Librarian Interview: Include


For the include competency, I interviewed Jacquelyn Harris, the Media Specialist at Bookman Road Elementary. The include competency calls for school librarians to "demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to inclusiveness and respect for diversity in the learning community"(2018). She achieves this in her program by holding small group discussions, a storytelling center, and selecting diverse materials for her collection. After she completes a read aloud students are divided into small groups and discuss their opinions. Before implementing this, Jackie set expectations and modeled how to share your opinion respectfully. In her storytelling center, she uses a cube with different pictures on it to help shape the story. When selecting diverse materials she uses the Titlewise Diversity Analysis to help see the demographics of her collection and identify her areas of growth. Titlewise also will suggest suitable books for each category. Jackie is currently collaborating with her 1st and 3rd-grade teachers to teach winter holidays around the world. After learning about each holiday she facilitates a conversation with students. She mentioned some children being shocked to hear that some people don't celebrate any holidays around this time of year and it sparked a great discussion. Jackie's biggest challenge when implementing this competency is time constraints. She stated it's difficult to facilitate deep conversations with students where everyone is sharing in the limited time she has with her students.

Reference

American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. ALA Editions.

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