TRANSFORMING CLASSROOM AND PERSONAL LIBRARIES

               Integrating Diversity in Books We Read and Those We Offer Students

Register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfXdh6bhu0epJpmHcTJ0zjH3FrMMi7aKOCJLMlvjVbHEW8rmw/viewform

Join Abby Brigham Wednesday, November 17th at 4:00 virtually on Zoom and in person at Oliver Winch Middle School SEL Room. Teachers as Readers is a two-part practice: The first part is for teachers to read books written by and about folx with diverse identities discussing their experiences in an authentic way. This builds empathy in the teacher as they are guaranteed to have students and their families from many of these same diverse backgrounds in their classrooms and helps them be a better teacher for these students. The second is to share these books with students in order to help them relate to the global community and ensure that their identities are represented in classroom materials. This builds empathy among students as they are able to explore how someone’s identity affects their life experiences and think critically about what this means for them.

In this presentation, participants will be introduced to a variety of books to help them become well-rounded, empathetic readers and to give them suggestions on how to make classroom libraries more inclusive to foster empathetic students. Featured books will be written by authors with diverse social identities and will include a variety of genres, structures, and age ranges (from picture books to professional development to personal reading suggestions).

Abby Brigham is a middle school reading specialist, an activist and an avid reader.