Mothers and families grow readers for life

Posted on May 17, 2018 by abond

My colleague reading with her 5-year-old son at home

Reading mothers – a workshop my colleague Dina attended last week had us chatting this morning before work. This workshop was presented by some Russian colleagues, Tatiana Zhukova and Larissa Valulina, who quoted some Russian research showing that when the mothers read for pleasure themselves in the home, their children are more likely to read for pleasure as well. These librarians modelled a programme they had seen in Shanghai where mothers came into the library to read to small groups. The outcome of this was an increase in borrowing throughout the primary school.

Researcher Margaret Marga encourages parents to read to their children even beyond the age when they can read for themselves. “We should continue reading with our children until they no longer wish to share reading with us, ensuring that these experiences are enjoyable, as they can influence children’s future attitudes toward reading, as well as building their confidence and competence as readers. It is worth the effort to find time to share this experience with our children in the early years and beyond,” (2017). She lists the benefits of reading with your children as:
* facilitating enriched language exposure
* fostering the development of listening skills, spelling, reading comprehension and vocabulary
* establishing essential foundational literacy skills
* foster positive attitudes toward reading.

My older son reading to my younger son

I attended a workshop at the same time run by a colleague from Croatia, Anamarija Dujmovic, and one of their strategies was to create backpacks with about 10 books in for the whole family. The students could check out the bag and all its contents for four weeks. Inside there were books for the parents, adult fiction and parenting books, books for younger children and picture books. research has been conducted on the reading environment in the home and the impact it has on student’s reading behaviours. “The data seemed to demonstrate that positive reading environment highly persuaded students to cultivate good reading habits in themselves. For instance, parents who are avid readers themselves will normally nurture positive attitudes to reading as much as possible in their children,” (Morni & Sahari, 2013, p. 422). Developing a home library with a range of materials was one of the recommendations from this study, (Morni & Sahari, 2013, p. 423). This can be very challenging when you are not in your home country. Our school library has the opportunity to proactively encourage families to develop their own environment of home reading.

Dina and I have really enjoyed our “Friends of the library” programme and would like to expand it next year so that we give more to the mothers involved. We think these ideas might be useful. Plus we could try to run a book club. So far to date, our friends of the library friendship has been the Mum’s volunteering to help us out. This might be a great way to help them.

References

Merga, M. K. (2017, August 27). Research shows the importance of parents reading with children – even after children can read. Retrieved May 17, 2018, from The Conversation – website: http://theconversation.com/research-shows-the-importance-of-parents-reading-with-children-even-after-children-can-read-82756

Morni, A., & Sahari, S. (2013). The impact of living environment on reading attitudes [PDF]. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 101, 415-425. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042813021101

International School libraries – information, innovation and impact

Posted on May 11, 2018 by abond

: Gulsen Mustafa Muzuri Primary School opened in 2016

: Students reading while their Principal tells us about their school library.

: Teacher librarian and her 12th grade student presenting research about student use of their library

The theme of this year’s IASL conference was information, innovation and impact. We certainly have had the opportunity to consider these things through keynote addresses, workshops and presentations.

I have heard from librarians from Thailand, Zimbabwe, Qatar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, USA, Australia, Croatia and Brazil. They spoke about their research, their libraries and their students. They presented about rural libraries in great deprivation and addressed innovative ways to try to overcome their problems. They presented about services, events, and programmes to impact their students’ interests and abilities to read and research.

The one thing we all shared was that the school libraries we work in and for are set against a backdrop of continuous change. We are all striving to make an impact and the final keynote address by former IASL president, Diljit Singh, encouraged us to use our efforts wisely. To address the things that our Heads of school were concerned about – reading, achievement, effective use of technology, academic research, whatever it may be that is what we should focus on.

