Beth Lyons speaks to educator Lynn Thomas about using audiobooks and podcasts in her secondary classroom. Shout out to our #EduKnitNight from bringing us together and helping educators from across the K-12 continuum learn from each other’s experiences. The conversation starts with exploring how readers may experience and interact with audiobooks differently than physical books. How can using both modalities of reading in our learning environments help support all learners develop a love of stories and discover the genres that they are passionate about? How might we restructure our assignments and activities in the Language Arts and English classroom to create engaged and literate citizens? Lynn shares how she uses both text formats in her classroom with her students and offers the choice of physical book or audiobook or both to her students to help them access the text and narrative in a format that works for them.

Lynn Thomas
@THOMLYNN101

Texts mentioned in this episode:
The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
Hamilton Spectator- https://www.thespec.com/nie.html
AERO- audiobooks
Serial Podcast- https://serialpodcast.org/
Finding Cleo- https://www.cbc.ca/radio/findingcleo
Brené Brown- Unlocking Us, Dare to Lead- https://brenebrown.com/podcasts/
Gen Z Media
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara and Susan Elizabeth McClelland
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
Ken Follett- https://ken-follett.com/books/

Co-host Beth Lyons and Adrian Del Monte from The Wholehearted Teaching podcast sit down to discuss how educators are embracing audiobooks and podcasts as texts in their classroom, especially since the start of the pandemic. As parents of young children Beth and Adrian reflect on the current remote learning situation and how it has impacted their understanding of the education system as educators in the areas of assessment and demonstration of learning. How might we embrace audiobooks in our classrooms and school libraries to allow students greater access to stories? What constitutes “real” reading in classrooms and is this an outdated, colonial approach to teaching students about stories and narratives? As educators we need to reflect on what the goal of teaching language arts is and how we are serving our students as individuals in our literacy programs.


Adrian Del Monte
The Wholehearted Teaching Podcast- @podcastforheart
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KkC9ZDZgThOAAoRUCxlc20H0JcBs9QjN/view
@adrian_delmonte


Texts Mentioned in this Episode
The Dogman series by Dav Pilkey
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (audiobook narrated by Trevor Noah)
The Truth About Stories by Thomas King
This Book Is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell
The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman
Dear Humanity by Wali Shah
A Promised Land by Barack Obama (audiobook narrated by Barack Obama)
Becoming by Michelle Obama (audiobook narrated by Michelle Obama)
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (audiobook narrated by Jeanette Walls)
When They Call You a Terrorist; A Blacl Lives Matters Memoir by by Patrisse Cullors (Author), asha bandele (Author), Angela Davis (Foreword) (audiobook narrated by Patrisse Khan-Cullors)
The Stone Thrower A Daughter's Lessons, a Father's Life by Jael Ealey Richardson (audiobook narrated by Jael Ealey Richardson)
Gutter Child by Jael Ealey Richardson
Dear White People…Why Is Your Mental Health So White? By Asante Haughton
The Wild Robot and The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Charming As a Verb by Ben Phillipe
Punching the Air by by Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam
The Crossover and The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander
The Track Series by Jason Reynolds
The Disappearance of Mars Patel by Gen Z Media
Unlocking us (Podcast) and The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown
White Fragility by Robin D’Angelo
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
Stamped Racism, Antiracism, and Youby Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi (audiobook narrated by Jason Reynolds)
How to be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi (audiobook narrated by Ibram X. Kendi)
We Want To Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love (audiobook narrated by Bettina L. Love)
The Handmaid’s Tale and the Testaments by Margaret Atwood
The Hate U Give by Anglie Thomas
Dear Martin by Nic Stone


Shout out to Jonelle St Aubyn @Ms_St_Aubyn for inviting our feeder schools to your speaker series for Sikh Heritage Month.

Book club organizer Lisa Corbett interviews teacher-turned-author Anne Shilolo about her cozy mystery Rescue Me. The book is about 3 teens who visit a G8 protest and the adventures that they experience as they become separated from each other in the chaos. As Anne says in her book description: What could go wrong? We recommend this book for grades 7 to 12.

Anne reveals how publishing a book per month in the cozy mystery genre independently has been very satisfying, in contrast to the traditional way of approaching publishers with a manuscript. Anne recommends the self-publishing process for its benefits for creative control and publishing momentum. We also uncover two more of Anne’s series: animal humour in a murder mystery series Poodle Versus, and also Murder in Season which focuses on an injured detective Claire Beckett. Anne also talks about all the mysteries in her reading history that have influenced her own creations.

