0:08

NJASL: Alright, so welcome we are here, for in Jaisal's Webinar, we're gonna do some Pd. On how we can end literacy shaming, how we can reignite that love of reading in our students.

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NJASL: So let me come over here. We're gonna do a screen share.

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KIM MALLOY-CHAPMAN: A. NJASL: And we'll get that going whoops. And I did that wrong. So let me back it up and try it one more time, cause. Oh, it is set good, alright perfect. We're gonna do that. We're gonna do this

0:39

NJASL: alright. So we're gonna talk about literacy shaming, which for me is a pet peeve and hobby horse. I think this is something that's really important for us to

0:50

NJASL: be aware of and think about for our students. So all the stuff we're gonna talk about is in this slide deck. Here's the short link. Here's the QR code. So you are more than welcome to come and use any of these resources the image, by the way, over here is by Jarrett learner. I love his art. He does tons of great stuff about Literacy. So he's got this. Kids need all kinds of books which I love. He's got our windows in our mirrors, and I sliding glass doors.

1:16

NJASL: and he also did this great piece over here that books are empathy makers and board and busters and eye openers and soul fillers and life changers and brain builders love it so alright.

1:27

NJASL: whoops! That's not what I wanted to do. You can click on the art, and it will bring you right to Jarrett's site. So you can check out his stuff.

1:34

NJASL: And the presentation that we're gonna go through right now is based on some work I did with school librarians, Amanda Jones and Wendy. Pray there's a video on Youtube, and you're more than welcome to check that out.

1:48

NJASL: so a little bit about me. So, Hi, I'm Steve. Dr. T. Loves books as I go by on social media.

1:55

NJASL: and I have been a school librarian for a couple of years. I've got my masters in library science. I was an English teacher for

2:06

NJASL: about 25 years. NJASL: Got a BA. In English and education double major, and got a masters in doctorate in Ed admin and supervision.

2:16

NJASL: And for a long time

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NJASL: I prided myself on my reputation as being the toughest teacher in the school. When I was hired in my district

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NJASL: I was specifically told that I was going to be replacing the hardest teacher in the building, and I was supposed to try and emulate that I was supposed to try. And, you know, push the kids and just be relentless and really try. And, you know, push the kids to the next level. So I was pretty early in my teaching career when I got that position. And I said, Okay, great. And so that's what I did.

2:51

NJASL: And NJASL: I have learned since that. Or, you know, realized since that really, that's maybe not the best approach to take. And I'll explain a little more about that. But for a second I want you just have a little bit of a

3:05

NJASL: a mental image in your head, and I want you to imagine that someone wants you to dance more.

3:12

NJASL: They think you don't dance enough. NJASL: They want you to dance more.

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NJASL: So NJASL: you're going to put on your best moves.

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NJASL: You start dancing for all your worth.

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NJASL: and NJASL: you're enjoying what you're doing. You're having a good time.

3:29

NJASL: and NJASL: the

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NJASL: person that wants you to dance more, says to you.

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NJASL: you look like a complete idiot. What are you doing? That's not dancing holy smokes. You're so bad at this.

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NJASL: Is that going to encourage you to dance more.

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NJASL: Is that gonna make you want to continue to put forth your best effort.

3:55

NJASL: So NJASL: let's think about how that might relate to

4:01

NJASL: our reading and our students reading.

4:05

NJASL: and we're going to sidestep again for a second. We're going to come back, but I want you to think for a second. What is your guilty pleasure read?

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NJASL: And that could be a genre. It could be a format. It could be a specific book

4:20

NJASL: that you like. But what is your guilty pleasure? Read the one that you're kind of embarrassed to let people know about.

4:30

NJASL: So you got it in your head. NJASL: If we had some more folks here I'd love to do. Turn to an abra and share

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NJASL: I will NJASL: take us off the hook, and

4:43

NJASL: I want you to think about. If you had to tell someone, especially someone you didn't know super well

4:47

NJASL: what your guilty pleasure read was. NJASL: how do you think that would feel.

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NJASL: and why do you think it would. KIM MALLOY-CHAPMAN: Embarrassing, embarrassing.

4:56

NJASL: Yeah, right? I mean, we call it our guilty pleasure, because it's sort of embarrassing that, you know, we don't want people to know about it.

5:04

KIM MALLOY-CHAPMAN: Right. NJASL: And NJASL: let's let's kind of think about that for a sec. And now I'm going to tell you.

5:10

NJASL: if we feel embarrassed talking about titles that

5:15

NJASL: we like. And we're educators. We're literacy experts. We're literacy leaders.

5:23

NJASL: How do we think our students are going to feel

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NJASL: about any reading that they might not want to share whether it's skills, whether it's formats, whether it's titles right there. If we're gonna get feel embarrassed in sharing things, maybe our students are gonna be embarrassed, too, especially if we were to kinda say to them, Oh, that's what you like. Oh, that's what you're reading.

5:48

NJASL: Oh, that's the why aren't you at a higher level? Why, you know, you really need to push yourself.

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NJASL: think about, think about what the message is that we're sending when we say those kinds of things to students.

6:01

NJASL: And there's a great Brian Regan

6:04

NJASL: comedy bit here that I'm going to play a bit of, because I think it kind of captures. It's funny because it's true. So

6:12

NJASL: let's see if we can get this to go here. I don't know. I'd be a lot better off if I would have studied more when I was growing up, you know.

6:18

NJASL: But you know where it all went wrong was the day they started the Spelling Bee.

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NJASL: because up until that day I was an idiot. But nobody else knew when the Spelling Bee day popped up. All right, kids up against a wall, it's time for public humiliation.

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NJASL: Spell a word wrong. Sit down in front of your friends, you know. That's great for little egos. Hey? Look at me! I'm a moron. I wasn't even close.

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NJASL: I was using numbers and stuff

6:47

NJASL: I'm thinking about. NJASL: That's why I admired that kid who spelled it wrong on purpose so he could sit down, you know.

6:52

NJASL: He knew he wasn't going to win, so I stand there for 3 h. First round, Cat Kat, I'm out of here.

7:02

NJASL: Then, as he passed you, I know there's 2 t's.

7:09

NJASL: This is a great bit, and it goes on for a little bit about how his teacher would make him feel embarrassed, feel bad for his difficulties with spelling and grammar, and it's funny as heck the way he tells it.

7:21

NJASL: but I think it's also a little true.

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NJASL: I think there are absolutely times when we maybe

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NJASL: we had it done to us, and maybe we've done it to students

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NJASL: where we kind of make them feel bad. NJASL: and I don't know. I feel like we don't need that to play again. If we're making them feel bad, we're probably not

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NJASL: getting them to engage with things the way we want them to.

7:45

NJASL: So NJASL: let's kind of tie all this together a little bit. Here. Right? Let's talk about Literacy shaming. So my journey to understanding Literacy shaming started with twilight and twitter. So someone had posted on Twitter a couple of years back.

8:00

NJASL: What's your guilty pleasure. What's your guilty pleasure? Read?

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NJASL: And there are a whole bunch of responses. And I chimed in with like, Oh, man! Twilight was when it came out. I was like, that's so dumb, whatever. But then all my students were reading it, and I was like.