In 2014,Kathy Caprino wrote an article for Forbes magazine about the 9 core behaviours of people who positively impact the world. They are:

1. They dedicate themselves to what gives their life meaning and purpose.

2. They commit to continually bettering themselves.

3. They engage with people in open, mutually-beneficial ways.

4. They invest time and energy not in what is, but what can be.

5. They embrace critique.

6. They spread what they know.

7. They uplift others as they ascend.

8. They view the journey as the goal.

9. They use their power and influence well.

Throughout this conference, I have met school librarians who are making a positive impact on their students and teachers. It has been a wonderful week of learning and I certainly come away feeling inspired and ready to continue in our school library to innovate and make an impact.

Here is a great story about one man who has made a positive impact. It is called “The unlikely librarian”

Students seeing themselves on our shelves

Posted on May 10, 2018 by abond

Librarians are advocates for literacy and school librarians have the privilege of contributing to the development of a reading culture within their schools. Literature is part of a young person’s personal development and books can offer children windows, mirrors and glass sliding doors to their world (Sims Bishop, 1990). The window allows the child to see into another world, the mirror provides the child with a reflection of themselves and the sliding glass door invites them to experience the world portrayed in the book by entering into the story. If the child is reading books where the characters are nothing like themselves or their family or friends that leads to a distortion – also if the child is only reading books that mirror themselves there is a different kind of distortion. Rudine Sims Bishop explains it very clearly in the short video clip below.

Author Grace Lin further describes her own experience of windows and mirrors in her TED talk of the same name – see below for the video.

I attended a number of workshops at this IASL conference that related to this concept of students seeing themselves and seeing the worlds of others. The first was about the development of indigenous student’s literature and was presented by Kasey Garrison, Pat Carmichael and Katy Manck. There is a real need for students to read about their own ‘lived experiences’ and from authentic voices that shared some of the same kinds of lived experiences.

Nancy Larrick’s study published in 1965 found that “of the 5,206 children’s trade books launched by the sixty-three publishers in the three-year period [1962,1963,1964], only 349 include one or more Negroes–an average of 6.7 percent” (Larrick, 1965, p. 64). Almost 50 years later a study by the Almost 50 years later, in 2013, a similar study by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin which looked at 3,200 children’s books published in 2013, just 93 were about black people (that is less than 3%). Only 68 were written by African-Americans 2% of the books published (Troy, 2014). No progress had been made. Where are the mirrors for the African-American children?

The IASL has special interest groups (SIGs) – and a group that has sprung up within the Children and YA literature Sig is this group to explore and support one another in collection development of indigenous student’s literature. For our library at IICS that would mean further developing the Mother Tongue collection and ensuring that our English language collections have books written by indigenous writers from the countries and communities, our students are part of. I have become a member of this SIG.

Some Twitter hashtags to follow on this topic of finding authentic voices include #ownvoices #wndb (we need diverse books) and #notyourprincess

I also attended a workshop by Mary Ann Harlan – “Girls intext: Information of Girlhood in YA literature.” Mary Ann spoke about the way young adult literature was written by adults and promoted by adults but questioned whether or not it was providing a realistic window or mirror for our teenage girls. She identified three main girlhood narratives appearing in YA literature: Sad girls, girls in crisis; Mean and bad girls; Can do and or smart girls, the nice girls. She explored post-2014 used best sellers, book award winners and lists of feminist YA novels. She asked the question of the books Who is the girl? What is the representation of girlhood presented? She gave many examples and while she was talking about each book in detail I was imagining this topic being explored by some of the senior girls writing their extended essays.

Karen Van Drie presented a workshop about global literature in libraries a group of librarians, translators, publishers, and literature advocates whose goal is to raise the visibility of international literature in libraries. Essential to the IB librarian who is working to develop international mindedness in their collection.

As readers, we need windows, mirrors and sliding doors. As librarians, we need to ensure our collections provides all three for our students.

