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Edmodo, school libraries and promoting ethical online behaviour

In 2007, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) developed Standards for the 21st-Century Learner that include skills, dispositions, and responsibilities essential for today’s digital citizens (AASL, 2007). The first set of these standards states that teenagers must be given opportunities to learn to access and evaluate the information found on social networks.

  • Standard 1.1.5: Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness for needs, importance, and social and cultural context.
  • Standard 4.1.7: Use social networks and information tools to gather and share information.
  • Standard 4.4.4: Interpret new information based on cultural and social context.
  • Standard 2.3.3: Use valid information and reasoned conclusions to make ethical decisions.

Within these standards, AASL also addressed ethical and legal behaviour on social networks and supports the provision of opportunities for teens to follow legal regulations and demonstrate ethical behaviour that is associated with conducting themselves appropriately on social networks.

  • Standard 1.3.3: Follow ethical and legal guidelines in gathering and using information.
  • Standard 3.1.6: Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.
  • Standard 3.1.2: Participate and collaborate as members of a social and intellectual network of learners.
  • Standard 3.2.2: Show social responsibility by participating actively with others in learning situations and by contributing questions and ideas during group discussions.
  • Standard 4.3.1: Participate in social exchange of ideas, both electronically and in person.
  • Standard 4.3.4: Practice safe and ethical behaviours in personal electronic communication and interaction.

School libraries have an opportunity to address these standards by incorporating appropriate social networking platforms in their library teaching programs (Agosto and Abbas, 2011). An example of such a platform is edmodo.

Edmodo new

Edmodo is specifically designed for schools and allows teacher librarians to create groups, upload resources, provide an ongoing connection with the library to promote learning and publicise events, and stimulate community by providing students with an opportunity to develop appropriate skills in a social networking site which is supervised, age appropriate and readily accessible.

Edmodo also has the capability of providing a connection to school families if the parent account provision is utilised.

Students have lots of opportunities to engage in social networking but not a lot of chances to develop their social networking skills in a supervised forum with the aid of a trained professional – their teacher librarian.

References

Agosto, D. E. & Abbas, J. (eds) (2011) Teens, libraries, and social networking – what librarians need to know. Santa Barbara, Calif : Libraries Unlimited.

American Association of School Librarians (AASL) (2007) Standards for the 21st-century learner. [online] Available at: www.ala.org/aasl/standards

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Organising a professional placement

Theoretically it sounds so simple… organise to be an unpaid volunteer in a suitable library for 10 days. The constraints are that because you’re already working in a school library then your professional placement can’t be in one… an interesting restriction but an opportunity to step into the world of all the other types of libraries other than school.

The other constraint, of course, is that you’re working full-time so time has to be found to give away 10 days for no return and organise the family’s needs around that.

It was all a bit like encouraging Year 10 kids to get their Work Experience organised! Time slips away quickly as soon as the new school year begins, so it’s important to bite the bullet and get organised.

So… finally… I took a few deep breaths and made phone contact with a possible placement and was pleasantly surprised by the openly friendly response. I explained why I was ringing, asked for the Library Manager’s name and contact details and followed up the call with an email direct to the Manager. I was very pleasantly surprised to get a return response within a matter of hours to offer me a placement in the time frame required. Challenge complete so far!

 

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Profile of an Instagrammer: Stephtee

According to her carefully groomed Instagram profile, Stephanie Tee(Hiew) is a lawyer living in Sydney. She enjoys food, sunsets and has visited 30 countries. However, dig deeper into this active instagrammer’s activity online and you’ll find a master of social networking and powerful online photographer.

InstagramSteph works in the heart of Sydney and lives on the lower north shore so her instagram profile is filled with a photographer’s view of this beautiful city in all its moods. She must work in office space close to Circular Quay because the vantage points that some of her photos reveal are not the sort that just any member of the public can access. Also, the photographs she posts are not just point and click style captures… Steph has significant photography skills and is a member of the CanonAustralia Insider Circle. Her combination of filters, videos, photographic effects and beautiful cropping skills, provide an ever changing view of her world.

On Instagram, I’ve been following Stephtee for a few years… as have over 15,000 other followers. In this time, her profile online has revealed some of the benefits of acquiring her skill set. Steph has won a number of accolades over the years and also trips overseas on the basis of her influence and photography skills. Tourism businesses are lining up to get Steph to point her lens at their particular corner of the world and promote their product on her account. Steph also loads her Flickr account with an amazing range of photographs that showcase our beautiful Australian landscape… and she has mastered the selfie to extraordinary heights.

