Book Week Celebrations!

Inaugural Author talk at Edgars Creek Secondary College with award winning author Demet Divaroren!

Diversity and representation is a focus of increasing importance in the publishing world and in recent years there has been a rise in books published from diverse perspectives. Despite the increase, we still have a long way to go before we can claim true equality in representation. Our library is committed to ensuring access to diverse books and experiences and this is evident in our BookWeek celebrations with the delivery of our first author talk by Demet Divaroren. Our student librarians, Adam and Layne conducted an audio interview with the author and we plan to have it ready to share before the end of the year.

A bit about Demet -

"Demet Divaroren was born in Adana, Turkey, and migrated to Australia with her family when she was six months old. She is the author of Living on Hope Street, which won the 2018 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Prize for Writing for Young Adults and was shortlisted for a 2018 Prime Minister’s Literary Award. Her writing has appeared in Griffith Review, The Age Epicure, The Big Issue, Island Magazine, From the Outer and Best Summer Stories. Demet appears as a panellist, guest speaker and workshop leader at literary festivals, universities and schools across Melbourne and teaches creative writing at Victoria Polytechnic." - Source: Booked out speakers agency.

What some students had to say after the event:

"She was interesting. It was inspiring to hear about not being boxed in. You can be anything." - Navreen in Year 8.

"I really liked it. I didn’t expect that. I’m Turkish too and I never expected to hear an author who was Turkish too. I really liked it and felt inspired." - Ozlem in Year 8.

"It was fun. I liked that she was Turkish. I wanted to hug her!" Chloe in Year 8.

"I liked when she talked about her school stories. It was inspiring to see how she became a writer from her experiences." - Sofiana in Year 8.

"I really liked her. I want to be a writer when I grow up" - Milan in Year 8.

"She was pretty educational. I liked how she talked about changing and you can be anything. You can share your story." - Jaydis in Year 8.

"I liked her story about going back to Turkey as a kid because I went back to Iraq and I understood." - Batool in Year 8.

Teacher Cosplay for Bookweek!

It was super fun to dress up in characters from books as part of Bookweek. Some teachers chose to dress up every day and students enjoyed finding out which character teachers would turn up in…. and the winner for best effort during BookWeek cosplay goes to Chloe!

Student Bookmark competition

Reina Lay in Year 7 is the winner of the Bookmark competition. She won a voucher for Readings Bookstore and her bookmark design is now the official bookmark for our library. Well done Reina!

Learning in the Library

Genre Tasting - Year 8

Year 8 learning focused on reader engagement and reader development via a genre-tasting unit. Each week students worked collaboratively in small groups to ‘taste’ an excerpt of a book in a specific genre and then reflect on their discovery. The purpose is to expose students to a variety of recreational reading choices and aid discovery of new works or genres that may interest students. As a conclusion to the unit, Readings bookstores curated a list of new releases across genres and included suggested titles by some of our students. Students in year 8 participated in choosing from this selection and adding a book to the library. The book has been reserved in the student’s name and once processed the student will be the first to borrow the book to read. What an absolute pleasure to experience the discovery process in reading and promote reading as a recreational activity.

The Art of Books - Year 7

Following on from the eBook design and creation unit, year 7 library learning concentrated on books as an art-form. Students participated in evaluation of the picture books from the CBCA shortlisted titles and considered how books can capture big ideas yet be delivered via a format accessible to all ages. This week students were introduced to pop-up books and the artistry of Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart. This unit will continue into term 4 with the art of Shaun Tan and a look at Graphic novels before students create their own picture book.

The following photos are from of of our Year 7 classes enjoying the art of telling stories with picture books and being kinaesthetically engaged.

Student voice in the library

There are many avenues for students to contribute voice and be part of the planning and decision making via the library at Edgars Creek Secondary College.

Following are examples of how this has occurred so far:

Planning BookWeek

Student librarians and student-led club leaders participated in collaboratively brainstorming activities for bookweek. This was followed by planning and delivering activities for the rest of the school.

All students had the opportunity to select the film to be screened as part of BookWeek via a survey.

Contributing to Collection Development

Involvement in the collection development of the library via student selections as part of the genre-tasting unit and the student suggestion box.

Contributing to Curriculum choice

Year 8 students selected a preferred curriculum choice based on an offering of three possibilities. The overall preferred choice will be the library curriculum to be developed for term 4.

Students love that they have given me holiday planning homework that needs to be ready for term 4 too!

What did students select from?

- Magazine taster with a final create a Zine for the library.

- Review it! Learn how to format written and audio reviews and then review a book for the library.

- Be a Google Wizard! Each week will focus on a specific search tip to optimise research skills.

Now to crunch the data and create the unit plan in time for term 4.

Reviews

Blackie Blackie Brown: The traditional owner of death

BY / Nakkiah Lui

DIRECTION / Declan Greene

CAST / Tahlee Fereday, Ash Flanders

Performance Season: 29th August to 14th September at Malthouse Theatre

Theatre performance reviewed by Mare Maticevski

I had the privilege of visiting the Malthouse Theatre for the restaging of Blackie Blackie Brown as part of Blak and Bright festival, 2019.

In 2018, this play had a huge success and travelled around being staged in numerous cities with changing cast members. I was super excited when tickets were released for the 2019 season so I chimed in quickly to grab my seats.

This play is written by Nakkiah Lui (you may know her from Black comedy fame on TV). It is an incredible 90 minutes of fast paced action and fantastic performance. There is no room to take a breath during this great performance experience. The play is set in contemporary times with the lead character embarking on a femme vengeance mission to make amends for the wrongs of the past. It is delivered with great pop-culture references including superheroes, gaming and comics.

If this play is staged again ( and I suspect it will be!) I highly recommend you get yourself to a performance and enjoy!

Enjoy reading over your holidays!

Mare Maticevski

Library Manager

Baseline Activities

Halloween Party