Page 11 - 2017 Reading Summit Guidebook

ReaderLeader Blog
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Reasons Why You Should Follow the Reader Leader Blog
Glean insight on access, choice, and motivation from prominent names in education like teacher/author Donalyn Miller and librarian leader John Schumacher.
Read great information from teachers and authors about promoting reading in your schools.
See the latest announcements from Scholastic Book Fairs® about events happening around the country.
Follow up-to-date social media conversations from your favorite book lovers about reading and all things happening in the literary world.
Access booktalk videos to help you “be in the know” about the latest books for your students and how to get them excited about reading!
Sign up to follow the blog at scholastic.com/bookfairs/readerleader.
Windows and Mirrors: Why We Need Diverse Books
by Chad Everett
I was an undergraduate student the rst time it happened. One of my professors shared the following line from W.E.B. Dubois’ The Souls of Black Folk: “One ever feels his twoness, — an American, a Negro;
two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” I was rocked. As I read and re-read the quote, I felt
as though layers of myself were being peeled away. This was the rst time in all my years of education that an instructor presented me
with a piece of text that showed me myself, a mirror. Not a mirror that provides surface level re ection, but a mirror that revealed the innermost thoughts that not even I could fully comprehend.
By mirror, I mean a text in which I saw a re ection of my identity and experiences. Sure, I sat in classrooms where we engaged in the obligatory Black History Month readings of African-American
authors, but never before had an instructor presented one of those texts in a manner that was meant to empower and enlighten.
Read more at:
scholastic.com/bookfairs/readerleader/windows-and-mirrors-why-we-need-diverse-books
READER LEADER BLOG 9