Research
My Research Journey
When I became a high school librarian four years ago, I thought that my primary job was to “build a culture of literacy” on my campus. I pictured myself standing at the library door and proclaiming, “Here is the culture of literacy! Enter and receive its riches!” (Don’t worry, I didn’t actually do this.) However, I set out to build that “culture” in the typical librarian ways: I told kids about great books; I encouraged them to check out books from the library; I brainstormed creative ideas to get them interested in reading. But I became frustrated when few students ran to the library to check out books; they didn’t use the school-wide SSR time to read; they didn’t participate in and love literacy the way that I wanted them to. Sadly, the majority of my students were still resistant to reading.
Finding My WHY
When I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted, I did what any good librarian does--I researched. I started reading books about school culture, thinking that they held the magic answer. But like most good books, they led me to more questions. This sentence in School Culture Rewired was a turning point for me: “It’s easier to describe what you do (climate) rather than why you do it (culture)” (Gruenert and Whitaker 16). This made me realize that I was trying to build a culture of literacy based on WHAT I was doing and not on WHY I was doing it.
Also, I was the one building the culture; if I wanted students to truly embrace literacy as their own, they needed to discover their own WHY for reading, not just take my word for it. In Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Sinek uses “the Golden Circle,” a naturally occurring pattern that starts with WHY at the center of the circle and ripples out to HOW and then WHAT (38). He argues that the most successful companies, leaders, and organizations start with WHY, and that’s a difficult thing to do. So I started thinking about my own WHY--why have I devoted my career of nineteen years to literacy? Why do I invest my precious personal time in reading? After much reflection, I found my answer: literacy liberates. Stories set us free from stereotypes and closed-mindedness because they turn “them” into flesh-and-bone faces with names, souls, and experiences that mirror our own. Stories stitch us together with the common thread of humanity. Literacy brings freedom; literacy brings unity. This is why I feel passionate about literacy; this is why I want to share my passion with every student I encounter.
Finding my WHY, coupled with the comment on that February day (please read “Our Story” for the full story), caused me to begin to see my students’ stiff-armed responses to reading in a new light. Because they viewed reading as something “other” people did, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to pull up a chair and have a seat at the literacy table; many of my students didn’t think there was a place for them at the table to begin with. I realized that in order for my students to become readers, they had to see their lives reflected in books.
Mirrors
Rudine Sims Bishop’s theory of books being both “windows” and “mirrors” supports this realization. She states, “Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange...When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books” (Bishop).
Race
The All American Boys book club not only showed me the validity of mirror books, but it also taught me the power of using literacy to discuss controversial issues like racism and prejudice. In order to tackle the tough topics in this book, I needed to have hard, honest conversations with my students. After a summer filled with racial tension, especially in Dallas--which is twenty minutes away from our school, I wanted to learn more about how to dive into these difficult issues with my students. A friend recommended that I read Courageous Conversations About Race. Singleton and Linton state that in order to have open, honest dialogue about race in schools, we need to commit “to the Four Agreements of Courageous Conversation: to stay engaged, experience discomfort, speak your truth, and expect and accept non-closure” (53). I tried my best to internalize these agreements and be a facilitator of our discussions--establishing comfort and freedom to speak openly, while maintaining respect and boundaries. Once my students trusted me and each other, they began to open up and speak freely. Their conversations became truly courageous.
In Read, Write, Lead, Reggie Routman encourages these types of hard conversations because of their benefits for students when she states, “Not only do they become engaged readers, they interact socially around the books...They also gain greater perspective of their own lives, become more attuned to the world, and see possibilities for shaping and transforming their social environment” (98).
Listening to my students openly discuss the impact of racism on their own lives led me to deeply examine my own privilege. As a white educator who teaches mostly Black and Hispanic students in a low socioeconomic community, I found For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too a crucial read. Christopher Emdin states, “The work for white folks who teach in urban schools, then, is to unpack their privileges and excavate the institutional, societal, and personal histories they bring with them when they come to the hood” (15). This book and my experience with the book club caused me to truly examine my own unconscious biases and how they affect my teaching.
I also realized the detriment of my own colorblindness; it is imperative that I don’t ignore color but acknowledge it. In The Formative Five: Fostering Grit, Empathy, and Other Success Skills Every Student Needs, Thomas Hoerr states, “Saying, ‘I don’t see race’ to those who live and feel the effects of their skin color every single day is tantamount to, in effect, erasing them by denying their identity...Even if race doesn’t alter our behaviors toward others, it is impossible that we don’t notice it. Better to say, ‘I see race, and I have my biases, but I try to be aware of them and not let them factor into my actions and decisions.’ … Ignoring or discounting aspects of our diversity can be offensive, counterproductive, and even illegal” (97).
