Inquiry Blog Post #1: Fostering Reading Culture in Schools

When I first read the topic of this week's inquiry I was super excited - fostering reading culture is something that I am quite passionate about but for one reason or another, haven't really had a chance to act on yet. I was eager to dig into the resources to find out where to begin and was at first surprised, then eager to learn that I get to come up with the resources myself (inquiry - duh!). So, since this is an inquiry blog post I thought I would take you through my inquiry process - in all its messy glory!

Where to Start?

"Google It"

When learning about a new topic I did what I usually do: I Googled it. I know that Googling isn't the most academic way to go about things but it gives me a nice introduction to the topic before I dive deeper into the academic resources. Right away I was excited about all I was learning through blogs like "Six steps to create reading culture in your school" which contains some excellent practical tips for encouraging readers in your school - and one that I have definitely bookmarked for later, and "Fostering Reading Culture" that has more of a technology focus and with nice tips like creating iMovie book trailers. 

I also found excellent examples of schools that have successfully enhanced the culture of reading within their school. This one below is from New Zealand and discusses fostering reading in both Secondary and Primary levels. It is a quick watch that provides some excellent tips!

Adding some depth...

"Going Deeper"

Next, I decided I wanted to feel more intelligent about the topic so I turned to our online academic journals. After I quick search in the UBC Library database of "fostering reading culture" I was awarded with a stunning 200,000+ results; thank goodness for sorting by relevance! The first article that I dove into was a candid conversation between an author and a librarian where, among many things, they discussed the benefits students receive from participating in book talks; students share the bits about the book that stuck out to them including illustrations, certain passages or characters - and their classmates are invited to ask questions about the book (Mukunda & Vellanki, 2016).

Ending with a....hook?

Finally, I wanted to finish my post with this TED talk presented by children's author Mac Barnett. If I were presenting these tools to a group I may start here as this talk discusses some of the magic that reading can bring into our lives - why do we even care about reading in the first place (aside from the very practical aspects of being a literate society)? The magic of reading is natural to me - it's why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place; however, it isn't to many and this talk is excellent at articulating what reading can bring into our lives if we allow it.

Some tips for the road

"Tips"

Through my quick search I really learned quite a lot but there were a few tips that came up over and over again.

1. There is power in choice. This came up in the blogs about fostering a reading culture as well as the academic articles. If students are able to choose what they read they will naturally be more interested in it. 
2. Role-modelling works. Teachers demonstrating their own love for learning is contagious. Sharing about books that they recently picked up at the library, taking part in silent reading...these all demonstrate to the student that we think reading matters. 
3. Ten minutes a day. Or fifteen. Or twenty. Dedicating a specific amount of time each day to pick up your book of choice and read is one of the tips that came up over and over again. There are different names used and durations suggested, however the idea is the same - read a book of your choice everyday. 

There are absolutely some more tips from the resources that I mentioned above but these three came up consistently. The power of choice, reading everyday, and teachers modelling their own reading are key to fostering a culture of reading in our schools. 

Resources

Barnett, Mac. [TED] (2014, September 17). Mac Barnett: Why a good book is a secret door. [videofile] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPrS7-kx9Y0 on May 23, 2018. 

jennielsen. (2017). Fostering reading culture. [Blog Post] Retrieved from https://medium.com/technology-and-the-new-library/fostering-reading-culture-2cb5003f6150

Mukunda, U. & Vellanki, V. (2016). Unlocking Shelves: Fostering a culture of reading and inclusion through open libraries. Contemporary Education Dialogue. 13(1), 157-165.


NationalLibraryNZ. (2014, November 6). Creating a school-wide reading culture. [videofile] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiOZQFLTwmQ on May 23, 2018.

O'Dell, F. (2017). Six steps to create a reading culture in your school. [Blog Post] Retrieved from https://www.tes.com/news/six-steps-create-reading-culture-your-school


Images

"Going Deeper" Retrieved from http://www.judihollis.com/product/cd-going-deeper-bonus-material/ May 23, 2018. 

"Google It" Retrieved from https://professorramos.blog/2017/06/26/google-harmful-or-helpful/ May 23, 2018.

"Tips" Retrieved from https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/tips-and-tricks/story/cbse-board-exam-2017-tips-tricks-353003-2016-11-21 on May 23, 2018. 

LIBE 477C: Reading Review Part B

Collect, link, annotate and publish descriptions of about 3-5 different resources that you have found useful in better understanding your topic(s) from Part A. 

Below you will find the resources that I have chosen for this portion of my reading review. After selecting over ten resources, then are the four that I feel will assist me in my project down the line. Each of these resources has a different focus for my research, so if I mention a negative aspect of this resource that is so others have a clear picture of the resource as a whole. These are still the four best and varied resources for me to work with. 

Resource #1
Henry, J. & Meadows, J. (2008) An absolutely riveting online course: nine principles for excellence in web-based teaching. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology. 34(1). Retrieved from 
https://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/26431/19613 on May 13, 2018.

An excellent literature review that provides a very focused nine principles of working with and in online courses. The article provides both insight into online courses where it defines principles for better understanding (Principle 2: In the Online World, Content is a Verb), as well as providing tips for creating a strong online course (Principle 5: Sense of community and social presence are essential to online excellence). While this is a very nicely written overview with a wealth of knowledge and nicely boiled down tips, it somewhat lacks in the practical side of things. At time it mentions specific details, such as how the integration of audio clips adds to social presence (Henry, Meadows 2008), however many of the "Principles" remain unaccompanied by clear examples. The article remains useful as an overview and its extensive bibliography. 

