Largely unknown to most library users, is the fact that Milne owns a large collection of puppets. These wonderful creatures have been sitting on the shelves waiting to be used and shared with others. As a way to make them more visible, Milne has purchased a puppet tree to prominently display our animal friends. Please stop by the Teacher Education Resource Center (TERC) on the lower level of the library to “check out” a great resource!
For several years Dr. Peck, a literacy professor in the school of education has been engaged in researching the use of puppetry in the literacy classroom. She has worked as an artist in residence in area elementary schools supporting shadow puppet, table top puppet, hand puppet and mask productions. She also serves as the North East Regional Director of the Puppeteers of America.
Peck’s research looks at the affordances of using puppetry as a multimodal pedagogical tool, arguing that ways we can support students’ connections to text, engagement and ownership of texts, and re-authoring of texts through multimodal retelling. Her 2006 Reading Teacher article, Reading in the Shadows looks at the use of shadow puppetry in a second grade inquiry into national symbols. Currently she is studying the use of table top puppetry as reader response.
Peck is thrilled about the new acquisitions in the library and reminds students that the key to using puppets is to bring the puppets to life realistically using breath and movement, using exaggeration, and keeping each puppet true to its character so that children know what to expect. For more on using puppets feel free to email peck@geneseo.edu.
