Standard 2: Literacy and Reading
2.1.1. Literature: Candidates are familiar with a wide range of children’s, young adult, and professional literature in multiple formats and languages to support reading for information, reading for pleasure, and reading for lifelong learning.
Artifacts:
Children's Literature Bibliography
Research Materials Bibliography
25 Young Adult Literature Evaluations
I lead a somewhat ironic life. My goal is to one day be a school librarian. However, I have a dirty little secret. When it comes to the public library, I often find myself in an awkward position: I am the overdue fines queen. Right now, I have three books still out that were due last week. I am not a book hoarder, nor am I lazy. Deep down, I believe overdue fines are a way for me to financially support an institution I adore. Imagine the donations I gave to the public library during the classes where I had to read 75 children’s books and 25 young adult novels! However, as I worked my way through three annotated biographies that required such extensive reading, I developed selection skills that improved my ability to identify quality books students read for information, pleasure, and lifelong learning.
During the first semester at McDaniel, I created an annotated bibliography of children’s books. Initially, I used the recommended book lists and selection tools to identify books. I also tapped into some pretty reliable sources: elementary school teachers and parents. A friend of mine with a two-year-old provided me with quite a few of my final selections. I covered a range of genres and made sure to select books to use purely for pleasure reading and books that could potentially accompany elementary and middle-school lessons. I even included a favorite from when I was younger: Ira Sleeps Over. I enjoyed reading back through the book this time, analyzing its appeal. Despite the joy of revisiting my childhood through children’s literature, the project was not an easy one. I had a difficult time condensing my thoughts and observations about the books into short annotations. All school librarians must master the concept of annotating fiction, nonfiction, and digital items. Working in my internship now, I observe my mentor annotate nonstop - for classes, for her website, for her correspondences. The skill is a must-have but a difficult one for the typically wordy English teacher. I must have spent hours whittling down long annotations for my bibliography to capture exactly what I wanted to say in the requisite four lines. But I am glad I learned. By annotating, teachers and librarians identify the texts’ purposes and determine how best to promote the texts to students.
The following semester brought with it the Information Services Retrieval class and…another annotated bibliography. For this assignment, I needed to annotate a list of reference resources for all disciplines. As I began to look through recommended selection tools, I discovered that an even better resource was my school’s library. And now, with Frederick County’s TLC circulation system, school librarians can check the circulation of reference materials at a particular school and determine the reference materials that are the most used or viewed. At the time I compiled my annotated bibliography, I did not have knowledge of TLC’s (or any circulation) reports system, but reading back over my annotated bibliography, I now see the benefit of the circulation reports. A new librarian, or a librarian in need of serious weeding and replacement texts, can use her colleagues' collections and circulation data to create a bibliography of sources that will greatly benefit the school and help promote lifelong learning among her students. With this bibliography, I also continued to work on my brevity within my annotations as I had the previous semester. It was still tough.
In addition to the two annotated bibliographies, I also evaluated 25 novels in my Young Adult Literature course. Each evaluation was limited to a page, including a summary (annotation!) of the book, a personal reaction, and a list of items to distinguish it as a young adult piece. Throughout the semester, I utilized a variety of the selection tools to choose my titles: VOYA, Booklist, School Library Journal, the YALSA booklists, the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan list. I appreciated the requirement to cover at least one book from every genre, because it forced me outside of my fantasy/science fiction comfort zone and into realistic fiction, family dramas, historical fiction, and even nonfiction and biography; I loved the John Lennon biography. For each evaluation, I also included how a book may be used to supplement curricular areas. In effect, I actively reflected on the usability of each book as information-gathering and lifelong learning.
During the first semester at McDaniel, I created an annotated bibliography of children’s books. Initially, I used the recommended book lists and selection tools to identify books. I also tapped into some pretty reliable sources: elementary school teachers and parents. A friend of mine with a two-year-old provided me with quite a few of my final selections. I covered a range of genres and made sure to select books to use purely for pleasure reading and books that could potentially accompany elementary and middle-school lessons. I even included a favorite from when I was younger: Ira Sleeps Over. I enjoyed reading back through the book this time, analyzing its appeal. Despite the joy of revisiting my childhood through children’s literature, the project was not an easy one. I had a difficult time condensing my thoughts and observations about the books into short annotations. All school librarians must master the concept of annotating fiction, nonfiction, and digital items. Working in my internship now, I observe my mentor annotate nonstop - for classes, for her website, for her correspondences. The skill is a must-have but a difficult one for the typically wordy English teacher. I must have spent hours whittling down long annotations for my bibliography to capture exactly what I wanted to say in the requisite four lines. But I am glad I learned. By annotating, teachers and librarians identify the texts’ purposes and determine how best to promote the texts to students.
The following semester brought with it the Information Services Retrieval class and…another annotated bibliography. For this assignment, I needed to annotate a list of reference resources for all disciplines. As I began to look through recommended selection tools, I discovered that an even better resource was my school’s library. And now, with Frederick County’s TLC circulation system, school librarians can check the circulation of reference materials at a particular school and determine the reference materials that are the most used or viewed. At the time I compiled my annotated bibliography, I did not have knowledge of TLC’s (or any circulation) reports system, but reading back over my annotated bibliography, I now see the benefit of the circulation reports. A new librarian, or a librarian in need of serious weeding and replacement texts, can use her colleagues' collections and circulation data to create a bibliography of sources that will greatly benefit the school and help promote lifelong learning among her students. With this bibliography, I also continued to work on my brevity within my annotations as I had the previous semester. It was still tough.
In addition to the two annotated bibliographies, I also evaluated 25 novels in my Young Adult Literature course. Each evaluation was limited to a page, including a summary (annotation!) of the book, a personal reaction, and a list of items to distinguish it as a young adult piece. Throughout the semester, I utilized a variety of the selection tools to choose my titles: VOYA, Booklist, School Library Journal, the YALSA booklists, the Maryland Black-Eyed Susan list. I appreciated the requirement to cover at least one book from every genre, because it forced me outside of my fantasy/science fiction comfort zone and into realistic fiction, family dramas, historical fiction, and even nonfiction and biography; I loved the John Lennon biography. For each evaluation, I also included how a book may be used to supplement curricular areas. In effect, I actively reflected on the usability of each book as information-gathering and lifelong learning.
These three assignments, while incredibly beneficial to my growth as a text selector, did leave some elements out in regards to the various facets of the indicator. Nowhere in my lists was I required to include linguistically-diverse texts. I cover culturally-diverse topics in all three, but every book and DVD is in English. These lists also do not officially include any professional reading though they do reflect my use of a variety of professional resources. And while the annotated bibliography of reference works covers texts and databases that are not necessarily considered professional literature, they certainly enhance teachers’ instruction. However, the assignments do have space. Because the three assignments already require an assortment of many types, I would have no problem integrating literature into the lists that cover both professional and linguistically-diverse titles.
At the beginning of all three of the classes, I felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of reading materials that was expected out of our annotated bibliographies. And this feeling did not dissipate as the semesters wore on. Rather, I grew increasingly stressed as I tried to fit in all of my ideas and keep up with the reading (and annotating) expectations. And yet, as I look back through these collections, I am in awe of what I accomplished. I am now familiar with a wide range of literature in print and digital formats, covering the three purposes for reading. As the time to begin enhancing a library collection grows closer and closer, I feel confident with my ability to evaluate and select texts that my students will appreciate. |