8:14

NJASL: alright, I gotta have some idea of what they're talking about. So I read it, and I liked twilight when it first came out. Okay, I'm not gonna lie. I read all Forum as fast as I get my hands on them. Once I started that first one zip through. Now, twilight is incredibly problematic. I am going to freely admit that.

8:34

NJASL: But that's with the benefit of hindsight at the time. It was a phenomenon, and it was. I could see why it was phenomenon, because it was really an engaging read right. But I didn't want to tell people that I didn't want to tell people that I was an adult male who was into sparkly vampire romance.

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NJASL: That was just NJASL: did not fit with my personal self image, and I didn't want people to think that that was the kind of reader I was.

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NJASL: and I was embarrassed to talk about the fact that I liked a book.

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NJASL: and as I was reading through all these different titles, that people were embarrassed to

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NJASL: have read or too embarrassed to share that they enjoyed.

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NJASL: I started thinking like. NJASL: why would anybody?

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NJASL: Why should anybody feel embarrassed

9:21

NJASL: for enjoying reading? NJASL: That is really

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NJASL: sort of the antithesis of what we want in our students.

9:31

NJASL: And yet NJASL: we do it.

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NJASL: We know our students do it. We know our students get embarrassed about things they like

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NJASL: when it's not met with acceptance.

9:43

NJASL: and especially when it comes to reading. There's also the social element to reading right. We think about reading as a solitary activity. But it's not. It's social.

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NJASL: because NJASL: what we read

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NJASL: is influenced by the people around us, by our friends, by our teachers, by our family. And what we talk about that we've read is influenced by our social circles, too.

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NJASL: and that social element can be very can have a huge impact on somebody who's going to read on. Whether or not they will read whether or not they'll share what they read, whether or not they feel comfortable talking about what they've read.

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NJASL: So it got me thinking

10:23

NJASL: idea of literacy shaming, and I thought I had coined this term. But I didn't it. Somebody was using it before I was. And that's okay. But I think it comes down to a couple of key elements, right literacy shaming, I would say, is any actions that discourage someone from reading what they want.

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NJASL: And again, I think these happen a lot in schools, and I think they happen a lot between parents and kids.

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NJASL: And I think that it happens for what we think are good reasons.

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NJASL: I think we all want students to be better readers.

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NJASL: and we approach that sometimes, in ways that I think are counterproductive, and we may not even realize it, because we think we're doing a good thing.

11:08

NJASL: I think literacy shaming can come in a couple of different ways. It can be verbal like telling kid to read a real book.

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NJASL: Oh, that graphic novel's not a real book, that audiobooks. Not a real book, or read at your level. You've got to read at this level, or else what you're doing doesn't count.

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NJASL: or even something like you're reading. That

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NJASL: doesn't even have to necessarily focus in on what we think the problem is

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NJASL: can also be nonverbal. Now, I don't think that

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NJASL: educators tend to do these as much like pointing and laughing. Probably not as much, I hope.

11:42

NJASL: but students absolutely do that to each other.

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NJASL: Right? They will point and laugh at what somebody has picked out. I've seen kids do it in the library. I've seen kids do it in classrooms. I've seen kids do it in the halls.

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NJASL: I do think that educators use nonverbal literacy shaming by limiting access to desired reading materials.

11:59

NJASL: and I'm sure that you've seen at some point where someone has said, Oh, dog, man's going on a book, vacation or wimpy kids on book vacation no longer available, and it'll be back some other time, because people are concerned that students are only reading the same thing over and over again, or that they're fixated on reading a particular book or series, or whatever it might be.

12:21

NJASL: And again, I think this all comes from a place

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NJASL: of NJASL: trying to help students.

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NJASL: But instead, I think we're hurting kids. So

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NJASL: I would break down the types of literacy shaming in a sort of 3 different camps. There's the unaware literacy shaming.

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NJASL: and that could be teasing that involves

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NJASL: references to somebody's choices or skills when they're reading.

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NJASL: And then there's the unintentional or well meeting, and I think a lot of educators and parents fall into this camp

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NJASL: that we sometimes make people students particularly feel bad about their reading choices or their reading skills

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NJASL: in an effort to try and help them improve.

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NJASL: And we'll come back to around on that a little bit more. And then there's also the purposeful literacy shaming where someone might be trying to make people feel bad about what they're reading, because they philosophically disagree about what should be read, either

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NJASL: in terms of the formats or in terms of the topics.

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NJASL: So NJASL: we're going to talk about how we deal with each one of these a bit.

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NJASL: Now, unaware literacy shaming.

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NJASL: I think NJASL: a lot of times is seen in sort of friendly quote, unquote teasing, where kids make fun of other kids for reading, either for reading period or for what they read.

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NJASL: and sometimes it even goes into bullying right. And I I don't think a lot of times that this is even targeted at the reading itself. It's more about targeting the reader and trying to sort of get some sort of reaction, or build up some sort of social status right? And so I think the solution for that

13:58

NJASL: is bullying prevention. I think we need to look at ways we can be building up social emotional instruction building empathy, trying to get.

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NJASL: And again, I think this is mostly students trying to get them to think a little bit about

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NJASL: what they are doing, and how that might affect

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NJASL: who they are talking about or talking to.

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NJASL: so NJASL: that one, I think, is a. It's not an easy lift, but I think, in terms of how to deal with it. It's the most straightforward.

14:31

NJASL: the unintentional or well intentioned literacy shamer is a little harder to

14:37

NJASL: deal with. NJASL: This is the group that teachers and parents tend to fall into. And I include myself in that sweeping generalization. I 112% was a literacy shamer.

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NJASL: And not all that long ago. So this is a big problem.

14:54

NJASL: So let's talk a little bit about this. So we want

14:57

NJASL: kids to be readers. NJASL: And yet our behavior around student reading is often sort of metaphorically like this little sampler here beatings will continue until morale improves.

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NJASL: We're gonna we're gonna punish you and make things harder until you get better at this thing

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NJASL: is that going to instill a love of reading

15:22

NJASL: kind of the opposite of what we're going for there. And again, I did this, I, 100% did this. I thought I was helping kids

15:30

NJASL: when I would direct them away from the choices they would take out of the classroom library, and they would look, you know, they'd be looking at maybe a graphic novel, and I'd say, why don't you get something that's a little more at your level, or they'd get a book that was pros. But I'd say, you know what, that might be a little bit easier for you. Why don't you get something a little more challenging.

15:48

NJASL: I'm I'm NJASL: I'm implying to them that the choice they've made is not a valid reading choice. When I do that

15:57

NJASL: pushing kids to read classics. I have had parents email me so often saying, How do I get my kid to read more classics?

16:07

NJASL: How what classics should my kid, read.

16:11

NJASL: your kid should read the classics. They want to read

16:13

NJASL: that if you're forcing them to read classics, they're probably not going to enjoy them, and they're probably not going to appreciate them. If you get them to want to read. If you get them to be lifelong readers, they will want to pick up the classics.

16:27

NJASL: but if you try and force it on them.

16:30

NJASL: probably not going to have the effect you want. NJASL: I would absolutely not allow kids to read graphic novels when they were doing independent reading years ago. I I was like, no, that doesn't really count as real reading or books that were too easy, right? I would strongly voice my opinions about books I didn't like

16:46

NJASL: and didn't matter what the reason was. I didn't like the book. It might be something I read, and the kid to pick it up be like, yeah, you know, I didn't really like that one, but if you want to read it. Go ahead.

