracy come from? Libraries and Transliteracy. https://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/beginners-guide-to-transliteracy/

Jorm, M. & Robey, L. (2020, December 7). Libraries as literacy leaders. National Education Summit. https://nationaleducationsummit.com.au/new-blog/librariesasliteracyleaders

Kidd, D. C., & Castano, E. (2013). Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind. Science 342(6156), 377-380.

Krashen, S. D. (2011). Free voluntary reading. ABC-CLIO, LLC.

Lysaught, D. (2021a, July 19) ETL401 assessment 1: What is the role of the teacher librarian? All You Read Is Love. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/07/19/etl401assessment1/

Lysaught, D. (2021b, August 29) ETL401 3.2 the role of the teacher librarian: LIBERating our perceptions.  All You Read Is Love.

https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/08/29/3-2-the-role-of-the-teacher-librarian-liberating-our-perceptions/

Lysaught, D. (2021c, July 19) ETL402 half-session reflections: The function of historical fiction in secondary schools. All You Read Is Love.

https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/category/etl402/

Lysaught, D. (2021d, December 26) ETL402 3.1 strategies to leverage a love of reading. All You Read Is Love.

https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/12/26/etl402-3-1-strategies-to-leverage-a-love-of-reading/

Lysaught, D. (2021e, December 31) Top reads 2021. All You Read Is Love.

https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/12/31/top-reads-2021/

Lysaught, D. (2022a, January 3) ETL402 5.1 practical idea and digital text to support literary learning. All You Read Is Love.

https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2022/01/03/etl402-5-1-practical-idea-and-digital-text-to-support-literary-learning/

Lysaught, D. (2022b, January 10) ETL402 6.1-2 teaching and promotion strategies for using literature. All You Read Is Love.

https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2022/01/10/etl402-6-1-2-teaching-and-promotion-strategies-for-using-literature/

Lysaught, D. (2022c, January 17) ETL402 6.3 responding to literature: The read aloud. All You Read Is Love.

https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2022/01/17/etl402-6-3-responding-to-literature-the-read-aloud/

Lysaught, D. (2022d, January 17) ETL402 6.2 curriculum-based literary learning: Year 9 English power and freedom. All You Read Is Love.

https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2022/01/17/etl402-6-2-curriculum-based-literary-learning-power-and-freedom/

Manuel, J., & Carter, D. (2015). Current and historical perspectives on australian teenagers’ reading practices and preferences. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 38(2), 115-128.

Poyitt, B. (2021, November 29). Re: 1.2: Affirmative action – examples of practice [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2.

https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_58477_1&conf_id=_115076_1&forum_id=_259135_1&message_id=_3855912_1&nav=discussion_board_entry

Rodwell, G. (2019). Using fiction to develop higher-order historical understanding. In T. Allender, A. Clark & R. Parkes (Eds.), Historical thinking for history teachers: A new approach to engaging students and developing historical consciousness (p.194-207). Allen & Unwin.

Shaw, B. (2021, December 22). Re: 3.1: Strategy to leverage a love of reading [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_58477_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_115076_1&forum_id=_259138_1&message_id=_3855937_1

Smith, A. K. (2019, October 14). Literature has the power to change the world. Here’s how. Books At Work. https://www.booksatwork.org/literature-has-the-power-to-change-the-world-heres-how/

Stower, H. & Waring, P. (2018, July 16). Read like a girl: Establishing a vibrant community of passionate readers. Alliance of Girls Schools Australia. https://www.agsa.org.au/news/read-like-a-girl-establishing-a-vibrant-community-of-passionate-readers/

Taylor, T., and Young, C. (2003). Making history: a guide for the teaching and learning of history in Australian schools. Curriculum Corporation.

Wadham, R. L., Garrett, A. P., Garrett, E. N. (2019). Historical fiction picture books: the tensions between genre and format. The Journal of Culture and Values in Education 2(2), 57-72.

Whitten, C., Labby, S., & Sullivan, S. L. (2016). The impact of pleasure reading on academic success. The Journal of Multidisciplinary Graduate Research 2(4), 48-64.

