Literature Appreciation & Literature-Based Instruction
Contemporary Lit appreciation
A 12th-grade teacher asked for a class set of contemporary literature for her Leadership class to read and discuss. I suggested 57 Bus. It was a big hit. Students were moved to create art. Here is a sample of a few creations from her classes. (The larger poster is a resource from the FAME website).
Banned Book Section
This area contains most of the top 100 reviewed/challenged books from the past 10 years, according to the American Library Association.
ProjectLIT Book section
After seeing Jarred Amato at the FAME Conference in 2019, I decided to become a ProjectLIT Leader. Until hearing him speak, I had never heard of "book deserts" and didn't realize the importance of having my collection mirror the school population. Through state funds and grants, the diversity of the collection has increased by 7%.
Example of an iMovie that students produced. This is a scaffolding tool often used by ELL classes for book reports (see lesson plan on Information Literacy page).
Teaching students to enjoy literature is always important. It is especially important within the past year. According to an article in The Washington Post, over 1500 books have been banned in US schools in the past 12 months. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/04/07/book-bans-congress-student-library/
Of these bans, 41% featured prominent characters of color, 33% featured LGBTQ characters or themes, and 22% directly addressed "issues of race and racism."
This is troubling in general, but especially troubling considering our school demographics. Students MUST have access to books that mirror themselves, and we all need access to books that provide windows into the lives, struggles, and situations of others so that we can have tolerance and understanding for ALL.
Because of this, our ProjectLIT Book Section and Banned Book Section are more important than ever. Thank goodness my county has a strong book review policy and my administration supports efforts to keep diverse titles in circulation. Book purchases are reviewed by the School Media Advisory Committee. We speak at every meeting about current book bans and the importance of access to all types of books.
Making literature available to the community is just as important as making it available to students. Through a partnership with our ProjectLIT Book Club and a grant from the FUTURES Education Foundation, we were able to install a Little Free Library in the front office and purchase books to fill it. We hope to end Book Deserts.
