Talking texts with teachers #4

An interview with primary school teacher Danielle Marnock about the best (and worst) texts she's taught, and the poem she still remembers studying in Year 9.

Danielle Marnock is a primary school teacher in the Yarra Valley. She’s worked as a teacher for ten years and taught students from pre-kinder age all the way through to Year 12. She’s passionate about language and helping young people to fall in love with reading.

---

 What is the best text you've ever taught, and why?

In terms of student engagement and links to ongoing learning, the text I’ve seen kids respond to most positively was Once by Morris Gleitzman. I read it to a Year 5/6 class as part of a unit focussing on World War Two and the Holocaust. The kids absolutely loved it and it lead to a big reading surge in the room, not just for the sequel texts, but also for other historical fiction (about the war, and also about other topics).

My students also loved a unit where we worked through the stories of Tales from Outer Suburbia as part of an author study on Shaun Tan. Shaun Tan doesn’t try to teach any particular morals with his work, rather he starts with an engaging image or character and works from there. As a result , texts are deliciously rich and have many themes for the kids to discuss. He’s an incredible writer and artist.

What is the worst?