Wu, Y., Mallan, K., & McGillis, R. (2013). Reimagining the world: Children’s literature’s responses to changing times. Springer.

Young, S. (2012). Understanding history through the visual. Language Arts 89(6), 379-395.

 

 

Creative Commons License The infographics in this post are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

ETL401 Assessment 3 Part C: Reflections

Starting out, I had a narrow understanding of the various roles and responsibilities of teacher-librarians. Comparing my blog posts reveals my developed understanding (Lysaught, 2021a cf. 2021b). I had never heard the terms information literacy or fluency, and although I am working in a TL position in a school with inquiry units, they’re mainly PBL units concentrating on the product rather than directed by an information literacy model focusing on the process.

This unit emphasised that students need multiple strategies to help them find, evaluate, and apply information in their lives so they can actively and ethically participate as lifelong learners in the workforce and global community. While nominally “digital natives”, our students aren’t inherently equipped to navigate information, often taking easy solutions, giving up, or believing misinformation (Coombes, 2009; O’Connell, 2012). This unit illustrated schools must explicitly teach information literacy to develop independent, responsible, and respectful information users (Berg et. al., 2018; Kulkarni, 2021). Students must understand their rights and responsibilities as global citizens and cannot do this effectively without the necessary preparation (Lysaught, 2021c).

Information Literacy, embedded in the Australian Curriculum as the oft-forgotten and poorly implemented General Capabilities, develops the 21st century learning skills our students need to navigate increasingly popular internet and social media platforms (Jacobson, 2010; Common Sense Media, 2019; Australian eSafety Commissioner, 2021). Our Generation Z/Alpha students look to their parents as trusted news sources (Notley et. al., 2020), a problematic approach given Generation Y’s ineptitude (Coombes, 2009, p.38). Government legislation has failed to keep up with the evolving information landscape and unethical behaviours (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 2020, para.70). Schools must step in to fill this void.

This subject proved “information literacy is at the heart of inquiry learning” (Fitzgerald, 2015a, p.17). I now know inquiry units framed by an IL model support Generation Alpha’s preferred learning styles (McCrindle, 2019), accelerating social/emotional learning and learner autonomy (Consortium for School Networking, 2021). Inquiry learning framed by IL models benefits students, teachers, librarians, educational leaders, and parents (Maniotes et. al., 2015 p.212-215). Teacher-librarians should be familiar with multiple models to flexibly serve the learning needs of their students and so I expanded my awareness of inquiry learning models by exploring Big 6 (Big6.org, 2015), PLUS (Herring et. al. 2002, 2007, 2011), the NSW (2020) ISP and Information Fluency Framework (Wall, 2018, 2019, 2021; Cook, 2021; Grimmett, 2021). This gave me a deeper grasp of research processes, my own research methods, and an appreciation for the confused frustration that our students feel!

The ISP/GID model struck me as most useful for my context due to its emotional stages and collaborative practice (Lysaught, 2021d). My research expanded my comprehension of the way GI moves away from unenjoyable imposed questions (Gross, 2006, p.31) to promote the Third Space Merger (Maniotes et. al., 2015, p.22-23) and authentic learning for an authentic audience (Sorensen, 2019, p.30). Crucially, GI encourages transfer of skills across learning areas (Garrison & Fitzgerald, 2017). I envisage GI being successful at my school, though I need to ensure adequate time, planning, resourcing, and staff buy-in: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go slow” (Leung et. al., 2021).

One prevailing misconception is teacher-librarians primarily focus on books and reading (Lysaught, 2021a). While improving literacy is important, it isn’t the teacher-librarian’s sole responsibility (Herring, 2007, p.29). Bonanno (2011a) states we should promote our specialist services, look for ways to be relevant, and “claim our space” to avoid becoming an “invisible profession”. I’ve learned teacher-librarians, as information and curriculum specialists, are uniquely positioned to teach information literacy explicitly and develop transliterate communities in ways other teachers are not (Lysaught, 2021e). Research repeatedly shows the positive impacts trained teacher-librarians have on student achievement (Bonanno, 2011b). Active teacher-librarians – supported by and collaborating with their colleagues – act as the glue connecting otherwise disparate learning areas (Lysaught, 2021e, 2021f).