16:55

NJASL: What's the message I'm sending there? NJASL: The Kid picked it up. The Kid was interested in it. And then my message is, that's kind of garbage.

17:04

NJASL: so if they take it and they read it, and they like it.

17:07

NJASL: The implication is, they like garbage. If they don't take it and don't read it.

17:12

NJASL: I've cut them off from reading in the first place.

17:15

NJASL: and I would often.

17:18

NJASL: frequently, regularly steer kids to books that I loved. When I was a kid.

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NJASL: I was a kid a long time ago.

17:27

NJASL: The books I liked were great at the time.

17:30

NJASL: but they are not really relevant to our kids today

17:34

NJASL: and I get it, I understand. Oh, they're classics.

17:37

NJASL: Okay? But again, forcing classics on kids, probably not the way to go

17:42

NJASL: having them read books from the 60 s. From the 70 s. From the 80 s. From the 90 s. Those are all pre-cell phone. Those are all pre-internet.

17:52

NJASL: It's perfectly okay. If kids want to choose to read historical fiction.

17:56

NJASL: and I hate to say it. But the stuff that was contemporary when I was a kid is historical fiction.

18:03

NJASL: and that's a valid reading choice. But to push it on kids and say, I love this. You will love. This, too, again, is sending that underlying message of. If you don't like this.

18:14

NJASL: either you're not a good reader, or you're not making valid choices, or you don't know what a good book is.

18:20

NJASL: so it's great to be enthusiastic about a book.

18:24

NJASL: but to try and force kids to read stuff that doesn't fit into their

18:31

NJASL: their background, knowledge

18:33

NJASL: into their just everyday existence

18:38

NJASL: that can be NJASL: not the best avenue to try and get kids to engage with reading and enjoy reading.

18:46

NJASL: because here's the thing

18:49

NJASL: we know NJASL: that reading enjoyment is linked to literacy achievement. When kids like to read.

18:57

NJASL: they do better on their tests.

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NJASL: It's a very straightforward equation.

19:02

NJASL: And if you look at this chart. It's kind of interesting reading engagement

19:07

NJASL: is highly correlated with literacy, achievement.

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NJASL: Pressure to achieve NJASL: is negatively correlated.

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NJASL: So when we push kids NJASL: read that classic that's not real reading. Read something at a higher level.

19:23

NJASL: We're not helping them. We're hurting them.

19:27

NJASL: So we need to think about what the data shows us

19:31

NJASL: wanting to read correlates with doing well on assessments of reading

19:36

NJASL: that seems like common sense.

19:38

NJASL: And yet. NJASL: when we start looking at the statistics around, how much time kids spend reading.

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NJASL: It is troubling.

19:50

NJASL: When we look at a study of 9.9 million 10 million students over the 2015 2016 school year.

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NJASL: More than half of the students read less than 15 min per day, on average.

20:04

NJASL: more than half of the kids reading less than 15 min a day.

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NJASL: very few reading in that

20:11

NJASL: 15 to 30 min, and

20:14

NJASL: a real small part getting into 30 plus minutes a day.

20:18

NJASL: That's not great. And when you look at these trends over time.

20:22

NJASL: we start to see some. What I think are some interesting pieces of data.

20:27

NJASL: and 90, 84, 9 year olds.

20:30

NJASL: 53% of them reading almost every day in 2,012. So we're going 30 years in the future.

20:35

NJASL: And we're at the same percentage almost every day reading 9 year olds. Okay? So 9 year old.

20:42

NJASL: Okay, they lost a little ground in some of these other areas.

20:46

NJASL: Let's go to 13 year olds. Right? So 84, we've got 35% of them reading almost every day and 35% reading once or twice a week. So we got 70% of kids reading at least once or twice a week in 84

20:59

NJASL: in 2012, NJASL: we've got 27%, 26%. So we're at just about half, so we went from 2 thirds to a little more than half

21:07

NJASL: reading once or twice a week.

21:10

NJASL: and less than never, or hardly ever. Look at this, we went from 8% to 22%

21:16

NJASL: that is crazy.

21:18

NJASL: And it gets real scary. When we look at 17 year olds.

21:22

NJASL: Look at those reds. Look at those donuts.

21:26

NJASL: We've got so few 17 year olds in 2012, and this is going back now but 2012. We've got so few kids that are reading on a regular basis.

21:37

NJASL: So let's think about that for a second. We've got 9 year olds.

21:43

NJASL: 13 year olds middle school. So we got grade school, middle school, high school.

21:49

NJASL: Hmm. NJASL: interesting. And what happens? Grade school to middle school, to high school.

21:56

NJASL: we start to focus more and more on

21:59

NJASL: making sure the kids are reading at a high enough level, pushing them to read at the next level.

22:04

NJASL: telling them that what they're choosing needs to be harder telling them that they need to read above where they're at. So who can blame these kids for not wanting to read?

22:14

NJASL: Who can blame these kids for choosing other avenues

22:18

NJASL: for their engagement and entertainment like during that time, we also had the Internet come into effect. We've got smartphones. And now I mean smartphones, obviously everywhere.

22:29

NJASL: And kids turn to those. But I don't think it's just because

22:34

NJASL: they're there. I think it's because we sometimes push kids

22:38

NJASL: to NJASL: stop enjoying

22:42

NJASL: the act of reading for pleasure

22:45

NJASL: because we're pushing them in school, we're pushing them so hard, and I get it again. I was an English teacher.

22:51

NJASL: There's this idea that we need to have accountability.

22:54

NJASL: that we need to

22:57

NJASL: push kids because we're going to be assessed on how they do on things. And so, therefore we need them to prove to us that they're trying their hardest to read.

23:08

NJASL: And I I get it. I understand that there's that pressure as an educator who push the kids.

23:13

NJASL: So I for a while was forcing my kids to do reading logs independent. Read whatever you want, whatever style, whatever format whatever. But you have to write about it in your log every day you have to write about what you read.

23:29

NJASL: I had some kids who loved to write, and they would write pages. I had other kids who hated to write, and would get

23:35

NJASL: bad scores on their logs because they wouldn't do them, or they barely do them.

23:39

NJASL: And I I would get frustrated, like. All you need to do is this.

23:44

NJASL: and I wasn't thinking about the fact that I was asking them to read, and I was asking them to spend time

23:50

NJASL: going back to revisit that reading in their mind and translating it into written words.

23:57

NJASL: Reflecting is obviously really important, but forcing kids to add extra tasks to reading when we're already asking them to do something that sometimes they don't want to do.

24:07

NJASL: not the best reinforcement tool. NJASL: and

24:11

NJASL: don't even get me started on accelerated reader, and similar kinds of programs.

24:15

NJASL: To my mind, those are a real big waste of money, because

24:21

NJASL: a lot of times they get sold on the premise of Oh, accelerated readers going to make your kids read more. And and they're going to read at higher levels.

24:29

NJASL: And that's just not true. Because if you read the fine print, it says, as long as these tests are given with fidelity.