References

Cooperative Children’s Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison. (n.d.). Publishing Statistics on Children’s Books about People of Color and First/Native Nations and by People of Color and First/Native Nations Authors and Illustrators. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp

Larrick, N. (1965, September 11). The all-white world of children’s books. The Saturday Review, 63-65. Retrieved from http://www.unz.com/print/SaturdayRev-1965sep11-00063

Reading Rockets. (2015, January 30). Mirrors, windows and sliding doors [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAu58SNSyc&feature=youtu.be

Sims Bishop, R. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors [PDF]. Perspectives: Choosing and using books for the classroom, 6(3). Retrieved from https://scenicregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf

TEDx Talks. (2016, March 18). The windows and mirrors of your child’s bookshelf [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wQ8wiV3FVo&t=21s

Troy. (2014, December 9). The All-White World of Children’s Books [Online forum post]. Retrieved from Black Literature website: https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/2887-the-all-white-world-of-childrens-books/

IASL conference Istanbul – the value of a conference

Posted on May 7, 2018 by abond

Face-to-face conferences are my preferred way to grow professionally. This year so far I have been very fortunate that there have been two conferences in my home city. No airfares or hotel expenses has meant that these professional development opportunities are not very expensive at all.

In the days of virtual conferences, webinars and online professional learning networks I still find face-to-face conferences richer and deeper. I still participate in all of the technology professional development and completed my Master’s degree online. Yet there is something so much more satisfying about meeting people and having conversations in person. As Karen Munro explains even though much of her work is done remotely through technology when she does take time to meet people in person those days are, “..wonderfully productive in other ways—in building relationships, getting to know people, understanding complex issues,” (Antell, Strothmann, Munro, & McClure, 2014, pp. 38 – 39). Those in-depth discussions can occur because you can see and hear the person’s expression and emphasis. They are not hampered by poor Skype connection or ambiguity of an email message.

Another great reason to attend face-to-face conferences, workshops and meetings is that it is good for morale. Most Teacher Librarians work alone and even almost all work in a way that is mostly invisible to the rest of the school ( a sign that you are doing a great job but can lead to a lack of recognition and appreciation). Margaux DelGuidice in her article about avoiding school librarians burnout states that attending a professional development event means that you share ideas, hear other people’s stories and return to work with renewed enthusiasm (2011, p. 22). Those friendships forged at events can help when the going gets tough, provide colleagues who can be sounding boards for new ideas, and offer opportunities to give back to your professional community. “I’m not sure how, without face-to-face conferences, I would have found some of the formative librarian friendships and connections that have influenced and educated me, brought me new opportunities, buoyed my morale through rough patches, and broadened my perspectives,” (Antell, Strothmann, Munro, & McClure, 2014, pp. 38).

It is not enough just to chat over coffee and make new friends of course. The best strategy at conferences is to go with specific goals in mind. One way is to look at guidelines or evaluation models for your library or for yourself as Teacher Librarian. Judi Moreillon offers the American Association of School Librarians in Empowering Learners; Guidelines for School Library Programs (AASL 2009) as a useful tool. The description of the five roles to guide best practices for 21st-century school librarians: leader, instructional partner, information specialist, teacher, and program administrator can become a checklist for professional development (2012, p. 49). By asking what I am working well in and what areas do I need to strengthen then attending workshops in those areas you certainly will maximise the usefulness of the conference.

The best conferences provide strategies and ideas that you can take back to school. Throughout the years I have returned to my school with Battle of the Books – now an established part of our library programme, how to market the library including using a library logo, how to make the most of our library space and where our students can locate amazing resources about Istanbul (last conference I attended).

To attend the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) conference for a whole week is a great privilege and responsibility. I am looking forward to what I will bring back to school from this conference – watch this space to find out.

References

Antell, K., Strothmann, M., Munro, K., & McClure, M. (2014). Is the face-to-face conference still essential? Reference & User Services Quarterl, 54(2), 37-40. Retrieved from EBSCO Professional Development Collections database. (Accession No. 100188430)

DelGuidice, M. (2011). Avoiding School Librarian burnout: simple steps to ensure your personal best. Library Media Connection, 29, 22-23. Retrieved from ERIC database. (Accession No. EJ914332)

Moreilln, J. (2012). Before you pack your bag: how to maximize your professional development opportunities at state-level conferences . Library Media Connection, 31(1), 48-50.