Relationships
The book club dynamic fostered strong relationships because it made reading not feel like a school assignment; our discussions felt natural--not forced; we truly became “fam.”
In Building a Culture of Hope: Enriching Schools with Optimism and Opportunity, Barr and Gibson state, “A school or classroom with a surrogate family atmosphere can transform students’ attitudes and lead to improved learning” (71). Emdin supports this by urging teachers of urban youth to build a strong classroom family because “those who do not have this traditional family structure can benefit from what we know about how this structure supports the academic and socioemotional development of children” (122). The key to establishing an open environment in our book club was to build strong relationships between the boys and with myself. I did not want this book club to feel like school, so I asked upperclassmen to lead the discussions. I brought snacks, took roll, listened (lots of listening), and gave fist bumps and hugs. These were my primary roles--to be a support--not a teacher. I had to take a backseat and put my trust in the boys, which I admit was not always easy. I think this empowered them to take control and feel true ownership.
Relevance
While reading All American Boys, my students kept saying, “Miss, I didn’t know books like this existed. This book is so real. This book is like my life!” For many of them, this was their first “mirror” book--the book that showed them WHY reading was powerful--that books can be reflections of our own stories. Tatum writes, “Literacy instruction must have value in these young people’s current time and space if it is to attract and sustain their attention. It must address their issues and concerns in a way that will lead them to examine their own lives” (15). Routman confirms this when she states, “Research shows that when students are given interesting, personally relevant, and often ‘edgy’ books--along with time and choice to read and discuss them with peers--they become engaged, proficient readers” (49). Routman continues, “Therefore, it’s up to us educators to do whatever we can to also ensure culturally relevant books are obtainable for our students--even if we have to write them ourselves” (96). The magic of the book club was not only in the experience but also in the text itself because it was an authentic reflection of my students’ lives, which made them feel validated and truly seen. Tatum writes, “Literacy holds power...when it is authentic; when it relates to their lives; when it focuses on their cultural, social, and emotional development; when it helps them overcome obstacles; when it acknowledges their black maleness…” (48). Even though this quote focuses on Black males, I think it also holds true with Hispanic males because of the positive reaction of the Hispanic boys in the book club. Every student, regardless of race, enjoyed the book equally.
We Need Diverse Books
Through their participation in the book club, my students discovered that there was a place for them at the literacy table. This profound experience spurred me to become more aware of books that reflect my students’ lives. Therefore, I needed to improve my awareness of diverse YA titles in order to find authentic mirror books for my students. I had heard about the “We Need Diverse Books” movement, so I used their extensive website as a jumping-off point to begin expanding my awareness. I appreciate the clear definition of “diversity” that WNDB provides because that word has become muddied in our society. This is the definition of diversity according to the WNDB website: "We recognize all diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA, Native, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities" (http://weneeddiversebooks.org/mission-statement/).
These diverse books do not only serve as “mirrors” to students, but they also act as “windows” and “sliding glass doors” for all students in order to build empathy and embrace diversity. Bishop supports this need for all students to read a wide range of diverse books by stating, “Children from dominant social groups...need books that will help them understand the multicultural nature of the world they live in, and their place as a member of just one group, as well as their connections to all other humans...If they see only reflections of themselves, they will grow up with an exaggerated sense of their own importance and value in the world--a dangerous ethnocentrism.”
These are crucial skills for our future as Thomas Hoerr states, “Interacting with others who are different than we are--whether in real time or online--will be virtually unavoidable, so empathy and embracing diversity will be even more central in the future than they are today” (28). To summarize and support what recent studies have found: “Good fiction creates empathy” (Hoerr 46). We can prepare our students for a global world by exposing them to a wide range of diverse, authentic stories. Hoerr concludes, “Our world is becoming more diverse by the day, and those who succeed in life will be those who appreciate and embrace the differences among us, creating a base for understanding and trust” (94). I believe that books truly can unite us.
What I Learned
My book club experience flipped the way that I view building a culture of literacy. It’s not a come-to-me approach; I must meet the students where they are and help them find their “mirror” books. Once they discover the WHY of reading in books that reflect their own lives, they will be more willing to read “window” books, which will foster empathy.
This experience also taught me not to shy away from books that tackle controversial topics but to encourage students to discuss these ideas in authentic ways. Building strong relationships helps me get to know students so that I can better match them with their mirror books that are relevant reflections of their own lives. Finally, a deep awareness and passion for diverse YA books is crucial for literacy educators in order to be effective in building a culture of literacy on our campuses. We must not only know about these books, but we must also read them ourselves because they will help us know and understand our students better.
We all must read our way out--of closed-mindedness, of apathy, of stereotypes, of judgment. We must read our way towards understanding, unity, and love.
Books will not only liberate our students, but they will also set us free.