Steph is a great example of a positive use of Web 2.0 to share content and manage a professional profile online. Search for her virtual life and the results reveal a smart, manicured online profile that enhances her reputation and reveals a dimension to her skill set that adds significant interest to her real life. Steph provides a great example of how to use the web to create and manage your digital self.

Take a look… be impressed…

Steph’s Instagram account

Steph’s Flickr account

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What is Web 2.0?

PinterestWeb 2.0 is a concept rather than a technology. It is a term used to describe interaction using web/internet technologies. The distinction here highlights the movement from what the internet looked like at the beginning – mostly static content – to its current capabilities of enabling interaction and collaboration using web tools. This new phase of the web allows users to shape content, respond to content, and engage with individuals who are also using these tools (Haughn, 2015).

YouTube

The internet’s initial phase has now been retrospectively referred to as Web 1.0. This terminology highlights the distinction between the period where web pages were set content and needed a skill set and knowledge of File Transfer Protocols in order to establish a web presence. The Web 2.0 phase requires far less technical knowledge because the tools available provide the platform upon which users can build their content.

The term Web 2.0 first made its appearance in 1999 when used by Darcy Dinucci (Pope, 2010). Dinucci described the transition in his article, Fragmented Future (Dinucci, 1999):

WikipediaThe Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfuls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. The Web will be understood not as screenfuls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens. It will […] appear on your computer screen, […] on your TV set […] your car dashboard […] your cell phone […] hand-held game machines […] maybe even your microwave oven.

This explanation helps to highlight the possibilities afforded users in a stage of the internet where they can produce content easily, engage with other users using a myriad of platforms and build a worldwide network of connections.Twitter

According to eBizMBA, a website designed to support eBusiness growth, in March 2016 the top 5 most popular Web 2.0 websites, based on unique monthly visits are:

  1. YouTube with an estimated 1 billion
  2. Wikipedia with 475 million
  3. Twitter with 310 million
  4. Pinterest with 250 million
  5. WordPress with 240 million

Wordpress

Other platforms that rate a mention in their top 15 include Craigslist, tumblr, IMDb, Yelp, Instagram, imgur, Wikia, Flickr, eHow and Photobucket. This shows the vast numbers of people engaged with using Web 2.0 platforms to engage with social and professional networks, create and share media, write and self publish, play games and learn new skills… amongst a vast array of other reasons to create a profile and get involved.

References:

Dinucci, D. (1999) Fragmented future. [online] Available at http://darcyd.com/fragmented_future.pdf Accessed 19 March 2016

eBizMBA.com (2016) Top 15 most popular Web 2.0 websites, March 2016. [online] Available at http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/web-2.0-websites Accessed 19 March 2016

Haughn, M. (2015) Web 2.0. [online] Available at http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Web-20-or-Web-2 Accessed 19 March 2016

Pope, C. (2010) Web 2.0 explained in 60 seconds. [online] Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcbaLH0D5HU. Accessed 19 March 2016

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China and social networking

Visiting a website called China Internet Watch does have an ominous feel about it. China is not known for open access internet browsing so the use of social media in China would surely come with a sense of caution about who is watching, reading, tracking, knowing…

All those fears aside, though, and the numbers of social networkers and social media users in China are simply staggering. The headline reads ‘482M Chinese Visited Social Media Per Month in 2015’ and those are impressive numbers by any standard. Roughly half of net users in China are also users of social networking sites. The article goes on to describe the penetration rates across age groups and China appears to be no different from other countries as the numbers increase across all age groups.

There are differences between social media usage in China and USA including that for Chinese social networkers it is more Sina Weibo Sina Weibo qrabout humour – sharing jokes and videos – than commentary on daily events or news items like it is in the US… which probably makes sense given the attitude towards free speech in a Communist country. However, the mashups of western video and celebrity watching on Weibo (China’s twitter) looks remarkably similar to the twitter feed of the average western teen.

The top 5 social media websites in China are

  1. Sina Weibo – the Twitter equivalent but with twice as many users!
  2. Renren – once touted as China’s equivalent to Facebook but after a lengthy court battle over name and URL rights, it has recently seen a decline as its popularity amongst its student base has waned.
  3. Tencent is a social media hub so has a large user base across multiple platforms. It was originally founded on a messaging service so it is still popular in this format.
  4. Douban is an interesting service that is popular with intellectuals and writers in China. Its point of difference is that it allows access to unregistered users.
  5. Wechat has gained ground in recent times because it is a mobile voice and text app which has gained popularity in a country that has an addiction to mobile devices.