24:37

NJASL: right. So fidelity, meaning that all the kids are going to take it in the same

24:42

NJASL: sort of setting, with the same sort of constraints and the same sort of background and the same sort of preparation.

24:50

NJASL: And that's not true. NJASL: Accelerator, reader, turns reading into a point, gathering activity rather than a reading activity, especially for a while. We had accelerator reader in my school, and we would say, you have to get so many points a month.

25:04

NJASL: You think the kids are going to pick the books that they like that have few points? Or do you think the kids are going to read the summary of the book that has all the points, and just take the quiz

25:14

NJASL: when we make the rewards external and make it extrinsic motivation we are taking away from their engagement with reading. We need reading to be an intrinsic motivation.

25:25

NJASL: So we add scores and grades and points.

25:30

NJASL: We are short circuiting that internal enjoyment and putting the focus on, not the reading

25:37

NJASL: on anything but the reading, almost.

25:41

NJASL: And then we've got NJASL: scores and levels reading scores, reading levels.

25:46

NJASL: We need to remind ourselves that those are diagnostics.

25:51

NJASL: They are not meant to be used to force kids into specific types of reading. They're meant to tell us so that we can think about ways. We can

26:04

NJASL: provide structure and support for students to understand what their reading level is at and how we can consider ways to move, help them either move forward or help them engage with the reading in more productive ways.

26:19

NJASL: Right? NJASL: If I had my druthers.

26:24

NJASL: scores reading levels would never be shared with a student with a parent, they would only be for the teacher.

26:32

NJASL: and the teacher would only use them as a way to help them think about how they might provide reading supports and reading instruction.

26:42

NJASL: because otherwise they become these. Well, you have to read books out of this bin.

26:46

NJASL: You have to read books at this level.

26:48

NJASL: You have to improve your reading score from here to here.

26:51

NJASL: and parents especially

26:54

NJASL: latch onto that. As a way to say, my kid is either underperforming, or I want them performing higher and start pushing, pushing, pushing. So now the kids not only getting pushed at school to read more. They're getting pushed at home to read more.

27:09

NJASL: We're taking away the enjoyment we're taking away. The this is just fun to do on its own.

27:15

NJASL: and we're making it into A, you are not measuring up.

27:20

NJASL: So we've got to think carefully about how we use these different tools. They're educational tools. They're not straitjackets. They're not.

27:28

NJASL: They're not even really measuring sticks. They're there for us to just get a sense of the landscape

27:34

NJASL: so that we can think about how we're going to move through that landscape.

27:37

NJASL: not how we're going to change the landscape to fit our desire.

27:43

NJASL: So NJASL: there's a lot of different harms that come from

27:49

NJASL: literacy shaming. And it's different forms.

27:52

NJASL: one major harm. We're hurting the readers. Self image. If we are making a student or kid feel like what they're choosing or their skill is not what we think it should be, or where we think it should be.

28:06

NJASL: We're telling them that we don't think they're real readers. We're telling them that they don't have the skill or the judgment, or the ability to function on the level that we think is where they should be.

28:20

NJASL: So we're giving them a real negative reading, self image. And we're taking away their sense of self-efficacy, their belief that they are capable that they are able.

28:30

NJASL: when we tell them that what they choose is bad. We're saying they don't know how to choose.

28:35

NJASL: So we've got to give some thought to

28:39

NJASL: not just how we're approaching our students about their reading. But why we don't want to

28:46

NJASL: come at them from a sort of a deficit model, right? We want to try and look at. How can we support them where they are? How can we add to their enjoyment? Add to their engagement, so that they want to do it more, because the more they do it the more they're going to get better at it, and the better they're going to be. And the higher the scores are going to go. All of it's going to improve if they want to do it. So we've got to find ways to help them want to read.

29:16

NJASL: I hear people often talk about non readers.

29:19

NJASL: and I'm going to argue that non readers are a myth.

29:24

NJASL: I think everybody NJASL: loves to get information.

29:27

NJASL: Everybody loves to hear stories.

29:31

NJASL: reluctant readers. I've heard that phrase thrown around. Maybe I've used it. It's not my favorite.

29:36

NJASL: Don't feel comfortable reading. I think that's probably a more apt description for this type of student

29:43

NJASL: that they don't feel comfortable reading, and therefore they don't engage in it.

29:47

NJASL: because if there's one thing we know about kids.

29:50

NJASL: If they're not really good at it, they generally don't want to keep doing it.

29:54

NJASL: And when we force them to do something

29:56

NJASL: we can force them to do, wrote activities over and over and over until they build up the skill that they're going to be able to use. That wrote knowledge. Reading isn't really that way. We can't really force them to, wrote, read

30:10

NJASL: literature, to, wrote, analyze literature, to wrote.

30:14

NJASL: think about the social connections of literature.

30:17

NJASL: That's not really how it works. NJASL: So we've got to try and help them feel more comfortable.

30:24

NJASL: I do think a lot of those students just haven't found the reading material that works for them yet.

30:30

NJASL: and I think if we can help them find it

30:32

NJASL: all of a sudden, they're gonna be a lot more engaged. They're gonna be a lot more interested. They're gonna want to really dive into reading more.

30:41

NJASL: Even the most reluctant of readers when they find that thing that grabs them that pulls them in.

30:48

NJASL: They're off to the races. NJASL: So

30:52

NJASL: these are all things that we should be thinking about. And we've got to think about how we can bring this to our teachers because

30:58

NJASL: I absolutely was a literacy shamer.

31:01

NJASL: I know staff members who have been Literacy chambers, and we've got to think about how do we bring this information to our teachers in a way that's not going to be like, yo, you're wrong, and you're bad.

31:14

NJASL: That's not going to win us any friends that is not going to overcome our problem.

31:20

NJASL: And I think the main way we do this is fighting their fears with rationality because they've got fears that their students aren't going to achieve.

31:28

NJASL: And I get that fear. I totally understand that fear, especially with so much accountability, being pushed down on teachers and so many people looking into the classroom and saying, Why isn't yours? Why aren't your students doing better? You're doing something wrong?

31:41

NJASL: So I get that feeling. NJASL: But I think we can approach that fear with rationality.

31:48

NJASL: So NJASL: it doesn't really matter if students like something that is below or above their level.

31:56

NJASL: it doesn't really matter if students want to reread the same thing over and over and over again.

32:03

NJASL: And the reason why that's true

32:07

NJASL: is because

32:09

NJASL: of my nephews. NJASL: not because of my nephews. That that's true. But here's the Meta. Here's the analogy.

32:15

NJASL: When my nephews were just starting to be toddlers, and just starting to talk and move around. We were staying over one day, and first thing in the morning, and the nephews came running up to their dad in the kitchen first thing in the morning. They're like we want our spiderman's. We want. Our Spiderman's was like what

32:31

NJASL: Dad reaches into the cupboard, and he takes out a little canister little container opens it up.

32:36

NJASL: He takes out the things he says. These are vitamins vitamins, not Spiderman's vitamins, and he was repeatedly telling them not to say Spiderman's to say vitamins instead.

32:49

NJASL: because what they were asking for was their spider-man shaped vitamins. But they were calling them Spiderman's because Vitamins Spiderman, you get it. So

32:57

NJASL: my NJASL: my brother-in-law is getting pretty worked up about the fact that they were calling them vitamins instead of Spiderman's.