When I became a high school librarian four years ago, I thought that my primary job was to “build a culture of literacy” on my campus. I pictured myself standing at the library door and proclaiming, “Here is the culture of literacy! Enter and receive its riches!” (Don’t worry, I didn’t actually do this.) However, I set out to build that “culture” in the typical librarian ways: I told kids about great books; I encouraged them to check out books from the library; I brainstormed creative ideas to get them interested in reading. But I became frustrated when few students ran to the library to check out books; they didn’t use the school-wide SSR time to read; they didn’t participate in and love literacy the way that I wanted them to. Sadly, the majority of my students were still resistant to reading.
Finding My WHY
When I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted, I did what any good librarian does--I researched. I started reading books about school culture, thinking that they held the magic answer. But like most good books, they led me to more questions. This sentence in School Culture Rewired was a turning point for me: “It’s easier to describe what you do (climate) rather than why you do it (culture)” (Gruenert and Whitaker 16). This made me realize that I was trying to build a culture of literacy based on WHAT I was doing and not on WHY I was doing it.
Also, I was the one building the culture; if I wanted students to truly embrace literacy as their own, they needed to discover their own WHY for reading, not just take my word for it. In Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Sinek uses “the Golden Circle,” a naturally occurring pattern that starts with WHY at the center of the circle and ripples out to HOW and then WHAT (38). He argues that the most successful companies, leaders, and organizations start with WHY, and that’s a difficult thing to do. So I started thinking about my own WHY--why have I devoted my career of nineteen years to literacy? Why do I invest my precious personal time in reading? After much reflection, I found my answer: literacy liberates. Stories set us free from stereotypes and closed-mindedness because they turn “them” into flesh-and-bone faces with names, souls, and experiences that mirror our own. Stories stitch us together with the common thread of humanity. Literacy brings freedom; literacy brings unity. This is why I feel passionate about literacy; this is why I want to share my passion with every student I encounter.
Finding my WHY, coupled with the comment on that February day (please read “Our Story” for the full story), caused me to begin to see my students’ stiff-armed responses to reading in a new light. Because they viewed reading as something “other” people did, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to pull up a chair and have a seat at the literacy table; many of my students didn’t think there was a place for them at the table to begin with. I realized that in order for my students to become readers, they had to see their lives reflected in books.
Mirrors
Rudine Sims Bishop’s theory of books being both “windows” and “mirrors” supports this realization. She states, “Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange...When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books” (Bishop).
Race
The All American Boys book club not only showed me the validity of mirror books, but it also taught me the power of using literacy to discuss controversial issues like racism and prejudice. In order to tackle the tough topics in this book, I needed to have hard, honest conversations with my students. After a summer filled with racial tension, especially in Dallas--which is twenty minutes away from our school, I wanted to learn more about how to dive into these difficult issues with my students. A friend recommended that I read Courageous Conversations About Race. Singleton and Linton state that in order to have open, honest dialogue about race in schools, we need to commit “to the Four Agreements of Courageous Conversation: to stay engaged, experience discomfort, speak your truth, and expect and accept non-closure” (53). I tried my best to internalize these agreements and be a facilitator of our discussions--establishing comfort and freedom to speak openly, while maintaining respect and boundaries. Once my students trusted me and each other, they began to open up and speak freely. Their conversations became truly courageous.
In Read, Write, Lead, Reggie Routman encourages these types of hard conversations because of their benefits for students when she states, “Not only do they become engaged readers, they interact socially around the books...They also gain greater perspective of their own lives, become more attuned to the world, and see possibilities for shaping and transforming their social environment” (98).
Listening to my students openly discuss the impact of racism on their own lives led me to deeply examine my own privilege. As a white educator who teaches mostly Black and Hispanic students in a low socioeconomic community, I found For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y’all Too a crucial read. Christopher Emdin states, “The work for white folks who teach in urban schools, then, is to unpack their privileges and excavate the institutional, societal, and personal histories they bring with them when they come to the hood” (15). This book and my experience with the book club caused me to truly examine my own unconscious biases and how they affect my teaching.
I also realized the detriment of my own colorblindness; it is imperative that I don’t ignore color but acknowledge it. In The Formative Five: Fostering Grit, Empathy, and Other Success Skills Every Student Needs, Thomas Hoerr states, “Saying, ‘I don’t see race’ to those who live and feel the effects of their skin color every single day is tantamount to, in effect, erasing them by denying their identity...Even if race doesn’t alter our behaviors toward others, it is impossible that we don’t notice it. Better to say, ‘I see race, and I have my biases, but I try to be aware of them and not let them factor into my actions and decisions.’ … Ignoring or discounting aspects of our diversity can be offensive, counterproductive, and even illegal” (97).
