Leading Learning through Literacy & Literature -

Workshop Abstracts

Participants will be able to choose one workshop from each of the following sessions:

 

Session 1


Boys' night out, girls' night in: Engaging reluctant readers

Liz Hammond (St Francis College, Wagga Wagga)

 

In 2002, I inherited a well set up Library, with lots of books, some computers and a great staff. The only problem was that I didn’t inherit a school full of readers, students came to the Library to play games and shelter from the outside elements but not many borrowed books. That is, until I read an article about a school in Victoria which utilized members of the community to help engage students in reading and so ‘Boys, Books and a BBQ’ was born. A few years down the track, the girls are now asking for a ‘Girl’s night in’.

The 2007 year 12 cohort were the first to be invited to the BBB night and these students shone in last years HSC. The Library is now full of year 7-12 students, most of whom love to read.

This presentation will look at how to run similar nights and the impact that these nights can have on the reading interest of students.

 

Critical thinking through literature

Jeni Mawter

It is essential that students learn to think in critical and creative ways and humour is a wonderful tool for this. My interest in critical thinking, creativity and humorous texts evolved from being an Australian author of humorous texts for children. Between 2001 and 2005, I wrote a humorous series called the ‘So!’ series. From experience, most kids loved them but adults fell into a love ‘em/hate ‘em dichotomy. From the ‘hate ‘ems’, I met great resistance, often in the form of censorship. I decided that humour was poorly understood by the literary and education bodies and set about writing the Critical Thinking and Humorous Texts books to address this problem.

Humour requires us to be flexible in our thinking so that our minds are open to possibility and change. We must think about different opinions and different points of view. We must compare facts with alternatives, observe and interpret, use logic and reason to imply, value and judge – or not judge! At times, we must suspend logic. With humour we have to cope with contradictions, reflect and predict, and develop options. The critical thinking seen in humour means that minds are open to change (based on extra information, opinions, facts or reasoning) even when faced with conflicting information, for example, we see this in puzzles, riddles, nonsense, and ambiguity.

 

 

Session 2

Little bloggers of the world unite - Gaining literacy skills through blogging

Elizabeth Bryant (Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School)

 

This session will outline a simple and practical way of involving students in their early years of school in using Web 2.0 tools, blogs and wikis, to stimulate to read and write.

 

CBC Award shortlist reviews

Kate Colley (Bloomin' Books)

 

Stirring up reading at Saint Ignatius College

Serena Ahern (St Ignatius, Riverview)

 

The SainT Ignatius Reading program (STIR) is a work in progress. Teacher-Librarian Serena Ahern will outline the library’s current reading program targeted at high school boys.

The aim is to encourage adolescent boys to select and enjoy suitable books, using new technology to share their responses.

Serena will explain the journey from the implementation of the first program, through to the scheme being used today, outlining lessons learnt from other reading programs and the challenges faced in developing a better way of motivating boys to read.

 

Feature Address

How my dad, some guy from the dole office, and Marshall McLuhan changed my life

Donna Rawlins

 

Donna Rawlins discusses visual literacy from the perspective of both a viewer and a creator. She hopes to tackle a few of the common fears surrounding teaching visual literacy, and to be very reassuring!

 

Session 3

An introduction to Manga

Queenie Chan

 

This workshop aims to be an informative session on the global phenomenon of "manga", which are wildly popular comics originating in Japan. Topics covered will include a brief history of manga, how it became a world-wide phenomenon, a list of commonly used terms, and various aspects of Japanese pop-culture that are fueling the manga boom.


Manga for teenage boys and girls will be introduced, with an explanation of common storytelling devices and archetypes. Comics are rapidly being recognised as a legitimate medium - both among the young and in literary circles - and, having an adequate level of visual literacy, are important for the 21st Century.
     


Film, Music, Net Integrate in Susanne Gervay’s That's Why I Wrote This  Song – A New Direction in Literature

Suzanne Gervay

 

This session explores ‘That’s Why I Wrote This Song’, a YA novel which embodies the new direction in literature with its integration of mediums and divergent approaches in the study of secondary English. ‘That’s Why I Wrote This Song’ embraces multi media, new technologies, visual literacy, music, performance in recognition of the new forms of communication. It also offers the opportunity to cross into other subject areas such as IT, Music, Film, PDPHE making literature part of a broader world.


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