Anne’s books are available in multiple formats through her website: https://www.anneshillolo.com/

This episode was recorded in May 2020.

In the second part of a special crossover episode with The Staffroom Podcast hosts, Chey Cheney and Pav Wander, Beth Lyons discusses the power of stories in education and learning. You can check out Part 1 of this series at the following link:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Erg1iodNeKborleFljBvi?go=1&utm_source=embed_v3&t=0&nd=1

The conversation continues by looking at how we can embed current events, identity, making connections and stories into our learning with students. The importance of consistently valuing, appreciating, honouring, and connecting to the lived experience of students and the school community in order to learn from and validate the stories of the students we have the privilege to work with each day. How are we working with students to build their capacity to not only understand the visual stories they are bombarded with each day but to tell their story through pictures and images? How can we differentiate the modes in which we ask students to tell their stories- whether that’s the story of how they communicate their understanding of math or a narrative? The discussion shifts to looking at multimodal ways to capture student’s understanding beyond pencil and paper and whether the consistency of working for a length of time in one grade or the experience of changing grades/allocations has helped us on our own learning journey as educators. The discussion ends off with sharing our love for audiobooks and brings the conversation full circle with Part 1 where we discussed oral storytelling.


Chey Cheney- @mrccheney
Pav Wander- @pavwander
https://www.cheyandpav.com/

The Staffroom Podcast- @StaffPodcast
The Drive with Chey and Pav- @TheDriveVoicEd

Books mentioned in this episode:
Make Writing: 5 Teaching Strategies that Turn Writer’s Workshop into a Maker Space by Angela Stockman
Creating Inclusive Writing Environments by Angela Stockman
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Gutter Child by Jael Richardson
Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man by William Shatner
The Fabulous Zed Watson by Basil Sylvester and Kevin Sylvester
Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
The Barnabus Project by The Tan Brothers
A Promised Land by Barack Obama

In this live chat session, Read Into This podcast co-host Alanna King revisits a lighter retrospective on some of the hot-button topics of the 2020 year in reading and school libraries. Please enjoy listening to this live recording, and have a look at our Jamboard artifact where participants contributed their ideas about our main topics. in our live Jamboard and call in about your school library experiences! BYOB to this podcast party.

Jamboard link: https://jamboard.google.com/d/14-ZxFI1RU8yFyYlJHT1M3lKEK_cQgzKRr2wMltcvTjM/edit?usp=sharing

Co-host Beth Lyons welcomes Jael Richardson, author and executive director of the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) to discuss the importance of choosing to bring Canadian content- authors, illustrators, publishers- into Canadian classrooms. Looking at the social responsibility and moral imperative of the Canadian education system to book Canadian authors and activists to speak to students. They discuss how the publishing industry in Canada needs to shift to promote Canadian writers, in particular BIPOC authors, that represent the lived experience of our country. How might we as readers and specifically teacher-librarians work to bring intentionality to the authors we showcase within our schools and with our students? Jael shares her thoughts on how teacher-librarians and educators can work from the geographical space in which their students reside to help share a clear path that has been followed by authors and other artists in order to help students make connections. What mandates and policies exist within an educational organization that promotes and holds people accountable to bringing in Canadian authors and content? How might we advocate to make these policies a reality? Lastly, the role of parents and grown-ups in advocating for the reading materials that are consumed by readers, regardless of the medium or genre, is discussed.


Shout out to Toni Duval for being fabulous.

Jael Richardson
@JaelRichardson
The Festival of Literary Diversity- https://thefoldcanada.org/
Q Recommendations- http://www.jaelrichardson.com/writing/q-recommendations

I Read Canadian Day- https://ireadcanadian.com/day/

Books Mentioned In This Episode:
The Stone Thrower: A Daughter’s Lesson, A Father’s Life- Jael Richardson
The Stone Thrower (Children’s Book) - Jael Richardson
Gutter Child- Jael Richardson
You Are Eating An Orange, You Are Naked by Sheung-King
Like Home by Louisa Onome (YA)
Bruised by Tanya Boteju

Beth Lyons and Toni Duval look back at their journey together as teacher-librarians towards reading more diversely. They recount their time at the Ontario Library Super Conference, seeing Jael Richardson as a spotlight speaker and attending the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) as a means to live and read more diversely. Toni talks about her time as a FOLD volunteer and using the resources and learning offered by the FOLD as an inroads to bringing diverse literature into the classroom. The pair consider their learning in a professional development sense and the importance of bringing an awareness to who is presenting the sessions, the messages they are sharing and moving beyond your silo. Both Toni and Beth have started to engage in a diversity audit of the book collections in the school library and discuss the statistics and learning that have come from starting this work. Toni shares about how she connected with Rebeca Rubio and their upcoming session at OLA Super Conference 2021 looking at their diversity audits and the discussions that stem from the data and the work.

