Windows and Mirrors in Literature

Since 2017, we have been working on diversifying our children’s literature selections in our school and classroom libraries. We know that some books affirm our experiences. We describe those as “mirror” texts -- they reflect our lives back to us. Other books give us a “window” that allows us to explore a world beyond our current view. We have called this project “Windows and Mirrors.”

We are proud of our work to create safe and brave spaces in our classrooms to engage in rich conversations about ideas presented in culturally diverse books. This takes many different forms in classrooms. Reading books with characters and settings different from their own helps our students build empathy and cultivate compassion as well as academic learning. As you can tell from the videos, our students are excited to read these new books.

As part of SHENsational 2021, we are sharing student commentary on texts they have read in the past school year. We invite you to listen to students’ voices as they describe the connections they have made from their reading.