 

Read more:

http://www.chinainternetwatch.com/17191/481-5-million-chinese-social-media-month-2015/#ixzz42b8BDD1r

http://mashable.com/2012/07/02/china-social-networks/#dyeRkkzy9uqk

 

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Defining “social networks” and “social networking”…

First task for INF506… definitions, experience and expectation of purpose…

An online social network service isINF506post1

  • a digital platform where people can create an account
  • establish a profile
  • “friend” other people to create a community
  • participate in conversations and sharing to build relationships and learn
  • build a reputation within that online space
  • extend involvement by connecting with others to collaborate across a range of groups

There are a vast array of social networking sites and means of connecting with people online, and deciding which groups to join and participate in is a question of time spent… it’s easy to spend too much! When online social networking began it seemed like it was the solution to our society’s need to connect… it is difficult now to remember what it was like before twitter, facebook, reddit, YouTube etc.

I’ve been dabbling in social networking for many years now… I joined twitter in May, 2009 and Yammer in June, 2010… and have gradually developed a comfort zone with connecting and communicating across a range of platforms, and contributing in those platforms by sharing and building community.

Social NetworkingI currently maintain accounts on both NSW DoE and TAFE yammers, twitter, edmodo, Instagram, Facebook, google+, TL Ning, Educator’s PLN Ning, Ozteachers google group, Weebly, WordPress, YouTube, delicious, Pinterest, Goodreads… hmm probably too many! I particularly enjoy connecting with followers of certain hashtags on twitter including #DLchat, #tlchat, #AussieEd and the #satchat collection.

Over the years I have reflected on the importance of social networking and how it has built my PLN (Professional Learning Network) and realise it has afforded a range of amazing opportunities to learn from experienced and generous educators across a wide range of topics that have enhanced the learning of my students. I have been involved in a range of projects as a result. I have organised a number of PLN meetups at conferences in order to meet IRL (in real life) people that I have known for many years online and it is always fascinating to meet people for the first time when they have been online friends for years.

What I expect to learn from completing INF506…

My role as a Teacher Librarian includes supervision of a range of social networking profiles for my library and my school. This is a significant responsibility since it directly affects the reputation and brand of my school. I take this role very seriously and hope that INF506 will provide a deeper understanding of the policy structure and planning required to achieve best practice in social networking management for my school.

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Reflecting on Joyce’s Manifesto (2010)

At Edutech in Brisbane in 2015, I had the amazing good fortune to attend the Masterclass conducted by Joyce Valenza and Shannon Miller. At the end of the day I took the opportunity to mention to Joyce that we had used her Manifesto in ETL401. Her immediate response was… “But I need to revise that! I must get around to doing that!”

Joyce Valenza

Joyce Valenza

Apart from revealing her self-effacing approach to the world of library celebrity… this response reminds me that Libraries are organisms – changing and responding to patterns of usage – so we, too, must adapt, morph, change. So, given that this manifesto was written in 2010 in the USA, how do we respond to it with regard to the section on reading? Let’s have a look… I have copied the relevant section here and have been thinking about what it looks like for my library as we face 2016…

Reading

  • You explore new ways to promote and celebrate reading. You are piloting/equipping learners with both traditional, new, and emerging book formats–downloadable audio books, Playaways, Kindles, iPads, Nooks.

While my library does have a small group of iPads, they are not easily used to access books in various formats for students in my library. Our budget has not yet afforded us access to an eBook format but we have provided access to our local council libraries via our library management system. Our students, in 2016, have still not indicated a huge interest in having books delivered electronically and many of them are very protective of the paper format of books.

  • You share ebook apps with students for their iPhones, droids, and iPads and other mobile devices (Check out Gale’s AccessMyLibrary, School Edition)

Similarly, while we use lots of different apps for learning in our library, we do not have ebook apps available on our iPads. This is again connected to budget but also to do with the process of managing iPads for shared use in schools. iPads were not designed as multi-user devices and they come with some specific management challenges. Top of the list… how does a school pay for the apps and how do we audit that process? It is easy to dismiss these sorts of organisational hurdles and to be perfectly honest… I have resorted on a number of occasions to simply paying for apps myself rather than wrestle with school administration over how to get money into the iTunes accounts of our iPads. Ridiculous but true…

  • You market, and your students share, books using social networking tools like Shelfari, Good Reads, or LibraryThing.

