Media Mania
How can the media center better serve our schools in today's modern world?
Getting creative has become a mantra in the classroom in the last couple years. We have had to develop new ways of doing everything- including leaving the classroom without leaving the classroom. I am lucky enough to live in an area rich with history, art and cultural experiences. The High Museum of art and birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr. are all a 45 minute drive from my high school. But it is not always feasible to load up a bus of kids and drive them to a museum or theatre. There are so many factors like money, transportation, a pandemic, etc. that can hinder broaden our students outside of school. So many of these places have updated their websites with virtual tours, informational videos and even lessons. It is a really cool way to liven up lessons and not reinvent the wheel. I have compiled a list of some of these resources, but there are so many more out there! Happy adventuring!
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As a Media Specialist, I have a lot to do. Many layers to my job, chatty people at my desk, and all the stuff that goes with being part of a school faculty. There is not enough time in the day. It seems like the last thing I have time to do is read and mentally catalogue all of the books in my collection in order to be able to recommend them to readers. So, I thought, why not have some of my more avid readers help me? One of my regulars offhandedly said, "I read so much, I should write book reviews." And I thought that was an amazing idea, so I started the Bronco Beat Book Review. Book reviews by students for students. The idea is to grow from the one writer I have now to several and make it a thing. Like I just read in a class text book, you have to start small. Cheers to getting students involved in their school! As the demographic makeup of our student populations change, our library collections and ELA curriculums need to pivot to match that change. When I built my first collection, I wanted kids from all backgrounds to find themselves reflected in the pages they were reading. I will say that curriculums have come a long way since I was reading The Scarlet Letter in high school. Now they are reading The Other Wes Moore and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. Books like these act as mirrors to students with similar backgrounds to the characters. When I say "mirrors", I mean that the student can see themselves in the protagonist. Books like I am Malala and Night offer windows into lives and cultures we would not get the opportunity to see or learn about with books. Diversity in literature is a way for kids to see themselves in a book AND offers views into new cultures and lives of people different from them. This can translate into understanding and tolerance. Ok, so we know having a diverse collection of literature for students is important. Check! But one of the challenges lies in the limited variety of protagonist of color as well as authors of color. The Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison documents and tracks "aspects of diversity and representation in children’s and young adult literature as well, including LGBTQ+, disability, and religion." Below are statistics from the last 3 years of books written about and/or by people of color. Here is a link to more diversity resources complied by the CCBC:
https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/literature-resources/diversity-resources-multicultural-literature/ Connecting the Dots: You can find my Diversity Lesson here. I designed it to go with The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, but it could go with another book written by and/or about a person of color. |
April A. WaldenI am a mom, a wife, and a brand new Librarian. Living that Media Specialist life while learning all the things! Archives |