Resource #2

Yang, S.-H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice. Educational Technology & Society, 12(2), 11-21.

This resource is a research study that features student teachers who were using blogs for the purpose of reflection and community building during their teacher training. The study focused on the use of blogs to build community and critical reflection within the teacher training candidates. The study found that the blogs were in fact an effective tool to create community and allowed the discussion to be more critical than it may have been in a face to face setting. The study also noted that the ability to weave various resources directly within the blog made them a useful tool for creating a dynamic conversation and presentation of ideas. 

I am interested in this in part because a number of my courses have utilized blogs lately - this course to the fullest extent - and I am intrigued by the possibility of using blogs in the classroom. As I will discuss further with Resource #4, I believe that adding a layer of weight to students' work with the possibility of publication and more eyes viewing their progress increases the intrinsic motivation of the learner. There are more challenges with blogs in the K-12 system than there are in Post-Secondary and I would be interested to learn more about the logistics from any colleagues who have used blogs in their classroom. 

Resource #3

Tekiner Tolu, A. (2013). Creating effective communities of inquiry in online learning. Procedia-Social and Behavioural Sciences. 70(25), 1049-1055. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042813001584 on May 13, 2018. 

This resource discusses the Community of Inquiry (COI) model and how it can effectively be implemented in an online setting. A nice graphic is used (see below) to demonstrate the inter-connectedness between the cognitive, social, and teaching presence within the COI model. 

After a quick but thorough discussion of the theory of COI, the implications are addressed; that is, some practical techniques and strategies are offered for those wishing to implement COI into a blended or strictly online model. Some clear suggestions are provided such as utilizing online forums and video introductions to create a sense of community and connection. Overall I found this article to be useful in discussing the COI model and offering some actual strategies for implementation.

Resource #4

Desai, R. [CenterStage] (2013, September 10). Khan Academy Gamification: Making learning fun. [videofile] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EZcpZSy58o on May 13, 2018.

Discusses gamification and how learning can be represented through badges. This short four minute video explains how Khan Academy has utilized gamification to encourage students to continue their learning journey - even across subjects. This video is short, to the point - and can help you get inspired about making learning fun again - exactly what I was looking for!

I like the idea of using games and levels to represent student learning. This could be used to represent specific achievements such as reading levels (I have seen this done in Elementary school), or potentially even with PLOs! However, this video really got me thinking about the potential of making the learning products more important. Rather than have students complete an assignment that the teacher grades, hands back and is forgotten - why not work on a product that could be published? If students know that more eyes will be viewing their work, perhaps they will take more pride in its completion? This could tie into the blog resource mentioned above, or students could use their English class to create a school newspaper. I believe it is important for students to have a more tangible idea of how far their learning has come, gamification is certainly one way to do that!

LIBE 477 - Special Topics: Reading Review Part A

I find this first assignment quite exciting; in short we get to explore an area of digital technologies that relates to an area of personal interest in our own teaching. I wasn't quite sure how to start this assignment but I latched onto this prompt from the instructor: "Share with the class via your blog, your early brainstorming of thoughts for this section. " What better way to begin than to A) do an actual brainstorm and in doing so B) work with a new tool! I decided to make a word cloud of my initial thoughts...

For a bit of context, my most recent employment was in a Distributed Learning environment. I'm not entirely sure where I will be in September so for the sake of bringing focus to my work I will assume that I am once again in a DL environment. For this posting I was teaching Senior Humanities as well as working with K-9 students in a home school environment. One of the advantages of DL is the wide use of technology - so I am excited to explore what a more effective use of digital technologies can bring to this flexible environment. 

In creating the word cloud I brainstormed a bunch of words that seemed related, and once I looked at my list I decided that it needed a focus. Through a course in inquiry that I completed in the fall, and beginning Will Richardson's ebook (inspired by this TED talk) I love the notion of "making learning fun again" and possibly utilizing an inquiry approach. In this past year I became a mom and I have been able to look at learning and discovering in a whole new light; my son learns with glee. Learning isn't a chore to him - he absolutely loves to discover the world around him and he bring his curiosity to his exploration of the world. These experiences and insights helped me narrow my focus and make these words large in the word cloud. I believe that collaboration and innovation will make us all better teachers and learners so I bolded these words as well. Tools that might be useful such as Google Classroom, TED talks, and Minecraft I made slightly larger too. I'm not really sure how to go about bringing an inquiry approach to DL in a way that is still manageable. I'm not entirely sure where this literature search will end up but I am excited to look into what is new in the DL world in terms of digital technologies!

Resources Used

Daly, Heather. (2018). Assignment 1: reading review part a and b. In LIBE 477 96C Course Module. Retrieved from https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/6803/pages/assignment-1-reading-review-part-a-and-part-b?module_item_id=413964 on May 8, 2018.

"Free Online WordClouds Generator." (2016). WordClouds: Zygomatics. [Software] Available from www.wordclouds.com

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere. [ebook] Retrieved from iBooks. 

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere. TED Talks. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni75vIE4vdk on May 8, 2018.