Read Into This

Greg Harris reads his paper from Treasure Mountain Canada called Participatory Learning through Phenomenon Based Learning: Moving from the Learning Commons into the Classroom
https://tmcanada.blogspot.com/p/tmc6-harris.html

Alanna hosts our school library panel on challenges and strategies for enticing your staff to plan collaboration with you. Our #CollaboNation panel of experts Lila Armstrong, Sonja Clark, and Leigh Borden covers topics including: scheduling for maximum collaboration, strengthening your school’s reading culture, and gathering data from staff to inform your next steps. We wonder aloud about summoning the courage to take greater risks in modelling.

Beth, Lisa and Alanna continue to talk about these fine lines of building a collection for a wide range of school library readers. We wonder out loud about diversifying the collection and bringing in authentic voices in addition to teaching the classics. How do you offer a range of topics and decide what topics are appropriate? More great titles and strategies for your own teaching practice including how to keep students reading during the pandemic.

Inspired by this article: https://diymfa.com/reading/eight-reasons-adults-read-ya

Shoutouts to https://www.mostlyyalit.com/, Killer Style, and Eric Walters

Beth, Lisa and Alanna talk about building the collection for middle grade and young adult readers. We try to define the lines between readiness, readability and engagement for each level. How do you organize a collection with multiple ages? How do you engage your alpha-readers to promote books? How do the same themes and archetypes stay fresh in the genres?

Shoutouts to Hunger Games, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Amulet, Pernille Ripp, Falcon Wild, the Narnia series, Desperately Seeking Susan, grade 5 podcaster https://twitter.com/JordanThinking, S.K. Ali, Marrow Thieves, Blended and The Outsiders

Inspired by this article: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/12/why-so-many-adults-are-love-young-adult-literature/547334/

Guest host Lila Armstrong interviews Cathy Fowler @Cathyfowlersd72 and Robyn Russell @russellrobyn about how the Library Learning Commons can support Social Emotional Learning in all learners. The panel discusses how library activities, student choice and opportunity foster personal growth and success in students. Both guests share personal experiences that speak to the importance of safe, welcoming space in the school, and an open-minded teacher librarian.

Shoutouts to The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), www.casel.org.

Alanna talks with avid readers Fiona Ross and Rachel Siegel about books that helped transport them into new cultures. Both Fiona and Rachel find parallels in how these books allowed them to see new perspectives on gender roles, justice, mental health and loneliness.

Shoutouts to read-alikes Inkheart, Once Upon a River, All American Boys, The Hate U Give, Throne of Glass, The Book Thief, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and Koyal Dark Mango Sweet.

Alanna talks with Kasey about the paper and the need for a committee to develop more inclusive language in the Ontario School Library Association. Kasey reveals her rich educational journey and her reasons for choosing a library technician route within the educational environment. We discuss how staffing descriptions, staffing allotments, job descriptions and inconsistency of school library staffing models continue to create tension. Through this collaborative committee’s work there is overdue optimism about bridging gaps in communication and representation for all school library workers. Kasey’s takeaway: “Never underestimate a different perspective.”

Shoutouts to Nogah Kornberg at I-Think, Martha Attridge Bufton (editor of OLA’s Open Shelf magazine)

Kasey Mallen Whalley reads her paper Collaborative Professionalism: Participatory Learning within the Ontario Library Association (OLA) By-Law 2 Consultation Committee
https://tmcanada.blogspot.com/p/tmc6-whalley.html

Alanna talks with secondary school educators Sarah Wheatley and Daphne Habib about how reading has “infused their worlds”. Whether sharing with a book club or with family, Daphne and Sarah agree that these formative books both include strong female characters, hard-earned love, and learning our parts to play in the game of adulthood.

Shoutouts to book bloggers @MalhotraSoumya, @mostlyyalit for continuous inspiration.

Beth speaks with Stephen Hurley and Doug Peterson about how their habits have changed, and remained the same, through their careers in education and beyond, including memories of unusual locations where reading materials were purchased and which books are in your “thinking genre” . The discussion looked at the how and why people write blogs, blogs as a reading genre and the weekly celebration of Ontario EduBlogs.

Shoutouts to The Hardy Boys, The Old Reader, Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.