33:04

NJASL: and NJASL: I didn't say anything at the time, and I should have. But

33:08

NJASL: I was thinking to myself. NJASL: is it really a problem if these little kids call them Spiderman's instead of vitamins, because I'm going to bet

33:18

NJASL: that someday sooner rather than later.

33:21

NJASL: They're gonna understand that it's not Spiderman's that it's vitamins.

33:25

NJASL: I don't think someday they're going to walk into a pharmacy and be like, yeah, I need to get a men's multi spiderman, please.

33:31

NJASL: They're gonna know they're gonna learn. They're gonna figure it out right as they get older as they mature.

33:36

NJASL: This is true of lots of the things kids say, right? We think they're cute when they say them when they're young, because it's not how we usually talk, and they grow out of those things like kids. Say pesqueti instead of spaghetti. Right? It's cute. We don't think like they're broken. We don't think they're wrong. We don't think like Oh, my gosh! If I don't teach this kid how to correctly say spaghetti when he's just starting to speak, he'll never understand what Pasta really is.

34:02

NJASL: Right? We don't. We don't do that NJASL: because as kids grow up, they become young adults. They become adults, and they learn a lot of stuff as they grow. They're going to change. They're going to develop.

34:12

NJASL: So are there reading interests.

34:15

NJASL: If they're rereading the same thing over and over and over again.

34:19

NJASL: So what NJASL: a they might find it comforting. And I think it's important for them to find comfort, especially to find comfort in reading what a great thing that is.

34:30

NJASL: and B. NJASL: They're going to get sick of it at some point. You can only reread the same thing so many times.

34:36

NJASL: and even if they don't get sick of it, they're at some point going to want to either expand into other areas, or they're going to read something that they're going to go. Huh? I'm curious about that. Let me see if I can find out more information.

34:48

NJASL: and they're going to go on an inquiry journey, and they're going to read more.

34:51

NJASL: So I think we have to

34:54

NJASL: step away if we feel like they're reading below their level.

34:58

NJASL: Okay, that's fine again, comfort. And they're gonna mature. If we think they're reading above their level. If they're picking something that we think is the language is gonna be too grammatically difficult for them to parse, or that the vocabulary is gonna be difficult for them to comprehend. Guess what? If they're really interested. They'll look the stuff up.

35:16

NJASL: You cannot keep an interested kid away from information that we think might be to

35:23

NJASL: complex for their brains to process, because either it will bounce off them and they won't worry about it, or they'll get interested, and they'll dig into it more, and they'll figure out what the stuff means.

35:34

NJASL: So we need to think about how we can kind of stay out of their way. And we've got to remind our teachers that all these things are true

35:42

NJASL: because we know that not only do test scores get better when they read, there's so many benefits to reading, there's several different studies, and I've linked them here.

35:53

NJASL: But we've seen we can measure the blood flow to the brain. When people read, it increases.

35:59

NJASL: It's literally. NJASL: physically good for your brain to read.

36:04

NJASL: It improves their writing skills.

36:07

NJASL: The more they read, the more styles they see, the more those

36:11

NJASL: different forms and functions and grammars get cemented into their brains.

36:16

NJASL: So the more they read, the better their writing gets.

36:20

NJASL: Reading helps to exercise memory because we have to make connections. We have to recall what has happened previously in the story or previously in previous sections, chapters, previous entries in a series. We've got to understand vocabulary. We've got to understand the background information that helps us understand the story right? So it's going to exercise our memory.

36:40

NJASL: We know one of our favorite claims. One of my favorite claims. Reading increases empathy

36:45

NJASL: when we can give kids, especially fiction books that help them see people in situations that may or may not be familiar to them. It helps them get familiar with those situations. It helps them understand people who are having different experiences than they are.

36:59

NJASL: and it expands vocabulary. The more they read, the more words they start to recognize whether they're picking up the definitions from context or whether they're looking stuff up.

37:11

NJASL: It's gonna expand their vocab, especially graphic novels. I'm gonna come back to that a little later. But for those folks, those teachers who are like Oh, no graphic novels. Boo! We've got some real good data for them that we'll come back with. So

37:25

NJASL: you've probably seen a chart like this that talks about when we add 10 min to a kid's daily reading.

37:31

NJASL: So if the kids reading just a couple of minutes, literally like 2 min a day or so

37:36

NJASL: there. NJASL: not doing great. They're not going to be

37:42

NJASL: high achievers NJASL: every 10 min that we can add.

37:46

NJASL: we start to NJASL: see some increases to their skills and their abilities.

37:54

NJASL: So if we've got kids who are reading 65 min a day, like an hour a day.

37:59

NJASL: They're going to be in the 90 eighth percentile of readers.

38:03

NJASL: Their baseline words right per year 4 million

38:07

NJASL: compared to a hundred 1,000 for the kids who are only reading a couple minutes.

38:14

NJASL: their percent increase in word exposure. They've got a small increase in word exposure because they've already been exposed to a bunch of words.

38:22

NJASL: So NJASL: we know this, we know that when they read more we're going to see better results.

38:28

NJASL: And the thing is that

38:31

NJASL: we sometimes, even when we've got teachers who or even we've got educators, librarians, whoever they are, who understand that we don't want to make people feel bad about their reading. Sometimes we do it unconsciously. I was at the School Library Journal Summit a couple of years ago, and there was a presenter who is talking about this book. Some girls bind, and she said, this book may not be great literature, but it's important to students.

38:59

NJASL: That's unconscious literacy shaming.

39:02

NJASL: That's saying that this book NJASL: doesn't deserve to be

39:07

NJASL: ranked with NJASL: other types of literature.

39:10

NJASL: And yet NJASL: she also said, it's important to students. If it's important to students, it's great literature.

39:18

NJASL: And we have to think about whether we think it's great or not. If it's important to a kid. It's great literature.

39:25

NJASL: It doesn't have to meet some highfalutin definition of what literature is. If a kid is engaged by it, if a kid is into it.

39:33

NJASL: That is gold.

39:36

NJASL: That is what we should all be striving for.

39:39

NJASL: So we've got to think about our own ways of talking about things, because this is a very

39:44

NJASL: educated, intelligent person who is talking about a very important element of literacy, and how there are books that can be literally life-saving for kids.

39:54

NJASL: And still there was this. I'm going to call it unconscious moment of sort of putting some shade on this title.

40:03

NJASL: So there are some specific things that school librarians can do to help their teachers kind of think about all of this.

40:11

NJASL: We can support their curriculum with materials students are going to enjoy. We can see what they're going to be teaching and find supplementals that are going to let kids either get the background knowledge they need or to expand in that area or that particular topic with other materials that they might really get into. Because class novels they can be dry.

40:31

NJASL: It can be a little bit tough to to get through, especially when you've got real

40:36

NJASL: tight constriction on how you're going to cover it, and that has to happen. Sometimes I am not saying it doesn't.

40:44

NJASL: Glass novels can are sort of a different animal. But when we're letting kids independently read, if we can provide them with independent reads that go with other things that are going on in their classes.

40:55

NJASL: We're making everybody's lives better. NJASL: We also need to think about how we can get cross disciplinary. We've been saying for years at least a decade now that we need to read across the curriculum.

