Tag Archives: genre

Amish Fiction Pathfinder

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Salutations!

For CLS 534 Adult Programming for Public Libraries in Summer 2022, I was tasked with creating a pathfinder for a genre of choice with associated explanatory essay; I chose Amish fiction, since it was outside my usual genre picks, and formally reviewed five representative novels. The pathfinder, made using Microsoft Publisher, is in the Google Drive folder “Documents/Presentations (MSLS & Beyond);” below are the TL;DR highlights (in my humble opinion):

  •  Amish Romance, the primary focus of the novels highlighted as a representative sample in this Genre Pathfinder, can be defined as “romances that are morally and socially acceptable within [the Amish] community and religion, such as chastity and conservative values” (Harris et al., 2021). These novels feature characteristics common to both Amish Romance fiction and Christian Romance fiction, namely “a redemptive arc….a strong heroine…good prevailing over evil,” making them “safe and wholesome” books that makes readers “feel uplifted, inspired, and hopeful,” with many loyal readers avowing “their experience of the genre resembles devotional reading as much as it does entertainment” (Harris et al., 2021; Weaver-Zercher, 2013a, para. 5).
  • The origin of Amish fiction as a whole seems to stem from the agreed-upon seminal publication of Beverly Lewis’ The Shunning in 1997, the first adult novel by a beloved children’s author that “quickly found an audience among fans of historical fiction”  (Markert, 2017, p. 280; Riess, 2008, p. S8). As of 2008, The Shunning “sold 766,000 copies, contributing to the 4.5 million total copies sold of Lewis’s Amish-related adult fiction” (Riess, p. S8). Beverley Lewis unknowingly paved the way for authors Wanda Brunstetter and Cindy Woodsmall to establish themselves as leaders within the new genre, leaping “to best-seller status and [continuing alongside her] to write Amish-themed romances that generate strong sales for the [publishing] houses that launched their [respective] careers” (Markert, p. 280).
  • Overall, books in the Amish fiction genre or the Amish Romance fiction genre appeal to primarily female readers of varied ages and backgrounds, whether religious or not, for several different reasons. Most commonly, “the Amish lifestyle encapsulates many things [numerous readers across the United States primarily] find attractive—a strong sense of spirituality, a close-knit community, and the ability to remain relatively constant in a changing culture” (Reiss, p. S8), with some readers even discovering a sense of “permission to wrestle with some of their own doubts about how their faith intersects with the culture” (Reiss, p. S8); other readers are inspired to begin or continue “many of the practices they see slipping away from contemporary life: eating together as a family, caring for one’s neighbors, … resisting the urge to buy every new gadget, [and] choosing to forgive” (Weaver-Zercher, p. 24).

I grouped the pathfinder’s representative titles into a Goodreads shelve, with the same reviews posted there, you want to add any of them to your own TBR shelves!

RLGing,

Sarah Hope

Fresh Start, Restart

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Dear Reader,

I Bitmoji Imagefeel like I’m almost starting over again with “Read+Learn=Grow!”. The past year and a half (at least) has been both a whirlwind and excruciatingly slow; from moving into a new position mid-year in September 2019 since I’d left my home state the previous June to learning how to teach/juggle/manage two elementary libraries’ K-5 patrons and collections simultaneously to schools shutting down in March 2020 due to Covid-19 and going completely virtual, it’s been quite an [interesting/unusual/trying/sort of exciting, etc.] time. Pick an adjective to describe what all has been happening which made my blogging hiatus happen. It wasn’t really intentional; I felt very bad thinking about all that I was experiencing with going completely digital in the Library via Seesaw (when I was working with students both online and in-person), the ideas from the new lessons my colleagues and I were creating, the reflections on doing Zoom read-alouds with classes and making #BookVideosEDU and all the learning happening in the many meetings with my colleagues that you, reader, weren’t getting an inkling of, since my blog was silent and stagnant.