Managing a social networking presence that complies with my employers Social Media Policy as well as being a manageable maintenance load for the variety of sites that my role as Teacher Librarian requires… costs a huge amount of time. Achieving an appropriate percentage of time allocated is challenging. While I have a presence on Goodreads, I currently do not share this with my students. This is one I’ll have to think about. Besides… currently completing the MEd has drastically interfered with the amount of fiction I get to read and record on Goodreads.

  • Your students blog or tweet or network in some way communicate and reflect about what they are reading

Nope… not doing this either… while my library does have a twitter account, I currently do not use this with my students. Might have to think deeper about this one and figure out what this could look like.

  • Your desktop screensavers promote great reads, not Dell or Apple or HP.

Nope… we don’t have desktop screensavers, user security means students must logout of their profiles and it resolves back to the signin page… no screensavers. Maybe this would be a good reason to instal a screen at the circulation desk… hmmm… good idea.

  • You link to available free ebook collections using such tools as Google Books, International Children’s Digital Library (See our own ebook pathfinder.)

No… not currently… I wonder if this can be achieved in our new Library Management System(LMS)? I’ve just had a response from Softlink to explain how I can turn on Google Reviews so I might look at this next.

  • You review and promote books in your own blogs and wikis and other websites.

Hmmm… I don’t currently have a book review website and probably should! Our LMS does have the capacity for students to upload reviews of books they have read but they have not yet engaged with the new system. This needs to be promoted for 2016.

  • You embed ebooks on your websites to encourage reading and support learning.

Hmmm… no I don’t… but I do now have access to the school website… it might be time to do this!

  • You work together with learners to create and share digital booktalks or book trailers.

And this one is a NO as well. In my high school library I currently have very limited access to learners during class time. Changing the model for our library has been a slow process and promises made have been reneged. For 2016 I have wangled my way into getting access to Year 7 for 1 lesson per cycle for Term 1… book trailers is part of the plan for this time.

Well… that’s quite revealing. Although we are a very busy library we do not meet the criteria that Joyce listed in 2010. This is very interesting… and much food for thought.

Reference:

Valenza, J. (2010, December 2). A revised manifesto. In School LIbrary Journal. Retrieved from http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2010/12/03/a-revised-manifesto/.

Picture credit:
Used with permission
http://www.schoollibraryadvocacy.org/uploads/1/3/8/3/13835114/9090498.png?142

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why is the study of literature important for children? ETL402 reflection

Attempting to reflect on a heavy reading load and two very challenging pieces of assessment, I find two significant ideas in particular will remain with me from this summer semester course, ETL402 Literature Across the Curriculum:

  1. the power of stories
  2. the importance of the transaction between reader and text

Haven’s (2007) evidence for the importance of story, story reading, and storytelling and its impact on the brain development and education of children, reinforced for me the imperative that the role of the Teacher Librarian in schools must be maintained and embellished. Story is an essential element of education – narrative structure is a powerful inquiry that opens up an important relationship between the role of the Teacher Librarian and the students within their school, and the possibilities of significant collaborations with teaching staff from all key learning areas – based around quality literature.

This revelation was then deepened by an exploration into the values of children’s literature:

  • literature develops social awareness – it can highlight important social and moral concerns (Harris, 1990)
  • literature offers vicarious experiences – it helps children deal with their problems
  • literature reinforces the narrative as a way of thinking (Huck, Hepler, Hickman, & Kiefer, 1976)
  • literature develops the imagination (Gaiman, 2013)
  • literature reveals literary and artistic preferences – picturebooks develop visual literacy – the power of the postmodern picturebook
  • literature provides reading for background knowledge in curricular areas
  • literature develops thinking skills

The power behind this understanding is that stories are a better (more effective and efficient) way to teach and to communicate (Haven, 2007). The bottom line here is that stories are remembered – they are a more efficient and more accurate way to support and sustain learning with a higher accuracy in recall (Haven, 2007). Better than any other way! This transaction between reader and text provides a new and powerful experience in life (Rosenblatt, 1956).

Returning to the blog posts that I have written in this course:

reminds me of just how much work is involved in getting to know our library collection and using it to support learning in my school through collaboration with classroom teachers. This is an ongoing challenge and requires diligent effort.

