Monday, July 27, 2020

Summer Reading Club 2020


You can sign up for the NB Public Library's Summer Reading Club online at https://www1.gnb.ca/0003/src=cle/2020/en/index-e.asp 

Reading: Schooldays, Workdays

In a University of New Brunswick course named "Challenging Authoritative Texts," students are encouraged to think of “text” as more than print on paper.  That’s an interesting idea. Alas, what I learned was that taking this particular course meant ‘challenging’ near acres of print on paper. 

It begins with the two course textbooks, Stephen Brookfield’s 2005 The Power of Critical Theory for Adult Learning and Teaching with core content spanning 387 pages (the whole text is 435 pages long), and Lois Tyson’s 461 page (487 page total length) Critical Theory Today: A User-friendly Guide (2006, 2nd ed.).

Then there was the week-by-week reading of Power Points (“Introduction to Critical Literacy,” “Notes on White Fragility,” “Introduction to Critical Disability Theory”), a Wikipedia piece (“The Death of the Author”), and class notes “Notes and Questions about Authority” and “Liberal Humanism Notes.”  This was accompanied by a long list of articles with titles like “Bakhtin and Carnival,” “Grappling with Text Ideas,” “The Five Stages of Colonialism,” “How Picture Books Work,” “Portrayals of Class Mobility in Newbery Titles” and “Beyond Shrek” (as if!).

I read “Assimilation Ideology: Critically Examining Underlying Messages in Multicultural Literature” by Yoon, Simpson & Haag, “First Graders and Fairy Tales” by Bourke, “Children’s Literature to Support Critical Literacy Engagement” by Enriquez et al., “Slurs, Interpellation, and Ideology” by Kulla and “Chattling the Indigenous Other: A Historical Examination of the Enslavement of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada” by Erica Neeganagwedgin.

There was also, “The Colour of Supremacy” by Leonardo, “Contesting Controlling Images” by Heinecken, “Putting Read-Alouds to Work for LGBTQ-Inclusive Critically Literate Classrooms” by Ryan & Hermann-Wilmarth as well as “Learning to Queer Texts” by Nicola McClung.

I read “Books that Portray Characters with Disabilities” by Prater & Taylor Dyches, “Reading Disability in Children’s Literature” by Yonika-Agbaw, and “Respectful Representations of Disability in Picture Books” by Pennell, Wollak & Koppenhaver.

Phew!  I’m not going to deny that these readings were interesting and enlightening and challenging in the best sense.  Still, my-oh-my, it felt good to kick back and read some real literature for the course
  • Machines at Work by Byron Barton
  • I love My Hair! by Natasha Tarpley
  • How Smudge Came by Nan Gregory
  • Heather has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
  • Mi'kmaw Waisisk / Mi'kmaw Animals by Alan Sylaboy
  • Mommy, Mama and Me by Leslea Newman 
  • Daddy, Papa and Me by Leslea Newman
  • And Tango Make Three by Justin Richardson
  • Love Makes a Family by Sophie Beers
  • Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
  • The Family Book by Todd Parr

All this reading might have felt a little less daunting had I not been already swimming in text at work.  I remember seeing a note someplace that upwards of 90% of our daily reading is on-the-job or work related.  My day job recently included facilitating an online course for a couple of dozen future early childhood educators - more reading!

Besides, obviously, reading all the course pages, I read about 600 written assignments and responses, to which I composed 600 replies, as well as re-reading significant portions of the New Brunswick Curriculum Framework for Early Learning and Childcare document.  I composed 10 reports for (and exchanged hundreds of emails with) my manger and colleagues - in the time of COVID-19 email is at least as important as tools like Zoom or Skype for getting things done.  On the side, I’ve been reading Linguistically Appropriate Practice: A Guide for Working with Young Immigrant Children by Chumak-Horbatsch for a workplace book study, and the journal Childcare Exchange.

Again, all of it interesting and enlightening and challenging in the best sense.  And I really was energized reading the written responses of my online learners.

Still…  there was some other reading I’d been looking forward to.



* At time of writing, CB began facilitating two additional online courses as well as entering another UNB course on critical literacy. The Witcher remains unread.

Cheryl Brown (@CherylAnneBrown) is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.  In these posts, she has been documenting and sharing snap-shots of some of her daily reading.