Relationships
The book club dynamic fostered strong relationships because it made reading not feel like a school assignment; our discussions felt natural--not forced; we truly became “fam.”
In Building a Culture of Hope: Enriching Schools with Optimism and Opportunity, Barr and Gibson state, “A school or classroom with a surrogate family atmosphere can transform students’ attitudes and lead to improved learning” (71). Emdin supports this by urging teachers of urban youth to build a strong classroom family because “those who do not have this traditional family structure can benefit from what we know about how this structure supports the academic and socioemotional development of children” (122). The key to establishing an open environment in our book club was to build strong relationships between the boys and with myself. I did not want this book club to feel like school, so I asked upperclassmen to lead the discussions. I brought snacks, took roll, listened (lots of listening), and gave fist bumps and hugs. These were my primary roles--to be a support--not a teacher. I had to take a backseat and put my trust in the boys, which I admit was not always easy. I think this empowered them to take control and feel true ownership.
Relevance
While reading All American Boys, my students kept saying, “Miss, I didn’t know books like this existed. This book is so real. This book is like my life!” For many of them, this was their first “mirror” book--the book that showed them WHY reading was powerful--that books can be reflections of our own stories. Tatum writes, “Literacy instruction must have value in these young people’s current time and space if it is to attract and sustain their attention. It must address their issues and concerns in a way that will lead them to examine their own lives” (15). Routman confirms this when she states, “Research shows that when students are given interesting, personally relevant, and often ‘edgy’ books--along with time and choice to read and discuss them with peers--they become engaged, proficient readers” (49). Routman continues, “Therefore, it’s up to us educators to do whatever we can to also ensure culturally relevant books are obtainable for our students--even if we have to write them ourselves” (96). The magic of the book club was not only in the experience but also in the text itself because it was an authentic reflection of my students’ lives, which made them feel validated and truly seen. Tatum writes, “Literacy holds power...when it is authentic; when it relates to their lives; when it focuses on their cultural, social, and emotional development; when it helps them overcome obstacles; when it acknowledges their black maleness…” (48). Even though this quote focuses on Black males, I think it also holds true with Hispanic males because of the positive reaction of the Hispanic boys in the book club. Every student, regardless of race, enjoyed the book equally.
We Need Diverse Books
Through their participation in the book club, my students discovered that there was a place for them at the literacy table. This profound experience spurred me to become more aware of books that reflect my students’ lives. Therefore, I needed to improve my awareness of diverse YA titles in order to find authentic mirror books for my students. I had heard about the “We Need Diverse Books” movement, so I used their extensive website as a jumping-off point to begin expanding my awareness. I appreciate the clear definition of “diversity” that WNDB provides because that word has become muddied in our society. This is the definition of diversity according to the WNDB website: "We recognize all diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA, Native, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities" (http://weneeddiversebooks.org/mission-statement/).
These diverse books do not only serve as “mirrors” to students, but they also act as “windows” and “sliding glass doors” for all students in order to build empathy and embrace diversity. Bishop supports this need for all students to read a wide range of diverse books by stating, “Children from dominant social groups...need books that will help them understand the multicultural nature of the world they live in, and their place as a member of just one group, as well as their connections to all other humans...If they see only reflections of themselves, they will grow up with an exaggerated sense of their own importance and value in the world--a dangerous ethnocentrism.”
These are crucial skills for our future as Thomas Hoerr states, “Interacting with others who are different than we are--whether in real time or online--will be virtually unavoidable, so empathy and embracing diversity will be even more central in the future than they are today” (28). To summarize and support what recent studies have found: “Good fiction creates empathy” (Hoerr 46). We can prepare our students for a global world by exposing them to a wide range of diverse, authentic stories. Hoerr concludes, “Our world is becoming more diverse by the day, and those who succeed in life will be those who appreciate and embrace the differences among us, creating a base for understanding and trust” (94). I believe that books truly can unite us.
What I Learned
My book club experience flipped the way that I view building a culture of literacy. It’s not a come-to-me approach; I must meet the students where they are and help them find their “mirror” books. Once they discover the WHY of reading in books that reflect their own lives, they will be more willing to read “window” books, which will foster empathy.
This experience also taught me not to shy away from books that tackle controversial topics but to encourage students to discuss these ideas in authentic ways. Building strong relationships helps me get to know students so that I can better match them with their mirror books that are relevant reflections of their own lives. Finally, a deep awareness and passion for diverse YA books is crucial for literacy educators in order to be effective in building a culture of literacy on our campuses. We must not only know about these books, but we must also read them ourselves because they will help us know and understand our students better.
We all must read our way out--of closed-mindedness, of apathy, of stereotypes, of judgment. We must read our way towards understanding, unity, and love.
Books will not only liberate our students, but they will also set us free.