Also, an assumption hidden in the Marcoux and Loertscher reading (Marcoux & Loertscher, 2009) that “all Pre-K-12 classroom teachers are knowledgeable in building reading skills” made me pause for consideration. It is my view that many faculty areas do not actively participate in engaging students in reading and are unaware of the missed opportunity that lies hidden within the focus of the second assignment – the power of literary learning. The continued preoccupation with marching through a content dense curriculum without a focus on powerful and engaging literature, in a wide variety of formats and delivery methods, is a significant missed opportunity for engagement with our students.

I found the readings on Digital Literature of particular interest as we begin the 2016 school year. Budget decisions as we juggle the provision of literature in print and digital formats must be patron driven, and I continue to question the cost vs benefit of establishing eBook platforms. The challenge also continues to clarify the role of the Teacher Librarian in the acquisition of new literacies particular to the networked, hyperlinked and interactive model of communication and information transmission, and the trends in interactive media (Friedlander, 2013).

Looking forward into the 2016 school year and beyond, another challenge emerges as this course concludes… convincing staff from all curriculums that the literature we invest in has significant potential for learning in their key learning area, and student engagement, support of adolescent reading skills, development of thinking skills, use of technology for learning… and so much more… can be incorporated into literary learning if they are willing to give it a try.

 

References:

Friedlander, A. (November 26, 2013) Ten trends in interactive media for children from dust or Magic, Retrieved from http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/ten-trends-in-interactive-media-for-children-from-dust-or-magic/

Gaiman, N. (2013, Oct 16). Why our futures depend on libraries, reading, and imagination. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming

Harris, V.J. (1990) Benefits of Children’s Literature. In The Journal of Negro Education. Vol. 59, No. 4 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 538-539

Haven, K. F. (2007). Story proof: the science behind the startling power of story. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited. Retrieved from EBook Library

Hogg, D. (2015a) Who will be the drivers of change? [online] Retrieved from http://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/debhoggoz/2015/11/10/who-will-be-the-drivers-of-change/

Hogg, D. (2015b) Key elements of children’s literature. [online] Retrieved from http://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/debhoggoz/2015/11/29/key-elements-of-childrens-literature/

Hogg, D. (2015c)  Evaluating the quality of children’s literature. [online] Retrieved from http://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/debhoggoz/2016/01/10/evaluating-the-quality-of-childrens-literature/

Hogg, D. (2015d) Digging deep into the picturebook collection. [online] Retrieved from http://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/debhoggoz/2016/01/20/digging-deep-into-the-picturebook-collection/

Huck, C. S., Hepler, S. I., Hickman, J., & Kiefer, B. Z. (1976). Children’s literature in the elementary world. Harcourt: Brace, Jovanovich.

Marcoux, E., & Loertscher, D. V. (2009). The role of a school library in a school’s reading program. Teacher Librarian, 37(1), 8–14,84.

Rosenblatt, L.M. (1956) “The Acid Test for Literature Teaching.” English Journal Vol. 45 No.2 (1956), pp. 66–74.

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Digging deep into the picturebook collection…

Voices in the parkThe first assignment for ETL402 – a rationale for school/library fiction collections in the form of a journal article – was a significant challenge… huge! Sure it was the time frame – getting the learning modules completed at the end of the year spent in a new school, juggling both the Teacher Librarian and Computer Coordinator roles, planning for Christmas… stress and exhaustion had taken its toll… but it was much more than these factors that pushed down on getting this assignment finished and submitted. This assignment resolved itself into a difficult question – how well do you know your Picturebook Collection and does it have a place in a high school library? To be honest I ended up spending more time on that question than the assignment.

In the three years of being in school libraries, I must admit I have developed a bit of a soft spot where the Picturebooks are concerned. I’d found myself falling in love with these books, their authors and illustrators, and wishing hard that high school teachers would make more use of them in their classrooms – so they seemed the obvious choice for this assignment.

This might sound strange to all those who dismiss the Picturebook format as something that should be confined to the early childhood reading experience, but in the last three years I had come to realise how much the titles in this format had expanded beyond early readers and how many of these books were pitched at the middle school and young adult market… and how inviting these books were to me as a reader.

Therefore, this assignment became an opportunity to explore this section of our school library collection and wrestle with what was there… and what wasn’t there… as we make plans for the new school year and allocate budget to potential purchases. This assignment also saw me off on many sidetrack adventures as I explored the significant contributions of particular authors and illustrators, and researched the breadth and depths of their individual bodies of work in this format. I found myself coming face to face with amazingly beautiful as well as dreadfully scary images that inhabit these books and a developing appreciation for the skill required to write, draw and produce these titles.

