HOW TO BRING MORE DIVERSE BOOKS TO STUDENTS How can school librarians/media specialists, principals, curriculum specialists, teachers, and others ensure a diverse and culturally responsive collection of books for students to read? Here are three key suggestions. 1. Evaluate your current collection—and fill in gaps as needed. Many librarians/media specialists are conducting “diversity audits” of their collections to discover what groups might be underrepresented. They’re using this insight to guide their future purchasing. Capitol Hill Day School involved students in a diversity audit of the picture books in its library. When students came in for their scheduled library time, Shaffer gave them a silent reflection to think about: “Do I see characters that look like me in TV shows or movies I like?” This prompted a discussion of diversity and representation in media. Then students worked in pairs to evaluate the library’s picture books. One student served as a “book looker” and the other served as a “tally marker.” The book looker would pull a picture book from the shelves and indicate whether its cover featured a white human, a nonwhite human, and/ or an animal or nonhuman character. The tally marker would record each result. Halfway through the period, the students switched roles. The results for all six classes indicated that white humans and nonhumans had roughly equal representation on the books’ covers—but nonwhite humans appeared on only 7 to 16 percent of covers. “Kids were shocked,” Shaffer said. “Seeing the numbers was really powerful.” 2. Promote diverse titles to students. Having a diverse collection of books doesn’t do any good unless students are actually reading them. Librarians/media specialists can promote these titles using various strategies, such as by featuring them in displays, highlighting them in newsletters and on social media, and showcasing them in book clubs or student reading advisories. 3. Work with teachers to integrate diverse books into the curriculum. Encouraging teachers to read books featuring diverse authors and characters in their classrooms is also important. Librarians/media specialists can do this by creating resource lists for educators and using professional development time to discuss certain titles and how these can be integrated into the curriculum.
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