The Read Into This podcast is sponsored by Canadian School Libraries and voicEd Radio.
Your hosts connect with authors, experts, and colleagues about books, articles, fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, media texts, cookbooks, and everything in between. They explore how we read and how what we read makes us who we are and helps us learn about those around us. Here’s a taste of some recent episodes!
Author Chat with Kevin Sylvester (Apartment 713)
Listen to “S3 E7 Author Chat with Kevin Sylvester (Apartment 713)” on Spreaker.Kevin Sylvester joins host Beth Lyons to talk all about his work as a kids lit author/illustrator and the challenges of writing such a variety of genres and styles. Kevin shares his love of visual texts such as Spiderman Comics and graphic novels and discusses why it’s such an important genre for kids (and adults!) to explore. The conversation takes its first (of many) tangents to explore the idea of what actually is “middle grade” fiction and should books be sorted for readers using these arbitrary categories? Beth invited Kevin mostly to talk about his newest book, Apartment 713, which is a love story to community and stories that are held within the structures of a community. Beth and Kevin discuss the inspiration for the Regency (the main building that acts as a character within the story), time travel and historical fiction as a tricky genre for kids, and the cast of eccentric secondary/tertiary characters. WARNING! The conversation meanders for a bit as Kevin and Beth follow a tangent about sports stories and sports fandoms in general! Grab a copy of Apartment 713 and take time to check out the dedication at the beginning of Apartment 713…Who helped make you the reader you are today?
Read Into Multilingual Learners
Listen to “S3 E5 Read Into Multilingual Learners” on Spreaker.In this episode, Beth Lyons, discusses multilingual learners with MLL resource teacher, Kimiko Shibata. The discussion starts with looking at what is a multilingual learner and the transition to MLL from ELL -asset based terminology. Kimiko helps to define what ESL means in the context of a classroom, STEPs to language proficiency, collaboration between classroom and MLL staff, and accommodations vs modifications. The question of how classroom culture impacts MLLs and their ability to adapt to new surroundings is explored in the context of language-friendly schools and working from an asset-based not deficit based lens. Kimiko shares her thoughts about the role school library professionals play in supporting both educators and learners including: inclusion-who do we represent? Do we have books that are mirrors as well as windows? (Sims Bishop) and the library as a “safe space”-libraries are for more than just reading.
Read Into Mentor Texts
Listen to “S3 E4 Read Into Mentor Texts” on Spreaker.The episode starts with all three educators talking about early years education and the reflection/intentionality behind our practices before getting into the discussion of mentor texts in the classroom and school library. Klara and Michelle provided this prompt on their IG account as they engaged in sharing a variety of mentor texts at the start of this school year: How might mentor texts provide opportunities for our Ss to feel seen, acknowledged, and important? In this episode we discuss how Klara and Michelle started this project of highlighting mentor text and how they began to plan and pick topics and the joy of using mentor texts with students.
Find Read Into This on the Canadian School Libraries website: www.canadianschoollibraries.ca/read-into-this/