DIVERSE LIBRARIES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS CLASSROOMS
DIVERSE LIBRARIES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS CLASSROOMS
I am an English Secondary Education Major and I have loved reading since I was a young girl. I have always felt passionate about teaching and allowing for children to learn from all walks of life. This page is about the importance of a diverse library, with some examples of literature that can be used in a classroom. I have also complied a list of books that can be used in classrooms, in just a classroom library or even in curriculum (school disctrict depending).
Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop's article "Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors" is about the importance of diversity in children's literature by using the ideas of windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors. Bishop uses the symbol of a mirror to explain the way that children can see themselves in literature, with a character or specific elements of the plot. A window would be a child reading a story and seeing into a life that is not their own, a way for them to understand the lives of other people. Which is furthered by the idea of sliding glass doors, allowing for empathy to be created in readers.
This article is super important when understanding why diverse libraries are nessecary in classroom and school-wide libraries. There is s significant benefit of having children learn about the world that exists outside of themselves. This article is often referenced when speaking about diverse libraries within a classroom.
In my own classroom I want to have enough books to provide windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors for all students. Having a comprehensive classroom library is super important to me and I hope to inspire students to read more, whether it is a character/story that is a mirror for them or a window or a sliding glass door.
I put this image here because I think that it is important to really look at these numbers when it comes to expressing how vital it really is for children to have mirrors in the literature that they read.
It is truly heart brekaing to know that animals and trucks have more children's literature written about them than children of color.
The visual representation of the mirrors also adds to the clarity of the issue. White children are not only able to see themselves, but also representations of them being the king, an astronaut, older and younger, and everything they could think to be. Whereas the other children cannot even see a full picture of themselves, which is something the bunny can do!
I spoke with Kristen Luettchau, an English professor at TCNJ and a public school teacher, about the ways that she creates a diverse library in her own classroom.
In my future, as an educator, I hope to also be able to go to different conferences where I learn about new releases. I will also keep my eyes on different award lists and journals to ensure that my classroom is filled with a diverse set of literature.
For LIT 310: Literature For Younger Readers -
She begins by picking a genre for each book, to ensure a full grasp of children's literature genres. Then she looks at the experiences of the characters, the authors, and the background for each novel to ensure they featured varied experiences. She looks at different facets of life and trys to represent as many as possible. Luettchau directly mentions race, gender, sexuality, class, immigration, and status as things she looks at when picking texts.
For classrooms outside of TCNJ -
Luettchau attends conferences and sessions where she has the ability to learn about diverse titles. She mentioned that the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention was one she visited recently. She left with around 100 free books, some of which were advanced reader's copies (meaning they have yet to be released). She also follows many award lists and journals, like Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal, to see what is new and is already recommended.
The article speaks about the many different ways that a book can be diverse. Whether in terms of race, class, or ability. The article also expresses the need for differing genres within a curriculum and library. It uses the research done by Bishop to enhance their points about children needing to read books that are culturally diverse within a classroom setting. Although the article does mention topics outside of race, there is a large focus on books about race being present in classrooms and the ways that these books being in schools is vital to children's learning. Picking books that are intersectional for the classroom is principle in ensuring literature that acts as a window, mirror, and/or sliding glass doors.
For my own classroom library I hope to have a classroom library filled with all of these types of books. I do think that having a list of ways to have diverse novels is important. Due to having not had the resources in my own schooling experiences to have truly read that many diverse novels, having a way to see how many different types of literature is out there and can be read and enjoyed by many is super helpful when picking books for a library. I also think that having novels that are outside of just narrative fiction is super important for a secondary classroom. Students should be able to read outside of just fictional stories, and should have graphic novels and even poetry novels at their disposable. I also think that having a non-fiction section would be helpful, or just having a list of non-fiction books is a good idea for kids who would rather read about true stories.
This article uses data from schools to analyze the issues present within the libraries to understand if they are diverse enough for students. With this data they prove that it is not but also they provide ways for schools to become more diverse in their literary selections.
While there is no direct teaching strategies mentioned in the paper, it becomes clear that teachers should analyze the literature they bring into their classroom to ensure that as a whole their library covers more character backgrounds than just a white-straight-cisgendered-male. Although having stories about white straight cisgendered males are not inherently bad for children to read, because they are the primary story that is told it often becomes repetitive and does not allow for other students who do not fall into those categories to read about themselves in literature.
In my own classroom I hope to critically analyze each book I bring into my classroom to not only provide one story but also many more. Having this article will be very helpful in reviewing different books in my classroom. I hope to have an equal amount of all stories present in my classroom and the experiment that was done in the article gives the parameters for the books so I should be able to use them in my own library and ensure a balance between books.
The article speaks to the importance of picking texts that are both diverse and critical texts for children to read. Also speaking to the curriculum present in schools and how important picking diverse texts to be read in class is. The paper also mentions different ways for teachers to adapt the framework presented in the article to adjust to particular curricula.
The article focuses on picking novels for children that are specfic to the critical literarry needs of students at that time. It also pushed using these critical texts as a way for students to not only learn from literature but to also understand the world outside of them, and be able to use their knowledge outside of the world of academia.
I have always thought about how I will pick books for my students to read that fall under the curricula and not just in regards to my library, so having read this article I have many more ideas about how to involve diverse texts within my curricula. Having books about non-white characters being read during the whole year is super important and something that I have been researching for a while and this article really helped exemplify that. In my own classroom I want my students to read literature from all types of authors all year round and not just for special months.
The article speaks to the importance of having a diverse library specifically in terms of multicultural literature. There are many criteria that the article explain are different multicultural principles that are recommened for books within school libraries. That of which include developing a multicultural perspectives, developing cultural consciousness, increasing intercultural competence, combating racism, prejudice, and discrimination, developing awareness of the state of the planet and global dynamics, and developing social action skills. These principles encourage students to have a larger mindset when considering the world and having books within a classroom setting that inspire these will create worldly children.
As defined in the article a multicultural literature "challenges the existing canon by expanding curriculum to include literature from a variety of cultural groups" (40). This is the main backing of the whole article. Allowing for children to have access to social, emotional, and cultural experiences they would not have otherwise known about will ultimately change the social order and ensure minority voices are listened to. There are also several different approaches to creating a multicultural classroom library and the decision-making and social action approach it allows for children to both learn about social issues present in contemporary times, but also take a step in correcting the problems that exist in their own community.
In my own classroom I hope to create a multicultural library with as many texts as possible. Using the principles that the article outlines will be an awesome place to start from, and there are even many examples of texts to being with, even if they are oriented towards younger readers. I also hope to promote an environment that not only educates about social change but promotes children to help the society around them.
These are some of my own favorite texts that can be used in a diverse classroom library!
The Starless Sea by Erin Morganstern
Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertallie
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
from unincorporated territory [lukao] by Craig Santos Perez
Here is a list of books that are about diverse characters or by diverse authors, with many different categories such as: Non-White Main Characters, Queer Main Characters, Differently Abled Characters, a section dedicated to diverse awards and a section for diverse authors
Some books overlap categories, and not every book is appropriate for every age group but this is a starting off point and many of the works that are on the list can lead to many other amazing and diverse literature.