I earned a grant for an inclusive literature project: Reading Humanity: Inclusive Literature for an Inclusive Society. The grant advocates for the promotion of literature that reflects and honors the lives of people with diverse experiences, including LGTBQ, gender diversity, ability difference, and ethnic, cultural, and religious differences. I will use the grant money to buy books for my seventh grade classroom library, so I have consulted young adult literature scholars and several people at We Need Diverse Books for suggestions and spent the majority of my days and nights reading or listening to recommended books.
I titled the grant “inclusive” literature rather than diverse literature because sometimes people associate diversity with culture (rather than gender, ability, class), and there is this “otherness” or distance associated with diversity. Indeed, we need diversity, but I wanted to frame this project as reading literature not because it is written by dominant authors and characters but because our libraries and reading lists have to look more like our students and our world — to include. I use the word inclusive because it means comprehensive, so that no author or character is on the fringe of our minds and hearts. It might be semantics, but inclusive feels more unifying — maybe it’s just the d-i-v in diverse reminds me of dividing or division.
To make my classroom library more inclusive, then, I had to seek out books written by authors or about character of varying genders, abilities, cultures, and religions. I have done this, I think (and that list is coming), but how do I organize books to make them accessible to students without othering the authors or characters? For example, Rogue by Lyn Miller-Lachmann is about Kiara, a Latina who has Asperger’s syndrome, but it is also about isolation, friendship, family, and celebrating difference. Good books are layered because human beings are layered, so where do I put this book in my library as an example of a nuanced character and an “insider” author?
After careful thought on how best to promote inclusion, I decided to change my teaching practice from whole-class and book group units to student-choice reading workshop — so that many literary voices and reader conversations would fill the room and blog. To learn how to organize the classroom library, I decided to consult an expert. Erin Linsenmeyer of the Downers Grove Public Library answered some of my questions about inclusive literature, giving book talks, and organizing a classroom library.
Sarah: Tell me a little about your current position.
Erin: I’m a children’s librarian and I serve as the school liaison between our department and our local elementary and middle schools. I purchase our DVD and Blu-Ray collection, and I work with the other librarians to develop our print collection. I develop and implement programming for our patrons, including storytimes, a bedtime yoga class, and a toddler movement class. I also sit at the reference desk and answer questions from patrons big and small!
Sarah: Tell me about your work with schools.
Erin: As the school liaison, I try to foster relationships with the schools at all levels. My co-workers and I attend curriculum meetings at the district level so that we can be aware of curriculum changes and how we can adapt our collection. I meet with the school librarians quarterly to collaborate on projects. Along with my co-workers, I attend the semi-annual teacher camp our school district hosts for teachers all across Illinois–we’ve run sessions on reader’s advisory tools and most recently brought the STEM tools that we have here for the teachers to try out. Teachers and school librarians will contact me about their homework assignments, and I pull materials for their classes (it also helps me develop the collection because it shows what we have and don’t have), or I’ll go out to the schools and do book talks or other outreach programs. Over the summer I worked with the superindendent and a school librarian to develop the school district’s summer book club. This upcoming year we’re going to try to do more with the special needs classes (I had one come in quarterly for a sensory storytime but we’d love to see more of that) and with the biliteracy classes. Although I think there’s always room for growth and improvement, I think our relationships with our schools are strong. We all want to help grow the children of our area, and working together only benefits everyone.
Sarah: Are you familiar with We Need Diverse and their call for more inclusive literature in book publication and schools? Is the library doing anything specific to bring in more diverse authors and characters– to support schools in developing a more inclusive curriculum ?
Erin: I’m super inspired by the folks at WNDB and their multi- pronged approach to get diverse books by diverse authors into the hands of the public by diverse publishers (shout out to Marie Marquardt who is a team member at WNDB, wrote an awesome YA novel Dream Things True and was my college professor of Christian social ethics!). One of the best pieces of advice I received at grad school for my MLIS is that your library collection should be a mirror so that kids can see themselves in the collection, but it should also be a window, so that kids can look out on to something different than what they know. We’re very aware of the need for diverse books and diverse authors so we intentionally try to purchase a wide variety of materials and suggest them to kids when performing reader’s advisory. In terms of the schools, we haven’t done anything specific yet but it’s a really good idea!
Sarah: The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, Book Love by Penny Kittle, and In the Middle by Nancie Atwell are books widely read by teachers of English language arts, specifically in elementary and middle school. They advocate lots of book choice and classroom libraries. What advice do you have for teachers who want to create a classroom
library?
