Our Story

PSTBD Goals

The Pre-Service TBD was born through our love of literature and reading.

Each of us has a unique connection to books ranging from a teacher showing us our favorite novel all the way to finding comfort in a world outside of our own.

The PSTBD has three (3) main goals

Provide freedom from the financial burden of curating a classroom library for pre-service teachers (PST's)!
Give the opportunity for future students of the PST's to have diverse, equitable, and realistic (DRE) books to divulge themselves in!
Encourage all subject teachers to promote reading and text engagement among their students!

Why Literature?

"It [Jay Gatsby's mansion] was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden," (Fitzgerald, 7).

Literature is an art form unlike any other. There is no dictation as to what someone must think, imagine, or feel while reading a novel. The mind is free to wander beyond the words on the page and allow the reader to enter new worlds.

When you read the quote to the left, what kind of ivy did you imagine? Is the tower tall with a circular, pointed roof or is it square with ridges at the top? What shape is the swimming pool?

We are sure that all of your answers were different for certain details, and similar for others. That is the beauty of reading. We can all read the same words, but our minds get to explore on their own. Whether we come to the same conclusions or not, we have all walked away with something valuable - empathy, creativity, and/or a better understanding of our own, and others, perspectives.

Importance of a DRE Classroom Library

Allowing for authors of different ethnicities, upbringings, and genders allows for a holistic approach toward gaining empathy and understanding of other types of people. Not only should our authors be windows and mirrors to our students, but the characters should as well. Characters are where students are most likely to see themselves, or someone they are not. To make sure students can comprehend other understandings of how the world works, teachers must allow students the opportunity to explore and indulge in topics by multiple types of people about multiple types of people. Including stories of poverty, royalty, dystopian societies, high schoolers, adults, and other life routes is very important to have in a classroom library. By providing students with multiple types of stories, they are exposed to lives outside of their bubble, whether that be their school, city, or state, or other factors such as culture and gender. This is important because as aforementioned, it grows empathy and allows students to understand that there is not only one way to live life. Creating a classroom library that is diverse, realistic, and equitable creates space for growth and understanding among our students.

In Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, there were multiple book shelves filled with books he has read and also worked on! This is a good example of how books can be categorized together either based on CONTENT or COLOR!

Educational Discrepancies

Attending school at the University of Arkansas has opened our eyes to the large discrepancy between all of our education's and the persisting problems today. All four of us had great teacher's in our K-12 education, some more than others, but the content we learned varied greatly.

Ashley's English classes revolved heavily around writing. The most typical thing to be done was write about the required reading. Being heavily honed in on writing can present itself as a challenge because there is little room for creative outlets as many times the writing is done in order to prepare them for their tests at the end of the year. Katie Jo had a lot of poetry in her English classes. Poetry is a beautiful style of literature, but can be daunting and exhausting for some students. If a certain type of literature is used to often, instead of encouraging the kid it can easily be labeled as "school only," completely turning the student off from whatever style of literature is presented. This is not beneficial because students will completely avoid certain literature, which is never the goal. Claire focused a lot on annotating in English class. Annotating is good for many students to help them slow down, collect their thoughts, and process what is happening within the work they are reading. For some students, it can distract them. Stopping and starting and stopping and starting, it can get repetitive and cause the tone and depth to be lost by the reader. Making sure students have options is very important in a classroom. Erin found a lack of preparedness for life in her English classes. Though they read many stories and completed many standards by the state, Erin did not feel prepared to take on the challenges life after K-12 would bring. What this means is there needs to be not just a promotion of reading, but a promotion of comprehension and application.

To make a long story short, the PSTBD is here to provide students and teachers with independent outlets in order to keep students engaged with reading, writing, and applying. Crafting a classroom library is a way to ensure that students are given the opportunity to divulge in the paths they are WANTING to take, not forced.

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