Cirrus@Austlit

'This book is designed to encourage and upskill teachers to introduce and explore poetry in the classroom with their students.

'Poetry has many proven benefits for learning outcomes and can help significantly in students’ literacy journey. Dr Murphy’s book is packed full of poem-driven activities and tips for engaging students with poetry. Dr Murphy says "As well as writing books, I am a poet. I love crafting poetry on all kinds of topics, and in a range of forms, both rhyming and unrhyming."' (Publication summary)

'The enriched revision and update of Lorraine McDonald's best selling title includes up-to-date Australian Curriculum links and coverage along with new research, a new chapter on evaluating literary texts, and much more. Nonfiction texts have been added as examples of quality mentor texts, along with updated examples where appropriate of narratives and picture books. 

'"Literature has always been used as reading material in Australian schools and teachers are the interpretive authorities on literary texts; the meaning of text is filtered through the way they talk about it."(p.3) 

'A Literature Companion for Teachers - 2nd edition continues to provide teachers with the appropriate knowledge for this important role. It is both a revision and an update and remains true to its purpose: a key reference to enhance practising and pre-service teachers’ knowledge about how literature may be responded to, examined, interpreted, analysed, evaluated and created. It presents literary writing as both an ‘art’ and a ‘craft’ and explores aspects of the ‘craft’ of writers’ ‘artistry’. Each chapter presents exemplars of quality literature, with many recent texts included in this edition. ' (Publication summary)

'With the 2016 Australian Curriculum: English v.8.3 as a starting point the book offers explanations, interpretations and examples for each of the four Literature strands. The quality literature texts and excerpts within serve as possible mentor texts for teachers. Each chapter offers models for teaching the literary content, and attention to learning literacy is integrated via a range of teaching opportunities. These experiences emphasise co-operative book talk, close reading to seek evidence from the text and creative application of new learning to consolidate knowledge. 

'Throughout the book there is a consistent focus on how language constructs meanings in texts. This emphasis is now foregrounded as an explicit concept across the Key Ideas introduced in the curriculum. Throughout the book the teaching sequence of identify, describe and explain is promoted. This is intended to ensure students move beyond codebreaking and literal level comprehension to deeper interpretation and analysis.'' (Publication summary)

'Picture books have been evolving for centuries. While early texts such as John Comenius’ Orbis Pictus (1658) demonstrated the value of using illustration in children’s education, it was not until the 1930s that picture books in the form familiar to readers today appeared. By the 1960s picture books such as Maurice Sendak’s Where the wild things are (1963) demonstrated how the genre could break boundaries by exploring psychological dramas and experimenting with visual storytelling. It was also in the 1960s that graphic novels with their popular comic-style form were developing an adventurous approach to content and style. Contemporary picture books and graphic novels continue to explore new literary and artistic landscapes, inspire adaptations by filmmakers and to other media and increasingly to digital forms with the popularity of e-versions and apps.

'Picture books and beyond examines a wide selection of picture books, graphics novels, films, e-picture books and apps that reflects the diversity of these evolving cultural artefacts, and their opportunities for education and delight. Picture books and beyond aligns closely with the goals and directions of the Australian Curriculum: English, and considers the potential of texts for enabling students to respond critically and creatively. It also highlights links to other curricula, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities.'  (Publication summary)

"Footprints by the River is the twelfth collection of children's writing and art published as part of 'Special Forever: An Environmental Communications Project', a partnership between the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and Primary English Teaching Association.

In a period of severe drought the resilience of nature, and of human communities, is highlighted in the work of these children, themselves residents of the Murray-Darling Basin.

They respond to hardships and isolation with a determination that is truly inspiring. They depict a landscape that is their own and about the mutual dependence of land and people. They recognise the finite nature of the Basin's natural resources and the need to work together for a sustainable future. Best of all, they celebrate life and the land and riverine environments that sustain it.

We set down their words and pictures in this collection so that they will remain, like footprints beside the many rivers that flow in the Murray-Darling Basin, to mark these children's hopeful journey through land and time." (Source: back cover)