We know our classrooms should be rich with diverse books, but we may need explanations to share with colleagues about why we choose a diverse book over an old standard and, perhaps, recommendations on which books to select and a few ideas for how we might use those texts in our classrooms. NCTE, its members, and friends offer the following.
听“Books must mirror the lives of readers鈥any students related to the stories as they reflected on their lived experiences that connect their home and school identities.”
, 鈥淭he United States is such a diverse country, and we need diverse books to reflect the different cultural experiences that children have…we need multicultural books so that different kinds of children can see themselves reflected in the books they read, and so that children can learn about people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.鈥�
, 鈥渋nclusive diversity matters.鈥� And I use the term 鈥渋nclusive鈥� because I don鈥檛 want to push some groups to the forefront and push other groups to the back.鈥�
鈥淲hen you have children in school and the literature doesn鈥檛 look like them, it doesn鈥檛 sound like them, it does not deal with their issues, you鈥檙e pushing them out rather than inviting them in…We need diverse books because diverse books reflect the world as it is, not the way the world never was and the way the world never will be….Literature and language are life, you know.”听, I heard him say one time 鈥� he was quoting someone else, paraphrasing someone else 鈥� that human beings don鈥檛 make up stories, but it鈥檚 our stories that make us human. And so literature is the repository of our stories and the repository of our humanity, a reminder of our humanity.鈥�
Robert Needlman, a pediatrician in Cleveland, Ohio and cofounder of , to primary care, which puts literacy front and center by having literacy-rich waiting rooms and demonstrating to parents how to read to their children. He pointed out that literacy acquisition and listening to stories changes the structure of the human brain, contributes to the brain鈥檚 health, strengthens a child鈥檚 attachment to his or her parents, and increases overall emotional health and resilience. His concern, however, is the lack of diversity in the books he collects for his patients, who are predominantly African American.
Ellen Oh, author and CEO of , stresses the importance of diverse literature for children of color.
, 鈥淭o resist 鈥渢he danger of the single story,鈥� as Chimamanda Adichie discusses in her , we need books that tell many different kinds of stories about a particular cultural community.鈥�
鈥淭hose of us from minority backgrounds,” , “often fail to see ourselves in our school texts, let alone have opportunities to engage with the kinds of knowledge that meaningful representation makes possible. By that we mean representation that transcends mere depiction to encourage meaningful engagement with and reflection on diverse experiences and ways of knowing. As educators we must provide students with texts that reflect their respective backgrounds and engage the perspectives they bring to the classroom.
鈥� 听adds, “In fostering students鈥� appreciation for the unique worldviews and practices integral to their home cultures, teachers can show respect for students鈥� 鈥渉ome places鈥� and recognize their own positionality as members of cross-cultural communities (Royster, 1996). They can also advance rhetorical awareness that makes transcultural repositioning possible. Transcultural repositioning involves being able to 鈥渕ove back and forth with ease and comfort between and among different languages and dialects, different social classes, different cultural and artistic forms鈥� in order to 鈥渙pen the door to different ways of seeing and thinking about the increasingly fluid and hybridized world that is emerging all around us鈥� (Guerra, 2004, p. 8). Inviting Ethnic Studies into the classroom helps educators foster respectful learning environments while promoting vital communication skills.鈥�
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 always know all of the places that I was from until I encountered them in books. I think that we can and should be intentional about including diverse lit as a matter of course whenever we discuss lit in different genres, styles, and so forth.鈥�
points out, 鈥� In the predominantly Black high school where I am Professor in Residence and sponsor of the writing club, ELA teachers continue to teach books from the canon like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, and Of Mice and Men. And although they are great stories, they do very little when it comes to inspiring the lives of youth of color. Nor do these texts reflect the lived experiences of the students who attend the school. My issue with teaching these texts is not necessarily that they are culturally irrelevant for our students. In fact, I do not propose teaching texts just because they are diverse. Instead, as teachers and teacher educators, our selection of diverse texts must be intentional and must play a role in eradicating racial and social injustice and inequality鈥eachers must choose texts with the students in mind.鈥�
, 鈥淚 am one among many who have called for bringing LGBTQ-themed literature into English language arts classrooms and queering literature already there. By queering I mean interrogating the notion of normal, particularly relative to sexual identities and gender expressions, but also related to broader notions like family and friendships. Oftentimes these two suggestions get pulled apart, as if teachers can or even should do one or the other, but I think they go hand-in-hand.鈥�
Bring your students a little 鈥渂ookjoy,鈥� as , not only on El d铆a de los ni帽os/El d铆a de los libros but all year long.