41:09

NJASL: if you haven't heard those words, I don't know where you've been teaching, but I would like to be there because we always talk about reading across the curriculum. And yet

41:17

NJASL: almost all the literacy efforts are focused in the Ela classes.

41:22

NJASL: We need to think about, how can we get supporting and supplemental materials for the math classes, for the science classes, for the health classes for the social science classes, for the home, at classes, for the art classes there are fiction and nonfiction works in all of those areas that can be really engaging for students. So we've got to get cross disclaimer and not just focus on our Ela teachers only. And we've got to make those other teachers understand that

41:46

NJASL: the kids need to enjoy the reading that they're doing. In order to get better at those subjects. We need to also remind the teachers and the administrators

41:57

NJASL: that more reading leads to better test scores.

42:00

NJASL: and we all sort of unconsciously know this, but we can bring them the information and point out to them like, here's the research that shows it. When they read more they do better. So if we can get them to want to read more, they will get better.

42:16

NJASL: So we're actually improving test scores. When we give kids choice, we give kids voice when we let them choose the things that work for them.

42:25

NJASL: and NJASL: I would argue I I actually heard this from Superintendent Mike Dario, from Tuscaloosa City schools. He actually gave me these last 2 bullet points in a talk he was giving, and I absolutely love this last element. He came into a district that was in really bad shape, and one of the things they did was they changed? What metrics they were looking at? Because we're all about data, driven decisions. Right?

42:46

NJASL: So he looked at what data were we collecting. And he looked at what data were we not collecting? And one of the pieces of data that they weren't collecting is student happiness.

42:56

NJASL: How much do the students want to be here.

43:00

NJASL: Think about that. What a powerful data point.

43:04

NJASL: If kids want to be in the school, if kids want to learn if kids want to engage with their subjects, with their reading, with their teachers.

43:14

NJASL: That's a win-win for everyone.

43:17

NJASL: So we need to think about not only what research is out there. But also, what are we actually gauging?

43:26

NJASL: So maybe if it's helpful, I put together a couple of Psas. I did these a couple of years ago, when I first started to think about this literacy shaming stuff. And I put together 3 different Psas. And they are just these short Youtube videos. They're like a minute to 2 min each. And there's one about

43:43

NJASL: how we need to not

43:46

NJASL: focus overly on genres and levels. When we're talking to kids. Let them pick their genres. Let them read whatever levels they want to read at.

43:52

NJASL: There's one about adult reading expectations, how we sometimes force kids to try and read something that they're not ready for, and we are sort of undercutting their engagement when we do that. And there's one about boy books versus girl books.

44:07

NJASL: Here's a dirty secret. Books don't have genders.

44:11

NJASL: We always are comfortable giving girls books about boys, and yet we very rarely give boys books about girls.

44:19

NJASL: Why, why would we do that?

44:22

NJASL: We need to have all of the reading. We need to have all the types of main characters. So

44:28

NJASL: those are a couple of short little bits that you are more than welcome to use or to dig into. Here they are. But we're gonna skip past these because we're getting a little short on time, and I don't wanna keep people too long. But they're

44:40

NJASL: they're hopefully something that you can use as resource. So

44:45

NJASL: as we're thinking about how we can stop literacy shaming. We need to think about how we can build reading culture. And there's tons of great ideas about there about how we can build reading culture. But we want to encourage all reading.

44:58

NJASL: We want to think about picture books. I don't care if you're in kindergarten first grade. If you're in middle school, if you're in high school picture books, picture books are great, really good picture books work on multiple levels. So yes, we absolutely should have picture books in our high school libraries, in our middle school libraries. We need to think about how we can get books that are really focused for our particular audience. Middle grade books. Ya, books

45:21

NJASL: are ya readers, and maybe even some of our middle school readers. They're going to be ready for adult books. They're going to be ready for stuff that is at a higher level.

45:29

NJASL: And that's okay. We need to meet them where they're at audio books. We need to admit that audio books are books. There are lots of great studies that show listening to an audio book activates the same parts of the brain as reading text. So we need to acknowledge that we need to give students access to audio books. We need to give them graphic novels. I'm gonna talk more about graphic novels, because that's a huge hobby horse of mine. But there's all these different ways that we can encourage kids to read. And we need to try and find, get as many of them as possible into our collections, into our schools, into our classrooms.

46:00

NJASL: and we've got to think about reading as a social activity.

46:03

NJASL: It's so easy to make it individual because each person is reading the book, but when we can make it social we get them more engaged. So we need to think about how we can get read alouds going on, whether we're reading to the students or the students are reading to us, or the students are reading to other students

46:17

NJASL: out loud reading. We've got to get lots of it going on.

46:20

NJASL: maybe having contests. I heard somebody talk about having a best character. Voices contest. What an awesome idea that is

46:28

NJASL: that's going to get kids engage with the reading, and it's going to show what they're thinking about as the book is going on. That'd be a great like choice Board assignment for a class.

46:37

NJASL: Come up with the best character voice and have a contest. Book clubs. Right? We can absolutely have book clubs. They create a community with a shared experience.

46:47

NJASL: And here's a lovely idea. I really love this. You don't have to have all the kids in the book club read the same book. You could have a theme book club. You could have a genre book club. Imagine if you had a science fiction reading, I love science fiction. So that's gonna be my go to. But let's just say you've got a Science Fiction book club. All the kids read a different Science fiction book, and then you have a meeting where you come together, and they all talk about different Science Fiction books that they've liked.

47:11

NJASL: Think about what that does. All the kids in that group when one shares a title that they liked. They now all have another item on their to read list. And you do that for the whole group.

47:21

NJASL: They're encouraging each other to read. And they're building those communities. And they're finding the people who like the same kinds of things that they like

47:27

NJASL: doing. Book talks. I love to do book talks. I love to do them live. I've recorded them because there's sometimes I can't get to a class. So I try and record some. You can do them as video, you can do them as audio. There are podcasts that are literally basically just

47:43

NJASL: 20 min, half an hour. An hour of book talks about here are some awesome books. You can have students do. You can do them. You can have teachers. Do them. Imagine having your administrators book talk a book to the teachers or to the students. Right? How awesome would that be?

47:59

NJASL: Book tastings? Obviously, we want kids to try out a bunch of different stuff, especially like Blind date with a book great way to get kids to pick up something, and they might not otherwise pick up. So there's all these different ways. We can make this a social thing. And when we're doing book tastings, that is social cause they're looking at a bunch of different stuff. They have a chance to talk to each other. They have a chance to kind of talk about. Oh, I like this. I don't like that as much. So lots of different ways for them to build community with just a little bit of guidance from us.

48:25

NJASL: But we've got to make sure that we're giving them choice when we give students the choice of reading material. It gives them ownership of their learning.

48:35

NJASL: They get to take control of their learning, that increases not only their self-efficacy, but it gives them agency, it gives them a stake in their education.

48:45

NJASL: It gives them a stake in where their life is going.

48:49

NJASL: That's pretty big, especially for a lot of our middle grade and high school students. They need that handle.

48:55

NJASL: They need that ability to make some choices.

48:58

NJASL: We need to encourage our students and our teachers to let go of their preconceived notions of what a reader has to be. This is another Jarrett learner poster, and I've got this up all over my library to be a reader you do not have to read every day.

