Online Conference - 2004

Literature abstracts (last updated 10 March 2004)

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Dr Kerry Mallan (Associate Professor, Course Coordinator Graduate Diploma in Education (Teacher-Librarianship), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia)

Kerry Mallan has been a primary school teacher and a teacher librarian.  She has been teaching in the GDE (Teacher Librarianship) since 1979, and course coordinator since 1999.  Kerry has published widely both nationally and internationally in areas of children's and youth literature and film.  Recent publications include: A co-authored publication Performing Hybridity: Impact of new technologies on the role of teacher librarians (CSU, 2002); Youth cultures: texts, images and identities, co-edited with S. Pearce (Prager, 2003), and Performing bodies: Narrative, representation and children's storytelling (Post Press, 2003).

Changing world orders and children's fiction: Constructing communities of critical or compliant readers? (keynote paper)Prior to and after September 11 there have been numerous texts written for children and youth dealing with issues relating to changing world orders, terrorism, safety, and forces of evil.  Many of these texts are ostensibly written to explain to children the acts of terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing, and so forth.  Invariably, these texts present the world in terms of good and evil, and often a utopian vision is offered as the ideal world of the future.  These texts provide timely opportunity for engaging with issues related to developing critically literate readers.  By considering a selection of these texts (both written and visual) we can come to a better understanding of the reader-text relationship in terms of reader positioning, explicit and implicit ideologies, and the ambiguity of meaning in both words and visuals.

Jennie Bales (Teacher Librarian, Summerdale Primary School, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia)

With many years experience as a practising teacher librarian in the primary sector, recent employment has included working as a Curriculum Project Officer for the Department of Education, Tasmania, ICT resource teacher and a lecturer in teacher librarianship at Charles Sturt University, NSW.  Active association membership has included executive responsibilities on behalf of ASLA with involvement in projects and professional development.  Current research interests are focused on investigating educational MOOs as supportive environments for literature discussions as doctoral research with Charles Sturt University.

Student engagement with texts: an investigation of literature circle roles to promote thinkingLiterature circles offer a student centred approach to reading where participants are actively involved in book selection, discussion and response.  The literature circles model supports students' active engagement with reading and the development of questioning skills.  This paper presents key features of the literature circles strategy and provides scope for further exploration.  The embedded cooperative structures found in literature circles support shared responsibility and active participation by group members and address both individual and group accountability.  The use of literature circle roles stimulates students to explore texts from various cognitive perspectives.  A range of roles presented by Daniels (1994) are outlined and examined in terms of the cognitive processes they generate.

Investigation of the inherent role structure embedded in the model identifies how literature circles provide a discussion framework that encourages higher order thinking in students; addressing cognitive, aesthetic and affective learning styles.  The application of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) provides a framework for evaluating various roles in terms of their cognitive processes.  An outline of the four Knowledge Dimensions is presented with a focus on Conceptual Knowledge.  By examining the roles in the context of the Cognitive Process Dimension, the paper demonstrates the levels of thinking students apply in responding to the selected literature from the perspective of each role.

References:

Anderson, LW & Krathwohl DR 2001, A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing, Addison Wesley Longman, New York.

Daniels, H 1994, Literature circles: voice and choice in a student-centred classroom, Stenhouse, Portland, ME.

Wendy Chapman (Teacher librarian, Wollondilly Public School, Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia)

After spending fourteen years as a classroom teacher and gaining a Diploma in Remedial Education in 1979, Wendy Chapman trained as a Reading Recovery teacher in 1988.  Seeing first-hand the power of learning in these developmentally delayed students, Wendy was stimulated to pursue further opportunities to empower learning, and retrained as a teacher librarian through Charles Sturt University in 1993-1994.  She has since been working in this challenging field as a Teacher Librarian at Wollondilly Public School in Goulburn, New South Wales.  In this capacity Wendy has facilitated multiple Book Raps through the NSW Department of Education and Training, beginning with the first DET coordinated Book Rap in 1999.  Students at Wollondilly School have also been involved for several years, with Literature Circles, in LC_MOO. 

Wendy was awarded the John H. Lee Memorial Award "for innovative and collaborative teaching practices integrating information and communication technologies" in February 2004 by the Australian School Library Association of New South Wales.

Book Raps: Engagement, enrichment and entreaties for an energizing, e-learning environmentWhile many students and teachers have gained much through their involvement with Book Raps in the pasts, this paper will seek to stimulate further development of book discussions using email, by empowering participants to increase connectivity and to more effectively utilise the collaborative potentials of on line discussion using ICTs.

The paper will briefly outline the inbuilt structures and protocols necessary for successful engagement in book discussions using email and will then go on to explore enrichment opportunities inherent in existing Book Rap structures.  Examples of the capacity of these structures to cater for higher order thinking skills, multiple intelligences and varied learning styles will be investigated.

Reference will be made to powerful pedagogical opportunities which exist in the context of Book Raps, and personal anecdotes will serve to illustrate how there is still much work to be done in constructing communities of learning in this forum.

The paper will conclude by suggesting actions participants may take which would enrich current patterns of interaction, and maximise the activity's potential for a more collaborative, energetic online learning community.

