Two key words spring to mind as I reflect on my learning during this course –conversations and community.
In my first blog post for this course I recalled my first teaching position and how we taught Humanities using themed units, supported with class sets of 5 different novels, (Bond, 2014). I saw the value of including literature in the curriculum; however, I did understand how to help the students make connections between what they were reading in the novels to the concepts and content of the course. If I had the chance to do this again (and I will be working towards this at my school) I would create opportunities for conversations. As students read and engage with concepts and content, they need opportunities to discuss their understandings with each other and their teachers. This can be done through scaffolded discussions – literature circles, one to one conferencing, blog posts and comments, book trailers and reading journals. One of the roles of the teacher librarian (TL) is in helping students make connections through their reading.
An effective way to help students make connections with what they are reading is to use questioning. One skill I am developing as a result of the course is that of dialogic reading. The key to this form of reading aloud is the open-ended questions the teacher is asking, (Bond, 2015). Dialogic teaching is a method of asking questions. Open ended questions bring deeper engagement with the text, further understanding and learning conversations (Leland, Lewison, & Harste, 2013, p.19). Another role of the TL is creating these questions then modelling to colleagues how to use this skill to encourage students to have a dialogue with the books they read.
As students talk about what they are reading they begin to see themselves as being part of a community of readers. This can add to the motivation to read, (Leland, Lewison, & Harste, 2013, p.21). It surprises me is that many of my colleagues are not readers of children’s literature. The “Teachers as Readers” programme was developed in the UK to address this issue. The teachers involved were invited to read children’s literature then meet and discuss what they had read. One of the results was that they had more success at matching readers to texts and texts to readers, and thus increased the opportunity for children to enjoy reading and join the community of readers. TLs need to encourage the development of communities of readers. We need to read widely ourselves so we can match readers to texts, for students and colleagues alike. A key to a successful readers’ advisory programme is that you know the person you are making recommendations to and that you have read a lot of children’s literature, ( (Maatta, 2009, p. 87). One way I have found to broaden my knowledge of children’s literature is our Istanbul Librarians’ Book Chat meetings. We bring three books we have read from our collection to share each month. Our conversations broaden our knowledge of children’s literature and encourage us to continue to read from within our own collections.
This course confirmed the importance of literature in the curriculum and challenges me to further develop my role in the creating conversations about reading and story in my school community.
References
Bond, A. (2014, November 16). Literature across the curriculum: Initial thoughts [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://abond.edublogs.org/2014/11/16/literature-across-the-curriculum-initial-thoughts/
Bond, A. (2015, February 1). Forum post 2 Enjoying reading brings great rewards [Online forum post]. Retrieved from CSU forums website: http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?forum_id=ETL402_201490_W_D_Sub10_forum
Cremin, T., Mottram, M., Bearne, E., & Goodwin, P. (2008). Exploring teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature. Cambridge Journal of Education, 8(4), 449-464. Retrieved from EBSCOhost database. (Accession No. AN 35484024)
Leland, C., Lewison, M., & Harste, J. C. (2013). Teaching children’s literature: It’s critical! New York: Routledge.
Maatta, S. L. (2009). A Few Good Books: Using Contemporary Reader’s Advisory Strategies to Connect Readers with Books. New York, USA: Neal-Schuman.