49:12

NJASL: You do not have to read quickly. You do not have to read certain books that one is one that adults get hung up on all the time. It's not true.

49:21

NJASL: You don't have to already have read certain books.

49:24

NJASL: No, you don't. NJASL: You don't have to finish every book you start

49:29

NJASL: the eyes on students when they walk in with a book, and they start reading it in the library, and then they come over to me, and they're like, you know, what? I started this, but I don't really like it, or they check it out and they bring it back the next day. I didn't really like this, and I go. No problem. Let's find you something else.

49:41

NJASL: Their eyes get huge. Wait what I can. I don't have to read this. No, no, you don't have to read it.

49:48

NJASL: So much of what we have them do in reading in school is forced is whether or not they like it is, buckle down, shut up, and get it done.

50:01

NJASL: when we can give them the opportunity to walk away. And I mean, if school libraries don't offer anything else, they should absolutely offer kids the chance to walk away from a book that they're not enjoying

50:14

NJASL: audiobooks. I mentioned this before. We've got research. Here's a couple of different ones there. Each one of those words is an underlying that's underlined as a different study about how

50:23

NJASL: readers. Brains are activated by audiobooks in ways that are nearly identical to reading text.

50:28

NJASL: We've got this great infographic here shows lots of different ways that audio books are important, and they're not great only for our reluctant readers. They are great for everybody. They're especially good for people who might have trouble with the written word. If they've got the written word in front of them, and they can listen to it.

50:46

NJASL: We are increasing their comprehension.

50:48

NJASL: So if we let them read and listen.

50:51

NJASL: they are going to get better.

50:53

NJASL: They're going to understand more. They're going to take more away. They're going to enjoy it more because they're going to understand it better.

50:59

NJASL: So we've got lots of ways we can and should be using audio books.

51:04

NJASL: Graphic novels. Okay? Again, Jarrett learner love him. Here's a couple more of his posters.

51:10

NJASL: So over on the side here, I've got an article with a huge research bibliography that backs up a lot of these facts. So comic books.

51:19

NJASL: graphic novels average 53.5 rare words per 1,000 words in the book.

51:24

NJASL: Children's books average 30.9 adult books.

51:28

NJASL: Books written for adults average 52.7 rare words per 1,000.

51:33

NJASL: Do you notice that that number is smaller than graphic novels?

51:37

NJASL: Because graphic novels come with pictures.

51:40

NJASL: They help readers understand what's going on, whether or not they get the full vocabulary. So we want them reading graphic novels. It gives them better vocab

51:50

NJASL: and graphic novels. Man, they are so much more complex than we give them credit for, because when you've got one picture and then a space, and then another picture. Your brain has to fill in what happened in between those 2 pictures.

52:03

NJASL: and when it switches from one scene to a different scene. We've got to fill in a whole lot of gaps.

52:08

NJASL: We've got to be able to fill in the words that aren't be there to describe what characters are thinking or feeling, or how they're moving. We've got to pick that up based on the context of the images, context clues incredibly important in graphic novels, incredibly important in any kind of reading.

52:26

NJASL: Graphic novels are incredibly powerful for helping readers improve.

52:32

NJASL: They also boost reading, confidence, invite inference, favour, visual learners encourage imitation, which is great, increase, comprehension. Yes, they are books.

52:43

NJASL: They are awesome books, and we want them in our kids hands. And we want our teachers to understand why we want them in our kids' hands.

52:52

NJASL: Okay? So

52:55

NJASL: we've talked about some important stuff

52:57

NJASL: we now need to come to something that's a little different, a little more difficult

53:01

NJASL: book, Banning and Literacy shame.

53:03

NJASL: So NJASL: I talked before that there were 3 different types of literacy shaming. We've talked about 2. Here's a third one purposeful literacy shaming.

53:13

NJASL: This happens in a bunch of different ways. We've got tolls.

53:16

NJASL: trolls, and toxic fandoms that make people feel bad for either liking or not liking something.

53:22

NJASL: We've got book censorship and book dance. We've got things like, don't say gay bills.

53:27

NJASL: and I want to be able to give you the same kind of solutions that I can give you for how to deal with it with students, and how to deal with it with teachers and parents.

53:35

NJASL: But this is a different ball game.

53:39

NJASL: The thing is, we often talk about libraries being neutral, and we really can't be neutral, because when we're neutral. We let one per. We generally let one person or a small group

53:50

NJASL: have their preferences. NJASL: take precedence over everybody else's interests, preferences.

53:59

NJASL: and a lot of times. NJASL: Those personal preferences

54:03

NJASL: are NJASL: put forward in a way that makes them more important than our students needs for information, and that just can't be. If we are teaching in a public school, especially

54:16

NJASL: our students' needs for information need to be more important

54:20

NJASL: than anybody's personal preferences.

54:25

NJASL: And I know that that's not super popular.

54:28

NJASL: and the thing is we often talk about well, everybody's entitled to their opinion, and saw this patent. Oswald bit that I think really captured. Why, that's not true.

54:37

NJASL: You got to respect everyone's beliefs. No, you don't. That's what gets us in trouble.

54:42

NJASL: Look, you have to acknowledge everyone's beliefs, and then you have to reserve the right to go. That is effing stupid. Are you kidding me? I acknowledge that you believe that that's great, but I'm not going to respect it. I have an uncle that believes he saw Sasquatch. We do not believe him, nor do we respect him.

54:59

NJASL: It's fine for people to have personal opinions. Those personal opinions

55:05

NJASL: do not take precedence over information, especially our students. Information needs.

55:12

NJASL: So NJASL: a lot of times these arguments come up about what we should or shouldn't

55:17

NJASL: allow kids to read, or what should or shouldn't be in a library, and the words Age appropriate come up all the time in these conversations. So I'm going to

55:25

NJASL: strongly recommend you drop age appropriate from your vocabulary, and if it's possible, take it out of any of your documentation or your reconsideration policies.

55:35

NJASL: I would recommend the phrase developmentally relevant. Instead.

55:42

NJASL: when we talk about developmental

55:45

NJASL: instead of H, NJASL: we are acknowledging the fact that we can have a room full of students who are the same age.

55:54

NJASL: who might have vastly different life experiences who might have vastly different maturity levels

56:00

NJASL: vastly different NJASL: intelligence, vastly different ways of seeing the world.

56:07

NJASL: We can't say that every kid that is at this age

56:10

NJASL: should only be seeing certain things. We've got to think about what is developmentally right for those kids, not what is age.

56:20

NJASL: right for those kids. NJASL: And we want to talk about relevance rather than appropriateness, because the word appropriate carries with it the connotation that we are going to be polite. We are going to be conservative. We are not going to talk about anything that's controversial, and it's sad. But it's true that a lot of our students have to deal with things that are not appropriate.

56:43

NJASL: They have things going on their lives that they need information about.

56:47

NJASL: And so when we say that's not age appropriate.

56:51

NJASL: how do we know that it's not right for that kid's age? And how do we know it's not appropriate for that kid.

56:57

NJASL: A lot of the things that students

56:59

NJASL: might need information about are topics that they may not be able to talk to an adult about, either because the adult is involved in the problem that they're having or they don't feel capable or comfortable, or they may not have the language to be able to talk about.

