Stepping Up

This week's Google alerts brought to my attention two instances where others are stepping up to highlight books featuring diversity to children. While many of the articles I've been alerted to often criticize the lack of diversity amongst the books that are published, today's post features one organization and one individual promoting the materials that are available in two unique ways. 

The first alert shares news of a fresh spin on the original concept of Little Free Libraries. Little Free Libraries are most widely known for their grassroots endeauvour of using cute wooden houses where individuals stock and access free books.The new initiative, called Read in Color, was born in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. The goal of Read in Color is to distribute books featuring diverse perspectives on a wide range of topics such as racism and social injustice and celebrate BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) and LGTBQ literature. The program will begin in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota and expand nationwide throughout the year. 

Little Free Library steward and New York high school counselor Sarah Kamya states, "I truly believe that we have to teach about race and differences and a lot of that starts at home, and through books. I also find it important for books to represent diverse characters because if you can't see it, you can't be it." Kamya built upon the original concept of the Little Free Library to launch Little Free Diverse Libraries in hopes of fostering opportunities for children and youth to engage in conversations about race related issues in our country. 

The next alert features an 11-year-old girl using her personal Instagram account to showcase, promote, and celebrate books with black characters. Sixth graders Ainara Alleyne shares that her IG page, Ainara's Bookshelf, posts reviews, recommendations, and interviews with authors to share diverse stories with diverse readers. Ainara states, "I would never be able to see a Black girl doing something really cool, being an astronaut or something like that. And the only time I would ever see Black people in books in the library would be Black History Month, and it would be all about slavery... or hurtful stereotypes."

She goes on to state, "I wanted kids to actually be able to see themselves in books and believe that they can do amazing things, too." For her efforts, Ainara was recently presented with a "Women Who Rock Award," which recognizes Black women and girls for their leadership.

Often, I think, many of us have such a hard time getting an initiative off the ground because it seems so big and overwhelming. Both of these stories show that even a small idea can have a profound impact. 

Reading Fun in Any Language

Rainbow Preschool pupils Henry Third (2) and Mia Tuilaepa (4) look at some of the new books given to the early learning centre by the Communities of Readers Project. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON

Of the Google Alerts I received this week, one from New Zealand really validated and intensified my collection development goals as an elementary librarian. Published on November 3, 2020 in Otago Daily Times, author John Lewis highlights a collaborative effort to bring books in languages other than English to an increasingly diverse population. Through this initiative, the National Library, Ministry of Education, Dunedin City Council, and others, partnered with the Community of Readers Project to address the need for their community. The project is slated to deliver 10,000 books in a variety of languages to early learning centers and other community organizations in the South Dunedin area. Kristen Glengarry, Dunedin City Council Arts and Culture relationship manager, states, "There's a realisation that, if we want to encourage children to read in a range of languages and find their own language, too." Echoing those statements, National Librarian Bill McNaught shares that reading provides important foundational skills in digital and critical literacies that are crucial for navigating today's complex informationally-driven society. 

When I worked as an ESL teacher, I believed whole-heartedly that students need to continue to develop their native language skills. My primary goal was to develop multiple language literacies. But, finding books in languages other than English is a real challenge. And if they are available, cost is often prohibitive to develop the collection as extensively as I would like to. Maximizing the limited budget I have is a priority. Regardless of limited resources and funds, it is important to remain vigilant as collection managers and developers that we work to meet the unique learning needs of ALL of our learners in ANY language. 

Lewis, John. Reading is Fun in Any Language. 2 Nov. 2020, www.odt.co.nz/news/reading-fun-any-language.

The Demand for Diversity

 This week's alerts were slim pickings... seems like there was other news bigger than diversity in children's literature on everyone's minds. Ha ha! Despite all the other news going on in the world, one article did pique my interest. The article titled, "High demand for diversity in children's literature" was published by Iowa State Daily on November 1, 2020 and was updated on November 2, 2020. Written by Natanga Safi the article highlights much of what has been said in most of the published work I've reviewed... students need to see themselves in text to connect as a reader, lack of representation is underscored by lack of minority authors and limited minority authors actually being published. However, this is the first article that identifies how teacher preparation programs are beginning to address these issues. According to the article, literature courses at Iowa State are beginning to highlight the importance of the "windows, mirrors, sliding glass door" concept first coined by Rudine Sims Bishop. This was the first I had heard of this term, so to investigate further I clicked on the links included in the article. 