In particular I was down rabbit holes with Gary Crew, Margaret Wild and Anthony Browne …and then the amazing range of books designated as “sophisticated”.

The counterpoint between text and image led me to explore two particularly interesting features of many post-modern picturebooks – metafiction and intertextuality.Stinky Cheese Man

Metafiction

The notion of destroying the illusion of a “reality” and substituting an emphasis on the book’s “fictionality” (Nikolajeva & Scott, 2006) is a feature that can lead to all manner of creativity in student writing. An excellent example of these books are those of Jon Scieszka http://www.jsworldwide.com/ . The best known of Scieszka’s books, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (1992), illustrated by Lane Smith, explores a metanarrative – the narrator appears in both the pictures and as one of the characters in the story, providing a running commentary.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality refers to the incorporation of all kinds of links between two or more texts utilising tools like parody, irony, literary and extra-literary allusions, direct quotations or indirect references to previous texts, fracturing of well-known patterns, and so on. Intertextuality assumes the reader’s active participation in the process of decoding the text when reading. It is the reader who makes the intertextual connections. In particular, this led me to explore picturebooks from different cultures and the opportunities that they provide to learn about cultural differences exposed in these texts.

The picturebook format certainly has a lot to offer the high school classroom teacher – hopefully I have built a sufficiently strong argument to that effect in Assignment 1.

Reference:

Nikolajeva, & Scott, C. (2006) How picturebooks work. New York : Taylor and Francis

 

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Evaluating the quality of children’s literature

Reference: Rothlein, L. (1991). The literature connection: using children’s books in the classroom. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman.

Picture Bookswordle7

  • Do the pictures extend the text rather than conflict with it?
  • Are the pictures clear and easily distinguishable? Are extraneous details avoided?
  • Do the illustrations enhance the setting, plot, mood, and characterizations?
  • Will children be able to identify with the characters and the action?
  • Are the style and language appropriate for young children?
  • Do the illustrations avoid stereotypes?
  • Is the theme significant?
  • Is the concept or theme appropriate for young children?
  • Have a variety of books been chosen to reflect multicultural awareness?
  • Have books been chosen that reflect a variety of genres?

Modern Fantasy

  • Is the setting authentic and integral to the story?
  • Is the language appropriate and consistent? Does it add credibility to the fantasy?
  • Is the plot creative, believable, and ingenious?
  • Does the story blend fantasy with reality, making that which is impossible seem possible?
  • Are the details consistent with the plot, setting, characters, and viewpoint?
  • Is the element of time authentically represented?
  • Are the details so vivid that the reader becomes one with the story?
  • Are emotions conveyed honestly? Is the human condition portrayed honestly?
  • Is the reader led into new insights and understandings? Does the story contain worthwhile themes?
  • Does the story contain worthwhile themes?
  • In works of science fiction, does the story contain scientific laws, principles, and technology that give plausibility to the situations and solutions?

Poetry

  • Are sensory images of sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touching created?
  • Does the poem contain figurative and alliterative language?
  • Is adequate and interesting repetition provided?
  • Does the poem flow in a natural and rhythmic manner?
  • Is the language and speech appropriate for the child’s understanding?
  • Are the words manipulated in an appealing manner to contribute to the meaning of poem?
  • Does the poem appeal appropriately to a child’s emotions?
  • Does the poem appeal to a child’s sense of humor?
  • Is there a quality of imagination so a child perceives something in a new way?
  • Does the poem have a purpose?

Realistic Fiction

  • Can the child identify and relate to the characters or situation as portrayed in the text and illustrations?
  • Is the content presented honestly and realistically?
  • Does the child have an opportunity to gain insights and understanding into problems and situations?
  • Are a variety of cultures and lifestyles represented?
  • Are the characters and actions plausible?
  • Is there a hopeful, positive, and mature approach for dealing with a problem or situation?
  • Is there enough information to allow the child to draw his or her own conclusion?

Historical Fiction

  • Are past events depicted accurately and authentically?
  • Are the details of the times portrayed accurately and authentically?
  • Do the characters reflect the values of the times?
  • Is the plot consistent with the times?
  • Is the language appropriate to the times, yet interesting to present-day readers?
  • Does the theme provide insight into and understanding of past events?
  • Does the story provide a perspective of the way in which the past affects the present and the future?
  • Are fact and fiction blended in an interesting manner?
  • Is the past brought to life?