As a result of my work in ETL401, I can now see many ways to positively contribute to my school’s Strategic Improvement Plan goals to enhance learning culture and wellbeing to improve student engagement, results, and belonging. In addition to improving student achievement, collaborative teaching of information literacy through inquiry learning draws together both aspects of our position – our teacher hat and librarian hat – and allows us to increase our visibility, advocate our value, and change public perceptions about our roles. What has struck me throughout this unit is the power of social media/networking as a promotional tool for teacher-librarians; as I move forward in this role I intend to continue learning from colleagues and triumphantly claim my space.

To conclude, I leave you with one final wordcloud of my ETL401 posts:

Word Count: 746

Bibliography:

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (2020, August 5). The ACCC’s Digital Platforms Inquiry and the need for competition, consumer protection and regulatory responses. https://www.accc.gov.au/speech/the-acccs-digital-platforms-inquiry-and-the-need-for-competition-consumer-protection-and-regulatory-responses

Australian eSafety Commissioner (2021). eSafety research: the digital lives of Aussie teens. https://www.esafety.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-02/The%20digital%20lives%20of%20Aussie%20teens.pdf

Berg, C., Malvey, D., Donohue, M. (2018, April 7). Without foundations, we can’t build: information literacy and the need for strong school library programs. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/strong-school-library-programs/

Big6.org (2015). Welcome to the Big6! Inquire every day and every way with the Big6! The Big6. https://thebig6.org/

Bonanno, K. (2011a). ASLA Keynote Speaker: A profession at the tipping point: time to change the game plan. [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/31003940

Bonnano, K. (2011b). Opinion: do school libraries really make a difference? Incite 32(5), 5.

Common Sense Media (2019). The Common Sense census: media use by tweens and teens. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/uploads/research/2019-census-8-to-18-key-findings-updated.pdf

Consortium for School Networking. (2021). Driving K-12 innovation: 2021 hurdles and accelerators. https://cosn.org/k12innovation/hurdles-accelerators

Cook, A. (2021). Shaping a framework for information fluency. Scan, 40(1), 4-10.

Coombes, B. (2009). Generation Y: are they really digital natives or more like digital refugees? Synergy 7(1), 31-40.

Fitzgerald, L. (2015a). Guided inquiry in practice. Scan 34(4), 16-27.

Garrison, K., & Fitzgerald, L. (2017) ‘It Trains Your Brain’: Student reflections on using the Guided Inquiry Design process. Synergy, 15(2), 1-6.

Grimmett, C. (2021). Trialling the Information Fluency Framework: a report from the pilot schools. Scan 40(9), 10-14. https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/scan/media/documents/vol-40/Scan_40-9_Oct2021_AEM.pdf

Gross, M. (2006). Studying Children’s Questions: Imposed and Self-Generated Information Seeking at School. Scarecrow Press.

Herring, J., Tarter, A. M., & Naylor, S. (2002). An evaluation of the use of the PLUS model to develop pupils’ information skills in a secondary school. School Libraries Worldwide 8(1), 1-24.

Herring, J. (2007). Chapter 2: Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.) Libraries in the twenty-first century: charting new directions in information (pp.27-42). Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

Herring, J., & Bush, S. (2011). Information literacy and transfer in schools: implications for teacher librarians. The Australian Library Journal, 60(2), 123-132. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2011.10722584

Jacobson, H. F. (2010). Found it on the internet: Coming of age online. American Library Association.

Kulkarni, M. (2021, January 27). Young people like me need to be taught how to navigate the news. ABC Education. https://education.abc.net.au/newsandarticles/blog/-/b/3926480/young-people-like-me-need-to-be-taught-how-to-navigate-the-news?sf242496742=1

Leung, N., Radziminski, F., & Tortevski, C. (2021, August). Leading literacy change in schools [webinar]. Edutech Conference 2021, Australia.