The first link I explored brought me to an article titled, "Windows and Mirrors and Sliding Glass Doors: Ensuring Students See Themselves and Others in Literature" posted on the website Institute for Humane Education. Guest blogger Cathy Porter shares Dr. Bishop's work in underscoring the point that it’s crucial for children from marginalized groups to view themselves in the books they read.  Citing Bishop's essay, Porter shares, "When books don’t serve as mirrors to children", Bishop says, “They learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in society. In addition to acting as mirrors, books can also serve as windows that give readers a glimpse into the lives and experiences of others."

While understanding the numbers associated with how little diversity is represented in children's literature and knowing innately the need, the metaphor of Bishop's Windows, Mirrors, and Glass Doors really highlights how necessary it is to have representation of all students available amongst our library collections. 

The final resource that I will use in my role as a librarian was linked within Porter article. The article shares five resources for educators, including tips for teachers and librarians for not only building diverse library collections but promoting those materials so that all students can use those materials as windows, mirrors, and glass doors. 

Digital Literacy and ELLs

 While not directly related to my Google Alerts for Diverse Children's Literature and Diverse Characters in Children's Literature, this week's topic of "Technology, Language Learning, and Literacy" is a very relevant and important topic related to my profession as a school librarian. As a I reflect on the evolution of the school library program in my school district I still believe our district was foolish in eliminating the program in 2013 due to budget cuts, which is when technology became more integrated into the educational environment. In subsequent years we talked about "Libraries of the Future" and "21st Century Skills for Learning," all the while removing the heart of where much of those literacies were taught, practiced, and applied. 

In reading the article "Empowering English Language Learners through Digital Literacies: Research, Complexities, and Implications" by Chang Yuan, Lili Wang and Jessica Eagle, I feel that there is even more evidence for a comprehensive digital literacy program. The article identifies a framework developed by American scholars Spires and Bartlett (2012) that identifies three main categories of cognitive and social processes association with digital literacies. They are locating and consuming digital content, creating digital content, and communicating digital content. Even though this article is aimed at improving English language acquisition for non-native speakers, I believe it offers solid support for the importance of digital literacy for all students. 

In this 21st century technologically-driven global society, digital literacy has become essential for individuals to be successful in living, learning and working. Engaging our students, especially ELLs, in activities designed to utilize critical thinking, collaboration, and creating as a means to communicate helps to build these digital competencies in an authentic, meaningful, and applicable way. Present throughout our American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Framework for Learners and our newly adopted K-4 Library Curriculum are the words create, communicate, collaborate, and critically think (also known as the 4Cs for 21st Century Learning). 

Creating, communicating, and evaluating digital content are not only digital literacy tools that benefit ELLs. These concepts and skills benefit our students as a whole. 

Yuan, C., Wang, L., & Eagle, J. (2019). Empowering English language learners through digital literacies: 

Research, complexities, and implications. Media and Communication, 7(2), 128-136.

Diverse Classroom Libraries and Digital Storytelling

This week the International Literacy Association blog published piece titled "The Importance of a Diverse Classroom Library" by Jerie Blintt.  In this blog post the author asserts, "Students seeing themselves in the stories they read to foster a sense of belonging, recognition, and most of all, validation, is crucial- representation matters." However, in reflecting upon my previous posts and readings, it is evident that diverse materials are lacking in the publishing world. Given this week's look into Digital Storytelling, I remembered activities I completed as a 2nd grade teacher. Even though my students had hundreds of great books to read in our classroom library, they LOVED reading stories written by their classmates. Each week in our Work on Writing center, I placed a new personal narrative story sheet for students to write. When I began to curate them into a binder, students read the writing of their peers over and over again. Using Digital Storytelling strategies coupled with access to 1:1 iPads my students now have, students have the opportunity to build diverse classroom libraries through their own stories. Empowering our students to use their voice to share their experiences with each other can foster the sense of belonging, recognition, and validation that Jerie Blintt identifies as crucial. By integrating Digital Storytelling into our writing experiences, students language development no longer needs to hamper their narrative. Using tools such as images, media, music, and voice recording gives students the opportunity to creatively share their story. I'm a big proponent of the idea that if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. No matter how much we as teachers and librarians lament the lack of diversity in children's literature, no one is really stepping up to do anything about it. However, we as educators can use digital storytelling to empower our students to tell their own story in a way that transcends their proficiency in L2 acquisition. 