Erin: Lots of book choice I think is key, given that space and budgets are often a very real and pressing concern. I think you want a blend of classics, of books that are a little older, and of books that are super hot now. Pick a sorting system that works for you and your kids–is it by Lexile score? Accelerated Reader points? Genre? What works for you and the students is how you want to organize it. Mark the books as belonging to your classroom library–between your classroom, the school library, the public library, and the books the kids have at home, it can be very easy to lose track of a book! Along with this you might want to consider some sort of checkout system just so that you know what you have, what was popular, what didn’t go out,and who has what book. Scholastic has a really great article about the
five functions of a classroom library) including
–supporting literacy instruction
–helping students learn about books
–providing a central location for classroom resources
–providing opportunities for independent reading and curricular instruction
–serving as a place for students to talk about and interact with books.
I think if you follow those as your principles, you can’t really go wrong.
Sarah: What makes a good book talk?
Erin: Sincerity and a belief that every book has its reader. I may not prefer to read certain genres, but there are kids who do and their interests are important and should be respected. I have a responsibility to pick books that encompass a wide range of reading levels, books that are different from each other, and books that (most importantly) the kids would like. I think that every person has their own style when it comes to book talks. I’m dramatic, so I read passages in different character voices because that works for me. That might not work for everyone–kids detect sincerity and authenticity. On the one hand, you don’t want to pretend to love every book, but on the other hand, you have to be able to talk up a book.
When I approach a book talk, I either get what the teacher/school librarian wants as a topic, or I pick the topic myself just so that there’s some sort of theme: new books, books into movies, books from five years ago, dystopian, etc, and then I try to pick books that are diverse. For me, this means a book that is above the targeted grade
level, and a book that is below the targeted grade level. I try to make sure there’s a good blend of protagonists who are diverse as well. I read the book (or as much as I can in order to get the best sense of it) and find a passage to read. Then, I go for it. I give a brief overview of the plot, talk about readalikes, read a passage from the book, and then give the kids a one sentence summary to walk away with.
Be authentic, pick books that are different from each other, and highlight what’s good about that book.
Sarah: Do you have tips for how best to organize books — genre, topic, author? I am struggling with this a bit because I have books that explore ability difference (autism and deafness) and gender but hesitate to label the book about these topics because I don’t want to narrow or conflate the other issues like growing up. That said, most young adult lit is about growing up, so sorting the library that ways is not too helpful.
Erin: It’s hard, that’s for sure. One thing I like is that in our picture book section, we came up with the subjects we get asked about the most (Legos, Superheroes, Disney, dinosaurs, trains, things like that) and we’ve put them in their own bins with their own call numbers that are separate from the rest of the picture book collection. We still
maintain a picture book collection that is done, for the vast majority, by the author’s last name. There are a few exceptions, such as ‘character’ books that are cataloged by the character names, but for the most part it’s author last name. It’s a nice blend for us because even the youngest patron can see the covers of the books in the bins and can identify the books that he or she wants. For us, instead of trying to find superheroes (for example) in many different
areas, it’s more time effective for us to direct patrons to the superheroes bin. The rest of our department, however, is done by Dewey (for nonfiction) and author’s last name (for chapter books). Our exceptions are the Monarch, Bluestems, and Caudills, current years are all located on the same shelf, and paperback series are all on the
same long shelf as well.
I think when you organize books with topics that are as specific as the ones that you’ve listed, there’s a risk that no one will take those books because they view them only as a ‘deaf’ book, and therefore, not for them. I recognize the need, however, for the knowledge of where topical books are. We have a small section in our parenting section of picture books that are topical, but I think that sometimes it’s better to maintain bibliographies so that you know
where they are and patrons can look them up. This isn’t a perfect solution either because may require a patron to ask for a list and they might not feel comfortable with that. You could always decide to highlight collections throughout the year–one month it might be books with characters who are deaf, one month it might be science fiction,
one month it might be your personal favorites.
I don’t really have an answer for this except to say that it’s important to know that these books exist, that they have readers, and that those readers might not be who you always think they will be.
Sarah: And then, where would titles like The Great Gatsby or Pride and Prejudice go? Historical? Classics? College bound? As you can see, I am struggling with labels.
Erin: For us, those are up in our adult section, done by the author. It depends on your audience and the reading level you’re comfortable with your library going up to–some school libraries might find these too old. I totally understand the want to sticker and label everything, because there’s an element of ease for staff and for patrons. For your fiction section, pick a few genres and stick with that, otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy dividing up your collection (and your book spines will be filled!).
Have you worked with your local librarian to enrich our classroom practice? Do you have a classroom library? Tell us about it.