Instead of bemoaning the lost months (in actuality the year plus a smidge) of information we could have been sharing about, I’m happy to say “Read+Learn=Grow!” is getting a fresh start, a restart as of today. I feel a little like Chase in Gordon Korman’s Restart in that I get to start over with my blogging life and choose to do things differently than before. I will endeavor to blog at least weekly during summertime and at least monthly during the school year. The format and content is going to remain the same; I hope to figure out how to display my #BookSnaps of “kidlit” since I just started up that awesome documentation of what I read last night with One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. I plan to do at least one #BookSnap for each “kidlit” book I read this summer and forward, in all formats (chapter book, picture book, graphic novel).

One cool project I was able to work on this past school year, since Fridays were a virtual day for in-person students, was to finally get to genre-fy my first collection(s).I had double the work since I’m responsible for two entire buildings in my present elementary librarian position. More to come on that exciting process, with a photo or two.

Stay tuned for tech tidbits, as I piece together all the awesome stuff I’ve learned about Seesaw as a learning management platform andstay tuned what I’m going to learn about Accessit as a library collection management platform since my district dumped Follett Destiny, reviews and #BookSnaps of recently read “kidlit,” notes on my genre-fication journey, links to read-aloud #BookVideosEDU, and probably lots more as I get back into the swing of blogging regularly. I leave you with the following quote, which Goodreads quickly provided to my query of quotes about “starting over.”

You can start anew at any given moment. Life is just the passage of time, and it’s up to you to pass it as you please. ― Charlotte Eriksson

Happy RLGing!

PS. I’m trying out a new signature with the blog name as a verb, since we all engage in reading, learning, and growing in a cyclical process, sometimes daily without really stopping to think about it. What do you think? Comment below.

Presenting at my state’s library conference in September 2016

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Hello Everyone,

After what has been a long hiatus from blogging on Read + Learn = Grow!, I have finally returned; much has happened in three months!

I am now a school library media specialist in a K-5 school! My school in a small city away from my hometown, so I have relocated and started an exciting professional adventure.

Back in September, I presented two sessions at my state library conference for school and public librarians. Below is my reflection on my session and information about the three sessions I attended.

My Two Presentations

My two presentations, “Bingo! Getting Kids Interested in Genre” and “WWWDOT Website Evaluation Criteria,” went really well. I had over fifteen attendees for the genre presentation, the first session slot on a Saturday morning, and about eight, four of which stayed, for the WWWDOT presentation, the last session slot on the same Saturday.

After the genre presentation, six attendees completed my session evaluation sheets, all with very positive comments. Four gave me all 5s (High) on usefulness of information, sufficiency of information, clarity of presentation, relevance to job, overall evaluation of presentation, and overall evaluation of presenter. One respondent gave me all 4s, while the last gave a mix of 5s and 4s. Three respondents individualized their plans to implement what was presented, with one using a Makerspace, another conducting a unit with fourth grade students, and the third implementing my “Genre Bingo” in a public library. One respondent thought the hands-on portion of most value, while another appreciated the TinyURL to get to the session handouts.

bingo3wwwdot3

Session 1: “Come One, Come All – Bring the Whole Family”

These librarians learned that multi-age programming is best for their community. For example, when they offered “Mini Golf” for only teens, just three teen patrons attended. When they offered “Mini Golf” again for all ages, over fifty patrons attended and enjoyed putting balls through wickets made from bookends. Two other examples of interesting events where the “Family Fort Night,” which featured patrons bringing blankets and pillows to make forts around a fake bonfire to read stories as they munched on marshmallows, and the “Frozen Sing-Along,” which featured songs and scenes from the popular Disney film with audience participation sections, such as throwing snowballs at the Snow Monster. This library also offers summer programs every weekday with free lunch for K-12 students.

Session 2: “EverFi”

EverFi is a web-based program of courses designed to help students with financial education, STEM readiness, healthy relationships, diversity and inclusion, and career leadership and success. Each course has teacher resources aligned to Common Core State Standards. Most of the K-12 courses are geared towards middle and high school students, yet some are appropriate for students in fourth and fifth grade. Teachers create free accounts, and students have individual student accounts grouped as classes. Students can be directed to use any module, a select few, or complete the course. Accounts for students under the age of 13 do not have last name or email required. If interested, teachers can contact an EverFi school manager to get behavior survey data on their students.

