Hateley_Reading_Promotion_PD_QUTTL_2015

Engaging Students in Literature

Erica HateleyQueensland University of [email protected] @ejhateleyNavigating Literacy and Learning in School LibrariesMay 16, 2015.

What I’m not here to talk about:

Leisure/Pleasure Reading“children who read for pleasure made more progress in maths, vocabulary and spelling between the ages of 10 and 16 than those who rarely read. […] reading for pleasure was found to be more important for children’s cognitive development between ages 10 and 16 than their parents’ level of education. The combined effect on children’s progress of reading books often, going to the library regularly and reading newspapers at 16 was four times greater than the advantage children gained from having a parent with a degree.” (Centre for Longitudinal Studies, online)

What I am here to talk about:

Reading as an individual and a social practice!

Teacher-Librarian, know thyself!

Source: http://librarian-shaming.tumblr.com/image/63082191383

“As someone who grew up loving to read, I at first struggled to understand these kids. I knew, of course, that not all kids were great readers, but I was unaware there were those who actually hated reading. Finding books for these students is probably my greatest challenge.” (Crawford 46)

We all know that folks will be coming into the library for many reasons other than reading!

We all value libraries as places where many different things can and should happen!

We can respect the right not to read while still suggesting that reading is available and attractive as a potential activity…

Make finding the first book, the same book, or the next book as easy as possible!

Infographic Logic…

Source: http://teach.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Summer-Reading-Flowchart-Young-Adults.gif

“Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of reading. Stop them reading what they enjoy or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like – the 21st-century equivalents of Victorian ‘improving’ literature – you'll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and, worse, unpleasant.”

– Neil Gaiman (2013) Qtd. in Brown.

The stories of my adolescent reading…Some have gone…

And some remain:

Short-term, medium-term, long-term books…

Book budgets & reading for pleasure

Short = “hot picks” / high (but not necessarily long-term) circulation

Medium = curriculum du jour?

Long = “classics”?

You never know where or when a reader will come from…"One night during my accustomed visit to the neighbouring wood, where I collected my own food and brought home firing for my protectors, I found on the ground a leathern portmanteau containing several articles of dress and some books. I eagerly seized the prize, and returned with it to my hovel. Fortunately the books were written in the language, the elements of which I had acquired at the cottage; they consisted of Paradise Lost, a volume of Plutarch's Lives, and the Sorrows of Werter. The possession of these treasures gave me extreme delight; I now continually studied and exercised my mind upon these histories, whilst my friends were employed in their ordinary occupations.I can hardly describe to you the effect of these books. They produced in me an infinity of new images and feelings, that sometimes raised me to ecstasy, but more frequently sunk me into the lowest dejection […] As I read, however, I applied much personally to my own feelings and condition. I found myself similar, yet at the same time strangely unlike to the beings concerning whom I read, and to whose conversation I was a listener.” (Shelley 124-125)

A web, or continuum…

Are there spaces and/or activities for your patrons to make book-stuff part of their real life? Crafts, cosplay, art,

writing, digital storytelling, filk/wizard wrock, discussion groups, puppets, etc. etc.?

Be one who “stalks” readers… follow the breadcrumbs (there may just be crumbs!) Where are folks reading in your

library? Where are they not? Are particular kinds of things being

read in particular spaces? Know the physical “circulation

stats” inside your library! Are there books which are read

repeatedly inside the library which are not checked out?

Are there places where folks don’t read… but they could? e.g. spaces where groups gather to

game? Could books which complement such interests be strategically located nearby?

Use taste-tests! Make book-speed-

dating part of your reader advisory activities

(Make sure you have reader advisory activities!)

“We who have read keep quiet. We’re quiet because we’ve read. Imagine being pounced on as soon as you’ve finished? “Sooooo? Was it any good? Did you understand it? Out with it!”” (Pennac 85)

Young people need to know that their reading won’t be measured, interrogated, assessed, quizzed, or tested. If they have questions, they may ask them, but they won’t have to answer any.

A couple of cautions… “Teens don’t read

popular culture texts to engage in theoretical debates, take tests, or write essays. They read for the enjoyment of the experience, to discuss how texts are meaningful to them, and to be inspired creatively.” (Wallace 559)

And, now, over to you… What “story” does your library tell about reading?

CD policy and practice? Explicit messages about reading? Spaces in and of the library?

What “story” do you tell about reading?? Which books in your library’s collection do you read?

Not read? What are the greatest incentives or barriers to you

picking up a book? In general? In your library? What does your reading autobiography look like?

(especially in your own ‘school years’) How do you model reading? Solo reading? Shared

reading? Silent reading? Out-loud reading? What connections or disconnections can you see

between your story about reading, and your library’s story?

Works Cited: Brown, Mark. “Neil Gaiman: Let Children Read the Books

They Love.” Guardian October 15, 2013. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/14/neil-gaiman-children-books-reading-lecture

Centre for Longitudinal Studies. “Reading for pleasure puts children ahead in the classroom, study finds.” September 11, 2013. Available at: http://bit.ly/H2y9dP

Crawford, Philip Charles. “Why Gossip Girl Matters.” The Horn Book Magazine 84.1 (2008): 45-48.

Pennac, Daniel. The Rights of the Reader. 1992. Trans. Sarah Adams (2006). Illus. Quentin Blake. London: Walker, 2010.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. 1818. Ed. Maurice Hindle. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992.

Wallace, Faith H. “The Popular Culture Influence.” Young Adult Literature in the 21st Century. Ed. Pam B. Cole. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 555-596.