Lysaught, D. (2021a, July 19). ETL401 assessment 1: what is the role of the teacher librarian? All You Read Is Love. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/07/19/etl401assessment1/

Lysaught, D. (2021b, August 29). 3.2 the role of the teacher librarian: LIBERating our perceptions. All You Read Is Love. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/08/29/3-2-the-role-of-the-teacher-librarian-liberating-our-perceptions/

Lysaught, D. (2021c, July 31). 2.5 TL in the information landscape [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_57504_1&conf_id=_114040_1&forum_id=_244142_1&message_id=_3722025_1&nav=discussion_board_entry

Lysaught, D. (2021d, September 14). 5.4a information literacy. All You Read Is Love. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/09/14/5-4a-information-literacy/

Lysaught, D. (2021e, September 14). 5.4b convergence. All You Read Is Love. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/09/14/5-4b-convergence/

Lysaught, D. (2021f, September 7). 4.3 the TL and the curriculum. All You Read Is Love. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/allyoureadislove/2021/09/07/4-3-the-tl-and-the-curriculum/

Maniotes, L., Harrington, L., & Lambusta, P. (2015). Guided Inquiry Design® in Action: Middle School. Libraries Unlimited.

McCrindle Research (2019). GenZGenAlpha [Information card]. https://2qean3b1jjd1s87812ool5ji-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/GenZGenAlpha.pdf

New South Wales Department of Education (2020). The information process. Learning across the curriculum. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/learning-across-the-curriculum/school-libraries/teaching-and-learning

Notley, T., Dezuanni, M., Zhong, H. F., & Chambers, S. (2020).  News and Young Australians in 2020: How young people access, perceive and are affected by news media. [Research Report]. Western Sydney University and Queensland University of Technology. https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/1717875/News_and_Young_Australians_in_2020_web.pdf

O’Connell, J. (2012). So you think they can learn? Scan 31, 5-11.

Sorensen, A. (2019). Guided inquiry in Stage 4 history: Collaboration between teacher-librarians and classroom teachers. Teaching History, 53(4), 30-32.

Wall, J. (2018). Information + competency + literacy = fluency. A thought piece. Scan 37(6). https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/scan/past-issues/vol-37-2018/information-competency-literacy-fluency–a-thought-piece

Wall, J. (2019). Information fluency – a path to explore and innovate? Scan 38(9). https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/scan/past-issues/vol-38–2019/information-fluency-a-path-to-explore-and-innovate

Wall, J. (2021). Information fluency – a NSW journey. Scan 40(9), 4-9. https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/scan/media/documents/vol-40/Scan_40-9_Oct2021_AEM.pdf

ETL401 4.1a Constructivism and Outcomes Based Learning: A Research Article

Sorensen, A. (2019). Guided inquiry in Stage 4 history: Collaboration between teacher-librarians and classroom teachers. Journal of the History Teachers’ Association of NSW (Dec) p.30-32.

I found this article as part of this module’s activities. It fits nicely with my own experiences as a history teacher and is relevant to my early plans for the third ETL401 assessment task.

I found it interesting that this article opened by considering the etymology of history – ‘historia’ – in order to the emphasise the potential of inquiry based learning in this subject area. This article broke down the key aspects of Guided Inquiry in an easy to understand format:

  • Authentic task/audience
  • Student choice
  • Curiosity
  • Questioning
  • Reflection

It also referenced the 7 stages of a full Guided Inquiry unit – open, immerse, explore, identify, gather, share, create, evaluate – which helped me to get my head around the GI process.

The references to actual practice, with consideration of what worked and what didn’t, were particularly useful for me as I try to understand Guided Inquiry and plan my own unit for the assessment task. Strategies that worked included:

  • hosting curated online research resources (pathfinders) and worksheets on the school’s LMS so that students can access them easily
  • providing outlines of each lesson with directions for students
  • collaboration between a) TLs and classroom teachers; b) students in each group; and c) high school and primary school students

Open/Immerse

  • explicit teaching of the skills required to successfully complete each stage of the Guided Inquiry
  • use of visuals to pique student interest (e.g. laminated images, snippets of text)

Explore/Identify/Gather

  • students writing down a list of topics/ideas/people that the were interested in pursuing; staff collated these and used them to form groups based on student interest
  • use of the Cornell notetaking method to record relevant information
  • synthesis of notes using a Lotus Chart

Share/Create/Evaluate

  • creation of a final product that was meaningful for students and displayed to create a sense of pride, belonging e.g. a picture book to read to a feeder primary class (creates authentic audience), paintings, models, posters
  • evaluation of individual and group progress

Overall this article has given me an interesting account of how practitioners have implemented Guided Inquiry in their school context, and some of these strategies would no doubt work in my own school also. Interestingly, the notetaking worksheets would provide excellent evidence for accreditation, and these skills would be extremely useful to develop for a variety of student subject areas and serve our students well if they were confident in this area by the time they reached Stage 6.

