Project READY Minicourse: Module 22

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Minicourse Module 22: Transforming Library Instruction

Approx time: 1 hr 10 min

This minicourse module is an abridged version of Project READY’s Module 23: Transforming Library Instruction. Follow the link to access the full module.

AFTER WORKING THROUGH THIS MODULE, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:

  • Evaluate your library instruction through a racial equity lens.
  • Collaboratively develop a plan to improve your library instruction to better serve BIYOC.
  • Implement your plan and assess the impact of changes to your library instruction on BIYOC.

Instruction is a valuable part of public library programming. Your instruction communicates your values and expectations to youth. It can engage and impact them, or it can alienate and fail them. In this module, we will explore and review strategies for creating library instruction that is culturally sustaining, share examples of libraries that are putting these strategies to work, and provide guidelines for effective library instruction that you can use to plan for improvements within your own context.

REVIEW

In Module 17, we introduced Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy. In Module 18, we introduced Banks’s framework for integration of multicultural content. CSP is an approach you can take, and Banks’s framework a strategy you can use, for transforming your instruction. Revisit these modules as needed for a reminder of how they can help you transform your instruction.

READ

There is a wealth of material that addresses instruction for BIYOC, but most of it is focused on classroom instruction rather than library instruction. Most of that material can be adapted for use in the library, but it is also helpful to consider how library instruction, specifically, can be approached through a racial equity lens.

  • Although designed for teen programming, many of these guidelines can be used to develop youth programming as well. Review YALSA’s Teen Programming Guidelines. As you read, try to think about each guideline through a racial equity lens. For example, Guideline 1.8 is “Direct the library’s limited resources appropriately to provide needed programming that is relevant to local teens, reflective of their identities and interests, and not already offered elsewhere.” Considering racial equity in the process of reaching this goal would require librarians to understand the identities and interests of their service population, ensuring that the widest possible variety of youth is represented, especially racially marginalized youth.
  • In addition to designing specific approaches to target racial equity and modifying approaches that don’t address diversity directly, you can also apply strategies from approaches used to address diversity more broadly to transform your instruction for racial equity. Read the chapters “Differentiation and Universal Design for Learners” and “Critical Learning Theories” from the open textbook Instruction and Pedagogy for Youth in Public Libraries (available for free PDF download) to learn about such approaches.
  • If you have time, explore the SPLC Learning for Justice resources.

REVIEW

In Module 21, we introduced the five-part framework of Effective Library Services for Diverse Youth. Based on our own research and discussions with BIYOC as well as the research of others working in the library and education fields, we have identified nine key features of effective library instruction for BIYOC.

Images of Practice - Icon by Adrien Coquet from Noun Project IMAGES OF PRACTICE

Former Teen Services Librarian and YOUmedia Manager Gabbie Barnes worked with teens at the Hartford Public Library to facilitate their development of the “Woke Teens Forum” and associated “Unconference,” which Barnes described as “a design-thinking workshop aimed at developing practical solutions to the issues [teens] deem most relevant to their education.” Barnes considered this project to be instructional, and her learning goals for participants included defining a problem, constructing a community organizing plan, and pitching a creative solution to a shared problem. To learn more about this program, read this Interview with Gabbie Barnes about the project posted on the YALSA blog.

In 2016, former English teacher Jarred Amato launched the Project LIT Community to increase access to high-quality culturally relevant books, promote a love of reading, and spark the difficult conversations that are necessary to effect change in schools and communities in East Nashville. Additionally, Project LIT empowers students to gain valuable real-world skills as they plan, facilitate, and engage their communities in meaningful ways with books such as All American Boys1 and The Hate U Give2. The program, which exemplifies many of the elements of effective library instruction, has spread to more than 500 classrooms and school libraries across the country.

Fifth-grade teacher and edublogger Jessica Lifshitz (@Jess5th)3 published a post on her blog Crawling Out of the Classroom in which she describes how she engaged her fifth-grade students in examining their biases using the images on covers of picture books. This exercise, the beginning of a unit on how what we read impacts our biases, exemplifies many of the characteristics of effective library instruction and could be replicated by librarians and educators working in collaboration.  As you read the blog post, think about how you might adapt this lesson at your library.

#DisruptTexts4 is “a crowdsourced, grassroots effort by teachers for teachers to challenge the traditional canon in order to create a more inclusive, representative, and equitable language arts curriculum that our students deserve.” Led by four women of color with more than 65 years of collective teaching experience, #DisruptTexts provides concrete strategies educators and librarians can use, including  teaching and learning guides for texts (picture books, novels, etc.) to share with youth – texts that introduce youth to and affirm their identities and lived experiences.

EXPLORE

Educator Tricia Ebarvia provides 8 questions educators can ask themselves to assess how inclusive their curricular materials and teaching methods are. The questions can be answered individually, in small groups, or even in a staff meeting.  Read the PDF of the questions. It is available for printing and posting in the library. If you want more information, read this blog post by Ebarvia, “How Inclusive is Your Literacy Classroom Really?5”

ACT

Improving your library’s instruction should begin with an assessment of your current practice. If you haven’t already done so, use the Culturally Sustaining Library Walk tool (introduced in Module 21) to collaboratively assess your current library instruction. Be sure to include input from BIYOC.

After assessing your current instruction, set three goals for improving your library instruction: one short-term goal that you can accomplish immediately, one medium-term goal that you can accomplish over the next several weeks, and one long-term goal that you can accomplish over the next year. Use the Goals for Improving Library Services for Diverse Youth [PDF] template to write these goals down. We suggest printing this document (in poster size if possible), laminating it, and using it to track all of your goals related to the material in the next several modules. Post these goals somewhere in your library, and work with youth and other library stakeholders to achieve them. Once you have achieved a goal, replace it with another one.

As you achieve each goal, revisit the Culturally Sustaining Library Walk tool, taking care to solicit input from BIYOC, to assess the impact of the changes you made.

BUT WAIT!

In this section, we address common questions and concerns related to the material presented in each module. You may have these questions yourself, or someone you’re sharing this information with might raise them. We recommend that for each question below, you spend a few minutes thinking about your own response before clicking “Show more” to see our response.

I don’t have any control over what programs are offered in my library.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

  1. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/All-American-Boys/Jason-Reynolds/9781481463348 ↩︎
  2. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-hate-u-give-angie-thomas?variant=39715492167714 ↩︎
  3. https://twitter.com/Jess5th ↩︎
  4. http://disrupttexts.org/ ↩︎
  5. https://blog.heinemann.com/heinemann-fellow-tricia-ebavaria-inclusive-literacy-classroom-really ↩︎

Accardi, M. T. (2013). Feminist pedagogy for library instruction. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press.

Accardi, M. T., Drabinski, E., and Kumbier, A. (eds.) (2010). Critical library instruction: Theories and methods. Duluth, MN: Library Juice Press.

As discussed in Module 18, counterstorytelling is the telling of stories not often told, particularly those of people not belonging to the dominant culture. Incorporating counterstorytelling into your library instruction benefits those who have been traditionally marginalized and those in the dominant culture. Listen to “Teaching Slavery Through Children’s Literature,” an episode of the podcast Teaching Hard History (length 1 hour, 11 minutes).

Go Back: Module 21 – Assessing Your Current Practice
You Are Here: Module 22 – Transforming Library Instruction
Next: Module 23 – Transforming Library Space and Policies