Culturally Diverse Literature Series

Part 2 - Choosing Culturally Diverse Literature

Wednesday 15 September

4:00 – 5:00 pm

Stories are powerful. They shape the way we think about the world, ourselves and each other. The stories we choose to present to students at school, as teachers and librarians, profoundly affect how students perceive the world and their place in it. We want to help you choose culturally diverse resources that reflect students’ diverse lives, promote inclusion, challenge stereotypes, confront racism and ultimately strengthen our multicultural society.

Part 2

Resource Auditing and Recommendations Session

in part 2, we discuss possible ways to audit your current text lists or collections, and give resource recommendations for you to consider introducing at your school or institution.

Jennifer Peck will take you through the resources available through LMERC, including lists of culturally diverse texts.

Stella Schools Manager Lenny Robinson will introduce the audience to two resources developed by Stella Schools to support diversity in text selection: The Read Up Reading Guide, developed in partnership with the Victorian Government, and the Stella Sparks Reading Guide, one of several resources included in their Resource Kit for Stella Sparks schools program.

We will then split into groups facilitated by SLAV and LMERC librarians who will take you through some resource recommendations relevant for the age of your readers.

6 -12 years (primary)

Raffaela Grasso is the current full time Primary Teacher Librarian /eLearning Facilitator for the Primary school Years 2-5 at Bialik College. Raffaela is currently undertaking the Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) degree. Throughout her career she has worked closely with Primary classroom teachers to support and develop a love of reading and develop respectful and responsible use of technology in the Primary years.

13 – 14 years

Hope Do is currently the Information Services Coordinator at Caroline Chisholm College, a school with a diverse population of more than 83 nationalities. She has been the Head of Learning Resources at Loyola College, a Catholic Secondary co-educational College in Watsonia from 2015- 2019. Hope started her life as a Maths teacher in 2002. She then returned to study completing a Master of Information Management at RMIT. Prior to joining Loyola in 2015, Hope spent a number of years as a Teacher-Librarian at St. Monica’s College.

15 to 18 years

Erin Wamala has previously worked in children’s publishing and bookselling and is now a Teacher Librarian at Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne. She is also currently an Older Readers Judge for the Children’s Book Council of Australian Awards.

18 plus

Jenny Peck is the manager of the Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre (LMERC), a small specialised Department of Education and Training library for educators across all sectors including early childhood and adult education. The LMERC library specialises in resources to support delivery of the Victorian Curriculum in the areas of English as an Additional Language, Languages, Cross Curriculum Priority areas and Intercultural Capability. In this role she manages a small team of 2 part time staff, assists teachers to find resources – in the library or remotely, writes a quarterly newsletter, develops the collection, produces curated lists of resources and delivers presentations to groups.  She has been a librarian since 2007.

This series of professional learning events is a result of collaboration between staff from the Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre (LMERC), the School Libraries Association of Victoria (SLAV), Stella Schools, and VicTESOL.

Cost:

• $10 – LMERC / SLAV / VicTESOL members
  
• $20 – Non-members

Registration is available on the VicTESOL website HERE