The following article by Jane Carr was commissioned by and for Scan, the teacher-librarians' journal. It originally appeared in Vol 17 no 4 (November) 1998, pp 9-11. Reprinted with permission. Copyright (c) 1998 by NSW Department of Education and Training. Scan is available on subscription by faxing (02) 9886 7413.

For a rapping good time...

oz-TeacherNet runs many Internet curriculum projects for incorporating into schools' teaching and learning programs, and interactive Book Raps are becoming a firm favourite in many schools. Jane Carr is an Education Adviser, Learning Technology, for Education Queensland. Jane is currently organising the book rap for the picture book An apology to bilbies by Rob Atherton.

We all love books. For many educators, reading stories to children is the best part of the school day. If you could show children that people all over the world enjoy the same books, and love to read too, then wouldn't that be a valuable exercise?

oz-TeacherNet's book rap projects on the Internet are online discussions about a particular book, conducted via electronic mail (email). All a class needs to participate in a book rap is: access to email; a love of books; and a willingness to share thoughts and feelings with classes throughout Australia and overseas.

There is always a range of books to choose from each term, suitable for children from five to eighteen years of age. A book rap will last four weeks, although many teachers and teacher-librarians will plan and program their classes' participation to be a part of a much larger unit of work.

Getting started

All that is required is to go to the oz-TeacherNet projects home page (hosted by The Rite Group, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology), choose the book you and your students would like to 'rap' about, and then join that email listserv.

After the participants have introduced themselves, the book rap coordinator posts (via email) one 'rap point' each week. These are questions about the book, designed to challenge students to think about the story, its characters, plot etc. The questions have been developed to encourage higher order thinking skills. For example, "What would happen if ..."

Student outcomes and indicators

Many teachers and teacher-librarians use the rap points to collaboratively plan, program and teach thematic writing activities and information skills, according to appropriate levels of student outcomes. For example, a student may demonstrate the following indicators:

Early Stage 1

• Retells information gained from texts (Selecting)
• Contributes to joint construction of texts (Organising)
• Dictates a range of text types for adults to write (Presenting).

Stage 1

• Brainstorms in class or small groups to cluster or categorise ideas (Selecting)
• Uses pro formas to scaffold text, and word processors to create texts (Organising; Presenting)
• Has modelled how to select and organise information before writing (Organising).

Stage 2

• Acts as a reporter for a discussion group, summarising main points (Selecting)
• Makes some inferences about ideas implicit in a text (Selecting)
• Uses computers to draft and edit writing (Organising).

Stage 3

• Uses email and Internet sources to request and receive information (Locating)
• Recognises when opinion is offered, as opposed to fact (Selecting)
• Uses related diagrams, charts, maps, graphs and illustrations to present information (Presenting).
  

[from English K-6 syllabus, 1998; see article in Scan 17(2), pp 15-18]

The rap goes on...

In each school, after gathering together the students' responses to that week's particular rap point, the answers are typed up into an email message and posted back to the list. Your schools' messages, and those of all other participants, are available for perusal and further response. The procedure continues until the rap 'wraps'.

You can imagine the enthusiasm generated as classes check for new email messages - even every day if desired. Printing out the ones of interest to you and your students makes possible the opportunity for students to re-read the messages, even when there is limited access to the Internet computer. The print-outs can be placed on a display board, with a map showing where all the other 'rappers' live. The possibilities for related visual arts, drama, science and HSIE learning activities are endless.

A book rap glossary of terms

An apology to bilbies

In October of this year, Jane Carr instigated a book rap for middle and upper primary students, focusing on the Australian picture book An apology to bilbies: (with good grace) by Rob Atherton.

Rob was the Senior Research Officer involved in the National Parks and Wildlife's Queensland Bilby Project. His main duties were to study species of concern, such as rainforest possums, tree kangaroos and the bilby. Rob spent many years in the Northern Queensland rainforests, and in the Diamantina Shire (also known as 'bilby country'). He loved bilbies, calling them "the little gentlemen of the inland desert".

Rob Atherton originally wrote his tale for Jane's Year 6 class, at Boronia Heights State School, a few years ago. The story remained one of the students' favourite 'read it again' stories. When Rob died last year, Jane arranged to have the story published in his memory. An apology to bilbies, and a companion teaching kit called Australia's endangered mammals, became a collaborative school team effort. The illustrator of the book, artist Gayle Kutuzov, is a Year 7 teacher at the school, as is the narrator on the kit's CD-ROM, Steve Schuhmacher. The CD-ROM master was even set up and 'burnt' by one of the students.

To support first time book rappers, and the experienced ones, Jane Carr created a Bilby book rap Web site on the Internet that includes: the rap points; factual information about bilbies; details on the book and teaching kit; related resources about conservation; the Walpiri's quest travel buddy project; and Jane's recommended links to endangered animal sites on the World Wide Web. There are also classroom activities for teachers and teacher-librarians to adopt or adapt, useful for programming a whole unit on the environment.

During the book rap, guest experts were invited to come online and answer student questions. These included: Jeff Short, a CSIRO research scientist; Kaye Kessing, illustrator of Easter bilby by Ali Garnett; and Ann Jelinek, a representative of the Endangered Species Program. Gayle Kutuzov was also available throughout the rap to help teachers and classes who were feeling artistic and wanting to try their hand at linocut printing, the medium Gayle used to illustrate Rob Atherton's story.

Teachers from all over Australia, plus several schools from England and South Africa, signed up their schools in the Bilby book rap. By responding to the rap points, and sharing their knowledge of local endangered animals, all participants were able to get a global understanding of the plight of many species, whilst sharing a love of books.

Book rapping at home!

Now that so many homes have Internet access, many parents and their children are discovering oz-TeacherNet's book raps too, and join the rap as a family unit. Here is a family's email message from the recently completed book rap on The jolly postman:

"We have a big map of Australia, plus a smaller map of the world, on our kitchen wall and we have been putting up stickers to mark the location of all The jolly postman rappers. So far, there are 31 stickers on our maps! We have one problem: we can't find Myponga marked on our map of Australia. Can your class give us some more information to help us work out where you are?

"This is the first book rap we have done and we chose The jolly postman book rap because we have enjoyed reading The jolly pocket postman ever since Keegan was in preschool. This is the first time we have read the original version of The jolly postman and we are enjoying doing the book rap while we read it.

"A question for Emma and Esther at the National Archives: would it be okay for Keegan to design a stamp and send it to you by mail? We will need your postal address please.

"'Bye for now."   Keegan and his Mum.

References

Atherton, R. & Kutuzov, G., An apology to bilbies: (with good grace). Jane Carr, 1998.

Australia's endangered mammals (kit). Jane Carr, 1998.

Bilby book rap supporting home page (online), including links to All about bilbies and the Walpiri's quest group travel buddy project at: http://www.schools.ash.org.au/bilbyrap

Book rap - An apology to bilbies (online) at: http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/oz-teachernet/projects/book-rap/apology.html

English K-6 syllabus. NSW Board of Studies, 1998.

Garnett, A. & Kessing, K., Easter bilby. Anti-Rabbit Research Foundation of Australia, 1994

oz-TeacherNet projects (online) with links to many Internet based curriculum projects at: http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/oz-teachernet/projects/projects.html.

The Rite group - Faculty of Education QUT (online) at: http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/

Roche, M., 'English K-6: outcomes, indicators and information skills', Scan 17(2) May 1998, pp 15-18.