Mentioned in this episode:
OLA Super Conference- https://www.olasuperconference.ca/
Treasure Mountain Canada- https://tmc.canadianschoollibraries.ca/
Rebeca Rubio @rebecarubi0

Thanks to Jael Richardson and the FOLD for always pushing our learning.
@JaelRichardson
@TheFOLD_
https://thefoldcanada.org/

Books mentioned in this episode:
Black Water: Family, Legacy and Blood Memory by David A. Robertson
The Barren Grounds by David A. Robertson
This Book is AntiRacist by Tiffany Jewell
Trending: How and Why Stuff Gets Popular by Kira Vermond, illustrated Clayton Hanmer
The Jigsaw Puzzle King by Gina McMurchy-Barber

Teaching Tough Topics: Interview with Fatty Legs authors Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

Teacher-librarian Lisa Lewis joins Alanna to speak with author Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton (Olemaun) about the impact of their book on tackling the tough topic of Canada’s history of residential schools and the legacy of this cultural trauma. This unique memoir of the Inuvialuit experience is a must-read for middle grade audiences.

Lisa uses Fatty Legs with her intergenerational book club and speaks about the power of unpacking trauma with middle grade students. Christy mentions how Fatty Legs is also resonating with new Canadians and adapting to new cultures. Christy also refers to the cross-cultural connections of global history including war's effect on human migration, the Japanese treatment of Korean people. Lisa emphasizes how the impact of migration on family culture really resonates with her students and their families.

Shoutouts to Jenny Kay Dupuis’ I Am Not a Number, mentor Maggie DeVries, illustrator Liz Amini-Holmes, Annick Press, and editor Antonia Banyard.

For more resources to go with Fatty Legs:

https://www.cjordanfenton.com/teacher-resources

https://www.annickpress.com/Books/F/Fatty-Legs-10th-anniversary-edition

For more information about this book and the authors:
The Canadian Encyclopedia: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/fatty-legs

Beth Lyons speaks to Maria Martella and Margie Wolfe about the creation of the Save School Libraries Coalition, the role school libraries and Canadian books plays in the education of students, the legacy of devaluing and defunding of school libraries over decades and the most recent alarming closures of school libraries in response to the pandemic. The panel discusses the need to advocate for school libraries, work to educate families and caregivers of how school libraries support their children’s education.

Maria Martella- owner of Tinlids
https://www.tinlids.ca/

Margie Wolfe- publisher and owner of Second Story Press
https://secondstorypress.ca/

The Save School Libraries Coalition:
African Heritage Educators’ Network (AHEN)
Annick Press
Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP)
The Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC)
Canadian School Libraries (CSL)
Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators & Performers (CANSCAIP)
A Different Booklist
International Board on Books for Young People — Canadian Section (IBBY Canada)
Ontario Book Publishers’ Organization (OBPO)
Larry Swartz – Literacy Instructor Ontario Institute for the Study of Education (OISE)
Ontario Library Association (OLA)
Ontario School Library Association (OSLA)
Second Story Press
Tinlids Inc.
The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC)

Primary Contact:
Anita Brooks Kirkland
Chair, Canadian School Libraries
www.canadianschoollibraries.ca
[email protected]
519-503-9388
299 Canterbury Drive
Waterloo, ON N2K 3C1

Books mentioned in this episode:
The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling by Wai Chim

The Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading is “Canada’s largest recreational reading program! This initiative of the Ontario Library Association (OLA) offers ten reading programs to encourage a love of reading in people of all ages. The Forest helps celebrate Canadian books, publishers, authors and illustrators. More than 270,000 readers participate annually from their school and/or public library. All Canadians are invited to participate via their local public library, school library, or individually.”

This timely episode explores the nominations for 2021 in all of the trees so if you want to see the full lists, check these out: https://accessola.com/forest/award-nominated-lists/

The Forest of Reading comes under a scrutiny as we apply our #ownvoices lens to each of the lists. Are the lists representative of the diversity of our students? As members of the education community and also representatives of the selection committees, we bring a lot of experience to this conversation.

Shoutouts to Lisa Lewis and Deb Dundas.

For more information on the challenges of diversity of Canadian publishing, check out this Treasure Mountain Canada paper by Deb Dundas called “Who do we see in kids’ books? Star survey provides insight into diversity of Canadian publishers and the characters they develop”