Dr John Foster (Senior Lecturer, School of International Studies, University of South Australia)

Dr John Foster has taught Children's Literature at the University of South Australia and its predecessors for nearly 30 years.  He has written one and co-written three books, plus numerous journal articles and book reviews, and has spoken at conferences on five continents.  He is Australian President of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), and formerly National Vice-President of the Children's Book Council of Australia and Convenor of the Centre for Children's Literature at the University.

How many more bum jokes can we stand? The current state of Australian children's popular fictionThat robust expression of childish rebellion through humour, the bum joke, seems to have taken over popular literature for Australian children. Indeed, with titles like The Day My Bum Went Psycho, Bumface (which is not about posteriors at all), My Life Is a Toilet, The Bugalugs Bum Thief and the new Zombie Bums from Uranus - plus such short stories as 'Skeleton on the Dunny' - it seems that an entire children's scatological literature course could be run.

Why should this material be so popular at the moment? The likely reasons will be discussed, including the effect of television programs, the role of overseas children's literature and 'gross-out' movies, and the lack of respect for authority figures in both children's media and reality. Examples of toilet humour will be examined from a number of perspectives, and whether value judgments should be made concerning this material will be considered.

To put this discussion into perspective, the nature and appeal of 'popular literature' - usually a pejorative term - will be explained, and a definition suggested. Furthermore, a method of analysing it will be outlined - a method that is not so much judgmental as awareness-raising and which allows for the positioning of works within a schema of generically similar examples.

There is, though, another, almost equally strong, body of work in the field of popular literature for young readers, and that is sword-and-sorcery fantasy. With its roots in traditional literature - the Quest, the Hero, magic - and the corresponding overseas works including those by Rowling and Tolkien, the most significant Australian proponents of the genre are Emily Rodda and Garth Nix. A similar method of analysis will be employed in the examination of examples of their novels, too.

Of course, much of the Australian popular literature for young readers cannot be pigeonholed neatly into one of these two genres. Therefore, further examples, some from other genres of fantasy and others from realism, will be considered and their role in the field explored. Examples of the work of a number of other writers, including Morris Gleitzman, Elyne Mitchell, Margaret Clark, John Marsden and Felice Arena will be encountered here, as will several publishers' series.

Given this range of relevant material, it is apparent that there are several seemingly contradictory trends currently in motion, and conclusions will be offered to explain this phenomenon. At the same time, individual authors, titles and series will be placed into some overall perspective, and the question posed in the title of this paper answered.

Pat Pledger (Teacher Librarian, South Australia, Australia)

Pat is currently on long service leave from the Department of Education and Childrens' Services in South Australia.  She has worked as a teacher librarian and library co-ordinator for over 20 years, and as the EdNA Online Information Officer for the Government Education Portal.  She is co-author with Fran Knight of Senior fiction - books and films sorted by themes.  Pat is a director of Pledger Consulting, publishers of LinksPlus and WebLinks Internet directories.

Promoting literature through online communitiesOnline communities can be wonderful ways to enriching our knowledge about literature.  In this paper, online communities that promote literature will be examined.  These will include the use of OZTL_NET for compilation of lists, web sites, promotion of award winning books and professional development.  Other discussion lists like the Children's Fantasy Views and Reviews discussion and the Mystery Readers group will be discussed as well as online methods of engaging student interest such as Book Raps, literature circles and email to foster understanding by students.

An overview of what online communities are and the principles and processes that govern successful online communities will also be given.

Online communities are groups of like minded people who come together online to participate, debate and share information.  They use a range of online tools ranging from discussion forums, chat, and discussion email lists.

These communities of practice are people who share information, insight, experience and tools.  They focus on an area of common interest.  The three elements of communities of practice include; a domain of knowledge which creates a common ground and sense of common knowledge in the community; a community which fosters interaction and relationships based on mutual respect; and practice which includes a set of frameworks, ideas, tools, information, that the community members share.

Online communities have benefits.  They extend communication by allowing people to connect from remote locations.  They provide a supportive flexible structure for professional development and mentoring while people have the opportunity to learn and share.

There are critical factors to the success of online communities.  These include a focus on topics of importance to the community, having a well respected community member to coordinate and facilitate the community, allowing time and encouragement for people to participate and involving key thought leaders.

Heather Voskuyl (Head Librarian, Queenwood School for Girls, Mosman, New South Wales, Australia)

Heather Voskuyl is the Head Librarian at a K-12 Independent Girls' School in New South Wales, Australia. She has also been a teacher librarian in State, Catholic Systemic and International Schools.  Heather is currently working on her PhD thesis on representations of adolescence in Australian Young Adult Fiction.

Our stories, their stories - the need for diversity in children's and YA literature

Each child needs and deserves a literature, but the literature that meets
their needs is unlikely to be a homogenous one
(Hollindale 1988, p. 8).

The need to diversify the curriculum is an educational mantra and it runs parallel with a heightened interest in encouraging students to read.  Within out context of restricted budgets and competing demands (all of which are urgent and mandatory) how do we try to meet the challenge of providing a collection that will challenge and entertain the children and adolescents in our schools?  Do we agree with Hollindale that all children need literature and, if so, how do we define it, theoretically and practically?  The political focus has been on getting children to read but is this focus too narrow?  If we conclude that stories, in whatever format, are important then we are left to confront the hurdle of what sorts of stories are "suitable'.  Our responses to this question will reflect our personal and professional ideologies but overriding these must be a concern for the particular needs of the child or the adolescent reader. 

Last updated: 10 March 2004