Session 3: “Genrefying Your Library”

These high school librarians saw a 67% increase in usage and saw the fiction circulation double when they genrefied their library media center. Genrefying refers to grouping fiction books first by genre then by author last name. They purchased Demco “all in one” stickers to place on book spines and used websites like FantasticFiction and NoveList to help with categorizing titles. When working in Destiny, they suggested completing both the sublocation and copy categories. The copy categories then become visual search button options in the OPAC, and it is possible to run historical collection statistics based on copy category. One of the presenters mentioned librarians might want to label the titles first then batch edit the copies in the OPAC using barcodes. For them, if a story has magic, it is fantasy, not science fiction, and historical is anything prior to 1995. Canva.com was suggested as a place for genre posters and signs.

Enthusiastically,

Ms. Tyler

LME 590 Practicum Week 7: Part 2

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Hello Everyone,

This week, I taught my genre lesson to a class of fifth grade students. Overall, it went well. The students were attentive during the direct instruction portion, some even asking relevant questions like “What about graphic novels?” and “Is Dr. Seuss poetry?” which I was able to address efficiently. They enjoyed working with the mini iPads to scan the QR codes during the investigation of the library media center. Before the lesson, the library media specialist mentioned that some of the students in this class had difficulty with reading comprehension and writing, perhaps needing a scribe to help them with their schoolwork. Since I had not considered those possibilities, I was glad I had already planned for the students to work in groups of three or four during the investigation, which demanded both reading and writing.

During the investigation, I noticed a group having an animated conversation, so I went over to listen and see if I could be of assistance. One student was trying to convince his classmate that “Oklahoma” was not a clue to why Out of the Dust belonged in the historical fiction genre. He said anyone could say they lived in Oklahoma, including himself, and was adamant “the 1930s” was the clue because it was in the past. After the classmate finally agreed with him, I stepped in and reaffirmed their thinking that “the 1930s” was indeed a more appropriate clue. Below is the Dust poster and the text from the QR code being scanned.

genre1Below are photographs of student groups working on the investigation.

genre2

Later, during the whole-group sharing, I alluded to the Dust conversation without mentioning the actual group of students to address the possible misconception other students might have had. It was a surprise to them that My Librarian is a Camel belongs in the informational genre, since, to some, it sounded like a fiction title. When students had difficulty giving the genre and clues of a title, since not every group was able to complete the entire investigation, I used the “phone a friend” technique I started employing as a substitute teacher (a student needing help can call on a friend whose hand is raised and ask him or her the question I asked, listening for the answer. Over time, I have realized it gets the first student “off the hook” if I merely accept the answer of the second student and move on so the first student has to repeat to me what his or her friend said, which makes the first student accountable for listening to the correct answer and restating it.) I let one particular student “phone a friend,” and the library media specialist later said the technique was great for her, since she is a non-reader and can sometimes be defiant when unable to answer a question. By “phoning a friend,” the student was able to get the answer to the question I had posed to her and “save face” in front of the class, since “phone a friend” was used by a few other students during the share time.

There are a few things I would change when teaching this lesson again to a group of students. I would include a “Share Time” slide on the PowerPoint presentation that would give me the book cover and possibly group number to keep my facilitation of the investigation results on pace. I know I stopped calling on groups at group seven and did not have representatives from groups eight or nine give the genres of the last two books because we were running out of time and I lost my place in the group numbering. This slide would also contain the genre of each book that would pop up on the screen after a student had given the genre to aid in students being able to add to or change their booklets if needed. By having the book cover and genre on the screen after they are discussed, I would be able to assist those students who would benefit from written text accompanying the oral discussion. I would have all students write down the group numbers I gave them on their investigation booklets. Once several groups began working on the investigation, some students forgot the numbers I had given them. I would also have provided a quick reminder about using the QR code scanner on the mini iPad to the whole group before starting the investigation, rather than briefing each group individually.

Enthusiastically,

Ms. Tyler