Reading Roadshow

How to Get Kids to Write: That was the question or rather the focus of my break out session presentation which formed part of the School Library Association of Queensland's (SLAQ Gold Coast) Reading Roadshow.

Held at Aquinas College on the Gold Coast, and facilitated by the ineffable Marj Osborne this timely event encompassing the 2012 National Year of Reading and new National Curriculum allowed an audience of teachers and teacher librarians to gain an overview of a variety of literacy based ideas.



Dimity with Narelle Oliver and Marj Osborne

I was fortunate to be able to work alongside esteemed and hugely talented children's author and illustrator, Narelle Oliver. She gave us a detailed look at how Picture Books contribute to the Literature Strand for Primary Levels (years 4 - 7) within the Australian Curriculum. I found it fascinating that the various Focus Points of each year level could be so succinctly and beautifully identified within the humble picture book. Narelle used examples of her own prize winning titles to illustrate those focus points however stressed that enjoyment of the book, and the overall reading experience should be the primary objective of the curriculum; a case of literature versus literacy.

Narelle encapsulating the power of picture books and their use in literature.

Other sessions included Running Online Book Clubs, E-book platforms, Online Book sites and Apps and Asian Literature in the National Curriculum, all designed to increase awareness of the huge pool of resources available to connect kids with books.

And how do I try to connect kids with books, besides writing them for them? Thanks to delving into How to Get Kids to Write, I realise, more than ever how intrinsically the two elements of Literacy; Reading and Writing are linked.

I thoroughly enjoyed this gig. It was a treat to work beside and of course learn more from Narelle. It was immensely gratifying to be included as a worthy writerly contemporary. It was an honour to be able to share my specks (slowly maturing into pearls) of wisdom with others as keen as improving our kids literacy as I.

Stick around for another post soon when I share the reasons why it's important to get kids to write and exactly how to get them to write.


Comments

R xx said…
Well done Dim! You've worked so hard on this and I'm glad it turned out to be a very rewarding experience for you.
9 March 2012 at 20:55
DimbutNice said…
Thanks so much Rhana. Turns out librarians and teacheres are not nearly so scary to speak to as 12 year olds. I had an absolute ball and felt that I could really contribute.
9 March 2012 at 21:14
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Goldfish Boy

Image
Twelve-year-old Matthew Corbin is your regular pre-teen boy living in an unspectacular cul-de-sac deep in British suburbia. The major difference between him and the other inhabitants of Chestnut Close however is the state of his red-raw hands and tortured mind and the fact that he barely steps outside his terraced-home second story bedroom. Matthew is afflicted with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD and can barely function as a result. From his fishbowl vantage point, Matthew keeps track of his neighbours, dutifully recording their every movement, their comings and goings, and their habitual rituals in his notebooks. In this way we are introduced to the residents and their characteristic irks and quirks from the get go in a way that is both intriguing and comical. Matthew’s observations allude to his condition; he is both analytical and detailed in his approach. The orderliness of his notations suggest a mind used to repetition and accuracy, an intense desire to ‘get things r...
Read more

Review: Detention

Image
Tristan Bancks signed my copy of Detention with a note hoping it kept me turning pages . This book lived up to that promise and then some. Packed with page-turning tension and relentless drama, this is one middle grade novel that may cause a few kids to miss their dinner call. Yet despite the raw gritty urgency that suffuses nearly every page and the elevated sense of dread and desperation that keeps your heart in top gear, the pace is never too manic nor too hectic to enjoy the energising mix of edgy excitement and sincere emotion Bancks does so well. Dan is an inner suburban boy living on the outer perimeters of life. He’s classified as trailer park trash because of his permanent residence at the social-economically deprived Midgenba caravan park. It’s a title that comes with an ineradicable smear of hopeless. Deep down though, Dan’s a good kid, a caring kid. The type of kid who’ll risk his own face to save a vicious dying dog, which he does one day after finding Rosco tied ...
Read more

I've got a dream

Image
Almost a decade of moons ago, I made a serendipitous discovery that forever altered the spin of my world. Falling pregnant after so many years of waiting and yearning was nothing short of miraculous (for me) and a life event definitely worth waxing lyrical about. But did I? Sadly, not as much I as wanted to. There are those who find it hard to exist without sharing the contents of their dinner plates with the rest of  the world, then there are others who worry that a beautifully executed birthday cake photo shared on social media will somehow demean the starving populations of the world. I oscillate between the two but tend towards the latter, always fretting over how others will take good news in light of their own current situations and struggles, thus resorting to a severe downplaying of my own good fortune. The pregnancy of my first child should have been a joyous occasion - it was a joyous pregnancy after all - but I was acutely conscious at the time of another family me...
Read more