ETL401 3.4 Advocacy, Accountability, and Research

Choose one of the AITSL standards and look at the ASLA Evidence Guide For Teacher Librarians in the Proficient Career Stage. Consider the evidence that ASLA provides for the achievement of that standard and how you can show that you are meeting this standard. 

Since I’m generally a methodical person, I’m going to make like Julie Andrews and start at the very beginning since it’s a very good place to start.

 

Standard 1: Know Students and How They Learn

1.1 Physical, social, and intellectual development and characteristics of students: proficient teachers use teaching strategies based o knowledge of students’ physical, social, and intellectual development and characteristics to improve student learning.

This standard really is the foundation for everything we do as teachers, and it is no different in our role as teacher librarians. In fact, TLs are possibly better placed than many classroom teachers to know the vast majority of students in our schools since we are a “constant in the learning environment over time.” (Bush and Jones as cited in Lamb, 2011, p.33). I think that the physical space of a library can provide excellent evidence that we are meeting this standard. Each area of the library links to Thornburg’s (2013) reimagining of traditional learning spaces as campfire, cave, and watering hole. Annotated pictures of these spaces would be useful forms of evidence.

The physical arrangement of our lower library space was dictated to the previous TL by higher powers in order to create an adaptable, open-plan learning environment which can function as a ‘campfire’ or a Makerspace. Flexible seating can be arranged in a multitude of ways to facilitate a variety of learning styles and teaching methods. Before the lockdown and online learning began I was in the process of putting together suggested seating charts so that staff could easily get students to rearrange these desks as required. These charts would be an easily submitted form of evidence.

So many students use our school library as a ‘safe space’ away from the bulk of the chaos in the playground. Many of these students are neurodivergent and so I’ve created a “quiet space” on our mezzanine level near the quieter non-fiction section where students can study or relax in peace and quiet with minimal disruptions. This roughly correlates to Thornburg’s concept of the ‘cave’ learning space and has been so popular that I am looking at options to expand (though not sure how given the limitations of space!). This also correlates to the Upper Library which is currently used as a Senior Study area.

Our manga section is currently the most popular, and so I have moved furniture to make a flexible seating area near these shelves that can function as a ‘watering hole’ space where students can chat in their breaks or move away from the bulk of the group during class time. I have adjusted the seating near our fiction section on the opposite site of the lower library to mimic this ‘watering hole’ and provide further opportunities for students to learn through social interactions.

To facilitate our students’ needs for printing services (one of our most popular services), I have established a dedicated printing zone with stand up desks for students to work on laptops while they wait in line for the printer. This is close to the circulation desk to ensure that troubleshooting can be accessed easily and quickly (this is a frequent need for our student population), and multiple copies of printed How To guides are displayed to assist student independence in this process. These guides could easily be submitted as evidence for accreditation if needed.

If I was submitting this as evidence for my accreditation, I could also provide evidence of my attempts to create a “virtual” library space using websites and social media. Recently, McCrindle Research (2019) identified that our incoming students – Generation Alpha – are going to be more visual, student-centred learners than the previous Generation Z and rely more on virtual learning spaces. Research from Australia and the UK also suggests that they are increasingly engaged with social media platforms as a way of getting their entertainment and information (Common Sense Media, 2019; Notley et al., 2020; Australian eSafety Commissioner, 2021). My ongoing efforts in these online spaces is currently focused on starting conversations about all sorts of different reading habits, with the hope that this will allow our students to recognise the validity in their own reading behaviours and thus begin to identify as readers.