Changing the Narrative: Alternatives to "Classics"

 This week my Google Alerts set for diverse children's literature and diverse characters in children's literature brought back a multitude of results that I found particularly interesting! I spent most of my week really pondering one article titled "Authors hope 2020 turns the page in push for diverse children's books," republished by the Port Charlotte (FL) Sun on October 9, 2020. Written by Nedra Rhone of The Atlanta-Constitution Journal, the article really highlighted that despite 50 years of advocacy for representing characters, themes and stories featuring all races and cultures publishers are starting to finally put their money where their mouth is. 

The piece of the article that not only struck me as a reader, but as a teacher, was the concept of replacing traditional "classics" with new, diverse titles to teach the same topics and themes. The author mentions one of my all-time favorite books To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This text is often used in high school English classes to examine racial tension and inequities in the south during the 1930s. Librarian and advocate Cicely Lewis (Meadowcreek High School) has "challenged teachers to find alternatives to classic novels that could teach kids the same lessons," recommending Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give as a contemporary alternative. 

As a librarian I often read stories to my students that I like or that I remember from my formative years. After reading this article and reflecting on my desire to build a more inclusive and diverse collection I realized that building the collection is only half the battle to truly transforming the narrative and perspective my school libraries provide. I am challenging myself to find diverse alternatives to the books I normally choose to read. I recognize that there might not be a book out there for every experience, but hope that by being cognizant of including alternatives I may be able to share a wide range of authors, illustrators, and characters to represent all of my students. 

https://www.yoursun.com/charlotte/features/authors-hope-2020-turns-the-page-in-push-for-diverse-childrens-books/article_c6ecaa28-c051-535c-97b9-c0bfdc605e0e.html

Where are the diverse characters???

 As the school librarian for two elementary schools serving a total of 800+ students, I wanted to focus my efforts on creating a more diverse, inclusive reading atmosphere through collection development. In light of today's social, racial, and cultural relations in our country, representing all students in literature and informational text is something that is very important to me. I once read somewhere something to the effect that students want to read about people like themselves. In 2018, the Cooperative Children's Book Center, School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison released information they compiled in regards to representation of characters in children's literature. In that infographic you can see that 50% of books depict white characters, 27% feature animals, and the remaining 23% percent represents minority characters. I found that shocking considering the times we live in. 

Over the last two years I concentrated on adding strong, female characters and informational texts about women who "broke the mold" to my collections. As a woman and mom of three girls, I definitely saw a lack of representation in that area. Now that I have (and continue to) address that need, it't time to shift my focus on ensuring the collection represents all of my students. 

Creating Google alerts didn't proved beneficial in this first week. Alerts focusing on diverse characters in children's books, diverse children's literature, and ESL blogging yielded just 9 results. While an important topic, it's not really a newsworthy topic. So I am not surprised I didn't get a whole lot of new information. So I turned to my Facebook librarian groups to see what they were talking about. As much as I love browsing Pinterest and the internet for teaching ideas, connecting with like-minded professionals through social media has created for me a well-rounded cohort of librarians from all over the world. In one such post I was reminded of Capstone's Reading is for Everyone campaign. (https://www.capstonepub.com/sites/reading_is_for_everyone/about.html)

Shannon McClintock Miller (https://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/2020/03/reading-is-for-everyone-for-read-across.html) features Reading is for Everyone in this blog post. 

I first began working with a Capstone rep in the summer of 2019 and after spending some more time on their Reading is for Everyone site, I can't wait to order some more books from them.  Over the last year I added some great characters like Buzz Beaker, Molly Mac, Yasmin, and Pedro to our collection, representing the African/African-American, Asian, Muslim, and Latino races. I decided to investigate some more of their characters and am exciting to explore them with my reps in the coming weeks as I prepare my orders for this year!