57:13

NJASL: So we need to think about what is relevant for the students, not what is appropriate.

57:20

NJASL: Those are very different things. NJASL: We know that more reading leads to better outcomes. We know that we get better reading scores. We know that we get better social, emotional health. We know that we get better sexual health and safety.

57:35

NJASL: A lot of the arguments about what should or shouldn't be in school libraries particularly focus on sexual topics.

57:42

NJASL: And here's the thing. There are studies.

57:45

NJASL: all sorts of studies and research that show us that when kids have good, accurate information

57:52

NJASL: about sexual health, they are safer.

57:55

NJASL: they are less likely to be domestically abused, they are less likely to be sexually abused, they are less likely to be sexually trafficked. They are more likely to be in a healthy relationship.

58:07

NJASL: So when we take those materials away.

58:10

NJASL: we are not preserving those kids innocence, we are setting them up to be abused. The only people who benefit when we take away materials that provide solid information to students. The only people who benefit when those get taken away are the abusers.

58:27

NJASL: So we need to think about what we can give our kids that is going to be developmentally relevant.

58:33

NJASL: and that will help them be smart, safe.

58:37

NJASL: and healthy. NJASL: and as a school library, and from New Hampshire once told me

58:42

NJASL: if they're in on a Friday night reading about it, they're not out on a Friday night doing it.

58:50

NJASL: I really like that line. NJASL: It's a really good one.

58:55

NJASL: I know that we fear book challenges.

58:58

NJASL: I fear them. You probably fear them. It leads to a lot of soft censorship, either by ourselves or by our administration. So we need to think about our book challenge and removal policies. We need to think about how we can be prepared in advance. Martha Hixon has faced more book challenges than anybody should ever have to over the course of the past several years, and she put together an amazing Lib guide that has

59:23

NJASL: all sorts of suggestions for getting prepared, both

59:26

NJASL: in advance and for dealing with challenges. If they come up, and one of her main tips is, treat it like fire drills. You do them when they're not necessary, so that you're ready when you do need them.

59:37

NJASL: So she's got lots of great tips and suggestions here, and jays will put together a handbook of information and materials, and we've got a sample book challenge and removal policy that you are more than welcome to use. Adapt. However, you see fit.

59:53

NJASL: It's up to educators and parents to fight for the reading rights of our students.

59:59

NJASL: So we need to make sure that we are helping our students. Be smart, be safe, be happy and be engaged, and be curious and want to be lifelong readers and lifelong learners.

1:00:15

NJASL: If you don't know about the freedom fighters in Texas absolutely check them out. Amazing organization. They've been doing amazing work in Texas, and

1:00:22

NJASL: lots of the things that they do can be applied in other places as well.

1:00:26

NJASL: If you haven't checked out, we need diverse books, you absolutely need to check them out, too. Ellen left Ellen. O. Middle grades. Author gave an amazing presentation at school, library journals, leadership Summit a couple of years ago, and she was talking about how

1:00:42

NJASL: her her own

1:00:45

NJASL: child had some incredibly difficult times, because they were not. They didn't fit in with the other kids, and they were feeling very

1:00:56

NJASL: very othered and very separated, and it led to a suicide attempt. And that's

1:01:04

NJASL: where a lot of our students unfortunately

1:01:06

NJASL: end up way more than we should. These statistics from the Cdc are scary

1:01:13

NJASL: when we look at lesbian, gay, bisexual Us. High school students were more likely to report a suicide attempt during the last year from 2,019.

1:01:20

NJASL: If they are, that's being gared bisexual. 23% more likely to report a suicide attempt

1:01:25

NJASL: than our heterosexual, heterosexual students.

1:01:28

NJASL: So we need to think about how we can help keep them safe.

1:01:32

NJASL: Suicide, risk among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults varies considerably, depending on the intersection between sexual identity and other aspects of identity, such as gender age and race and race and ethnicity.

1:01:43

NJASL: And there's a study on this which is telling us that we need to make sure that our students are being empathetic, and they can do that by reading about these situations, we need to make sure they're seeing themselves in the reading. We need to make sure that they are seeing what other people go through in the reading. We need them to step through those sliding glass doors and experience other people's lives as well, and we need to make sure we're getting good representation out there.

1:02:06

NJASL: Representation matters. I saw this a while ago, and I promise I'm almost done, but this one always makes me tear up a little bit.

1:02:14

NJASL: So this was a post online and it says, I was a I work at a bookstore, and a few weeks ago a little black boy came in wearing a spider-man shirt.

1:02:23

NJASL: I asked him who his favorite spider-man was.

1:02:25

NJASL: he replied Peter Parker. Now, if you don't know comics. Peter Parker has been Spiderman since Spiderman was created.

1:02:31

NJASL: but NJASL: I told him the writer says I told him my favorite spider man was miles. He didn't know who Miles was, so I took him to see the cover of a book with Miles on. Now Miles Morale is is one of the newer spider men. They've got a couple of different ones now. So I watched a look of confusion come over his face. He looked up at me and said, but

1:02:50

NJASL: Miles is black. I said, Yeah, Spiderman is black in those comics.

1:02:55

NJASL: His eyes got big and he grabbed the comics from my hand before running off. You're like Mom, Mom Spiderman looks like me. Spider Man looks like me.

1:03:09

NJASL: I don't know how you can NJASL: read about a situation like that. See? A situation like that.

1:03:15

NJASL: and not understand how important it is

1:03:19

NJASL: for our readers to see themselves in what they read.

1:03:25

NJASL: If we don't let all our kids see themselves as heroes. We don't let all our kids see themselves as the adventurers, as the main characters. Then we're telling them

1:03:37

NJASL: that they can't be those things that they're not seen that way, that they're not supposed to be seen that way.

1:03:44

NJASL: We need them to see themselves in the books that they pick up.

1:03:51

NJASL: Okay. NJASL: couple of more resources here, couple of things that I've written about and or said about literacy shaming. You are more than welcome to check them out. There's a couple of additional things here and there and there that might resonate that you might be able to use, or you can absolutely share them with other folks, and these are the slightly larger versions of the Jared Learner posts that I had earlier in the presentation with a link to his website because he is awesome. He is such an awesome

1:04:16

NJASL: author, and he's such an awesome ally of school librarians and educators. He's such a literacy booster. I hope you'll check him out.

1:04:23

NJASL: So NJASL: if you've got questions you are more than welcome to reach out. I love talking people about this about any kind of school library stuff. You can find me on socials. Dr. Tlo's books, you can email me.

1:04:36

NJASL: I write for knowledge quest, I've started writing about Literacy shaming in knowledge quest. That's where I began this journey.

1:04:43

NJASL: There's all sorts of different resources. Hopefully, they are useful to you again. The slides are here, so you're more than welcome to use them. Whatever works for you please use it. Help to end that literacy, Shane that's going on. Let's encourage our kids to want to read. Let's reignite their love of reading.

1:05:00

NJASL: Thanks. Everybody. KIM MALLOY-CHAPMAN: Thank you.

1:05:03

KIM MALLOY-CHAPMAN: Huh! KIM MALLOY-CHAPMAN: That was good, Steve.