Auditing My Classroom Library
As part of my ongoing journey in reflecting on my own level of culturally responsive teaching, I have made changes to my classroom library before. I have learned about the importance of children "seeing themselves" in the books they are reading in our classroom. It had been some time since I had done this, so I chose this option. I was happy to see that I had many of the books listed on Edutopia's list of "22 Diverse Book Choices for All Grade Levels." However, I did add 2 more from the list to my classroom library. They are: Paper Wishes and Drita, My Homegirl. I will note, that this brought up an incident from the past with a parent regarding a book their child was reading that came from our Scholastic Reading program. I believe the book was called, "Amina's Voice." The student's family was from Syria and I believe the story was Pakistani based. Rather than seeing this story as a learning experience for the student, the father said that the religion the character was practicing was in contrast with their own and he wanted me to have his daughter choose a different book. This has stayed with me. Another issue I had was a student who had a transgender dad. I was going to add a book to my collection where this child (and others) would be able to learn that love is love and that many different scenarios make up what a "family" could be. I was told not to add it to my library by a higher up, so that there would not be any situation with other parents becoming upset with he story being in my classroom. The contradiction of being a culturally responsive teacher and the issues that arise from trying to do so can be frustrating, leaving a teacher feeling guilty and wrong. I do wish this were not the case.
As part of my ongoing journey in reflecting on my own level of culturally responsive teaching, I have made changes to my classroom library before. I have learned about the importance of children "seeing themselves" in the books they are reading in our classroom. It had been some time since I had done this, so I chose this option. I was happy to see that I had many of the books listed on Edutopia's list of "22 Diverse Book Choices for All Grade Levels." However, I did add 2 more from the list to my classroom library. They are: Paper Wishes and Drita, My Homegirl. I will note, that this brought up an incident from the past with a parent regarding a book their child was reading that came from our Scholastic Reading program. I believe the book was called, "Amina's Voice." The student's family was from Syria and I believe the story was Pakistani based. Rather than seeing this story as a learning experience for the student, the father said that the religion the character was practicing was in contrast with their own and he wanted me to have his daughter choose a different book. This has stayed with me. Another issue I had was a student who had a transgender dad. I was going to add a book to my collection where this child (and others) would be able to learn that love is love and that many different scenarios make up what a "family" could be. I was told not to add it to my library by a higher up, so that there would not be any situation with other parents becoming upset with he story being in my classroom. The contradiction of being a culturally responsive teacher and the issues that arise from trying to do so can be frustrating, leaving a teacher feeling guilty and wrong. I do wish this were not the case.