Hello and welcome to Chat from the Stacks, episode 8. My goal when I started the chat was to create an online and audio outlet for middle grade and YA books with which I connected. Books I wanted to share with a middle school audience, teachers, and parents of middle school students. Today's episode is a bit different. I attended the virtual American Library Association conference this year; my first ALA conference ever without the associated costs of hotels and airfare. I was impressed with the conference offerings as a whole, but two sessions resonated with me. One was about the SIFT process for evaluating online information. Geared toward college information literacy goals, the concept of lateral reading and teaching students to "think like the web" was fascinating. Research skills seemed to take a back seat during our COVID19 emergency remote teaching efforts. A goal for this year is to return to intentionally teaching these in collaboration with content area teachers. The second streaming session that made an impact on me was about reading trauma. Too often by the time students reach 6th grade they have decided that they are non-readers. We often chalk this up to the distractions of ubiquitous technology but is there more to it?
How can reading cause trauma? In my personal experience from the time I was a child, reading has been a comforting, engaging, and meaningful time that relaxed my mind filled my heart and introduced me to characters that helped shape who I am. I loved going to the public library every Saturday to collect two more books for the week. My mother volunteered at our little elementary school library and would set aside books like "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" for me, knowing that historical fiction and biographies were my genres of choice. My happiest days in school were the Scholastic Book Club delivery days. I would be distracted, usually during math class, by the new pile of paperback books just waiting to be read. How could reading cause trauma?
As a teacher and a parent, I saw it first hand with children who didn't understand the mechanics of decoding, struggled with fluency, and with comprehension because they were too often trying to decode words that were exceptions rather than rules. Children who weren't believed when they won the independent reading contest because of preconceived ideas about who they were as a reader based on standardized test scores. I've employed many strategies to help these children, including buying both the print and audio versions of well-loved books that "everyone" was reading but that my challenged readers would not have been able to navigate without someone to help them with the pronunciation of Hermione. I've allowed these students to choose books that are not at the Lexile that test scores would indicate but are of high interest to the child motivated to try a challenging book. As a school librarian, I have never leveled collections.
Now let's add to these painful reading moments, which have likely turned prospective readers to non-readers, the even more painful realization of never seeing yourself represented as an empowered main character in the books you love. Of only seeing yourself reflected in stories of trauma and victimization and not of the joy, trials, and tribulations of everyday living with strong families, good friends, and your own cultural realities. Not being able to find books written by people who look like you, but instead finding books with main characters who look like you written by people who do not. Imagine how painful these reading experiences have been for children just learning to read or those who are avid readers but have never quite connected with a story, a character, or an event. “Students are more important than books. We’re not gatekeepers of books, that’s not our role,” said Stivers. “I would much rather lose a book than a reader.”
How do we make reading a healing process and not one that causes children embarrassment, pain, and a feeling of not belonging? Ridding Schools of Reading Trauma Tips for interrupting traditional practices and diversifying collections by Teacher-librarians Julie Stivers and Julia Torres is a great place to start. These outstanding librarians introduced professional development created by middle school students called the #LibFive, so important when interrupting practices that have proven painful in the past.
These are:
1-See me. Listen to me.
2-Show me on the shelves and walls. Read those books yourself.
3-Graphic novels and manga are not extra.
4-Show the joy in our stories.
5-Make the library a sorting-free zone.
By sorting, we mean separating students by perceived ability, grades, compliance, or other factors. Our libraries should not sort students but treat all visitors as readers and scholars.
We are heading into a new school year faced with many challenges for safe reopening and distance learning. We must continue to see ourselves as disruptors of the status quo and that includes disrupting our own practices that may have caused trauma to young readers who are excited to read their next best book with the assurance that they and their stories will be inclusive, honest and accessible.