For the past few years, I’ve incorporated Banned Books Week into my library orientation because it happens to fall at the beginning of the school year. I love the timing of this celebration because I’m able to share my philosophy on books and reading with new students, and introduce a topic many never knew was a “thing” in the first place. Traditionally, I’d set up a display and spend five minutes or so explaining what Banned Books Week is all about. Pinterest has been my best friend for finding creative display ideas, and that’s no exception to Banned Books Week. Here are a few past displays I’ve showcased in my school libraries for Banned Books Week:
To start off the school year, I created the display below, using this ALA graphic and this library display from Rachel Moani as inspiration. I cut the Statue of Liberty out of foam core and painted her, and I used a battery powered string of LED lights to make her torch light up.
A little over a week ago, a super cool ELA teacher at my school asked if I’d be willing to talk to her students about Banned Books Week. She wanted to introduce the topic and perhaps dive more deeply into banned books later on in the classroom. I said “sure thing”, however, if she was up for it, I told her I’d love to set up a Banned Books Exhibit so the students could explore some of the titles. We decided to run the exhibit a week before Banned Books Week to fit with scheduling. What started off as a small idea, quickly expanded in my mind. I knew I wanted the activity to be hands-on and engaging. I wanted to incorporate picture books, juvenile literature, and teen reads that students had likely come across, or personally read, so they would have a frame of reference when presented with the reasons the books had been banned.
Because the beginning of the year is crazy, I didn’t start working on the project until Friday, even though ELA classes were coming in the following Monday. I set up tables to extend the full length and wings of the fairly large instructional space, pondering how in the world I was ever going to create a project this large in such a short amount of time. ALA put together so many great resources for Banned Books Week, and I scoured their pages and Frequently Challenged Book Lists hoping to spark some ideas in my mildly panicked mind. I put together a few of the ideas I found here, knowing I wanted to use spray paint to create a graffiti style and put the banned books in paper bags with the reasons they were banned on the side of the bag. What student wouldn’t like the “Do Not Enter” look and the intrigue of not knowing the titles that were hidden inside? I visited a local business the next day that gives away rolls of sticky paper to teachers, thinking I could put together a backdrop for the display. It was going to have to be one massive backdrop based on the space I had to work with. Instead of selecting sticky paper, the company had great recyclables that changed the entire picture I had in my mind for the end product. I grabbed large round black discs made out of a cardboard like substance, thinking it would be easy to staple pictures and other things to the back of them. I took them home, pulled multiple cans of spray paint off the shelf, and got to work. I never used spray paint as an art form before. I spray painted flames to act as a table skirt for the center of the exhibit. This whole process was really fun because I had no idea what I was doing, and I enjoyed being really silly with it.
I drew characters from banned and challenged books on the back of posters I bought super cheap at a Scholastic Warehouse sale, keeping the images black and white because I didn’t have enough time to paint each one. I wrote out powerful quotes from well known authors who advocate against censorship, and framed additional quotes to add to the table top display. I included some lists from the ALA website for students to check out as well. Caution tape gave the background additional pops of color and added to that “off limits” look.
I gathered a bunch of brown paper lunch bags and started writing the reasons why the book inside had been challenged or banned. After a busy weekend, I had everything ready to go. The next feat was only having an hour and a half to set the exhibit up before the first class came in on Monday. I was able to finish with five minutes to spare. I added a “I Wondered…” sheet to one side of the learning space and a “I Learned…” to the other side of the space, as I planned to have students reflect on the exhibit after exploring for 10 minutes or so. I included props to add additional interests here and there, and incorporated a listening station so students could listen to various authors speak about censorship.
Students were brought to the main area of the library where we briefly talked about what banned and challenged books are and what we celebrate during Banned Books Week. The ALA website shared an idea from the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop in Wisconsin where you can only gain access to a banned book exhibit if you had a ticket. I thought it was a great way to show the students what censorship is like. I sectioned off the exhibit with caution tape and they could only pass with the ticket I previously gave them. The conversations, the animated surprise, and the sometimes comical outrage from students viewing the exhibit was really great to see. The room was filled with chatter, but the chatter was about the books, how awesome is that??!!
All ELA teachers from grades 7 & 8 ended up bringing their kids down to check out the exhibit. We had students take a seat on the floor in the space and talked for a good 10-20 minutes about what they had learned and still had questions about. The students' questions and thoughts helped me expand my understanding of the topic.
During Banned Books Week, the ELA teacher who had originally proposed a Banned Books collaboration is having her students fill out a label that says “I’m Reading a Banned Book: ____________.” Students who are reading a banned book can wear this name tag type label throughout the week. I also set up a mugshot background and took pictures of students checking out banned/challenged books. I used these pictures to make book marks to give to the students.
I am so lucky to work in a field that values multiple perspectives and viewpoints, and makes accessible works that challenge students' understanding of the world. I think Banned Books Week is the perfect opportunity to talk about censorship and the freedom to read!
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Hello, long-lost world! It's been a while since I've blogged, since grad school actually. I'm just about to wrap up my first year as a Middle School Librarian, and it has been the most fulfilling position I've had in my working career thus far. I can't say this strongly enough, middle school through the eyes of a teacher is so completely different than how I remember it as a student. What do I remember about middle school? Desperately, desperately trying to be cool and make friends with the popular kids, so much so that I dropped much of my identity to try and fit in. Did it work? Nope. Total failure. Middle school wasn't fun. Though my observations are limited to this year alone, I've found the students to be unique, funny, awkward of course, and at a point in their lives where they're still deciding what's cool and what isn't. I've worked in high school libraries before and attempted to run after school programming with extremely limited interest from the students. However, trying some of the same exact programs at the middle school level were met positively by students, often bringing new faces into the library that I didn't expect.
I look forward to sharing some of the programs I developed this school year in blog posts to come, but I thought I'd wrap up this brief first post by sharing my vision for the school library I work at. My school has a little over 400 students. This year marks the first time in ten years the school has had a library media specialist. I'm so lucky to be able to start fresh with the library program and shape it into a lively community space for the entire student body. When I first started, the library had just undergone a renovation to transform it into an appealing place for students. All books were boxed up and no non fiction books were in the catalog. I weeded, shelved, and cataloged my way through the first few weeks, but then turned my focus toward a few other goals: building a library website, collaborating with teachers on research projects, and starting a student advisory group that develops programs for the entire school to enjoy. I think we've had a pretty great year, certainly creating memories that I'll look back on warmly. I want to continue to grow all of these things next year, however a few additional projects I'll be working on include genrefying the fiction collection (see my blog post outlining my first go at genrefying at one of my previous jobs) and creating a makerspace with a focus on sharing upcycled projects using digital tools. Why do these things? I want students to enjoy using the library. I want it to be a place that inspires, a place where students go to not only receive information but share their learning with the world, a library where student voice is front and center. A library that promotes reading and creating, and sharing and collaborating is a place where I'd like to be! |
AuthorChristy is a middle school librarian in MA. ArchivesCategories |