Re: [LM_NET] African American Students

[Shonda Brisco <sbrisco@GMAIL.COM>]

A few years ago, I worked with one of our teachers to implement
library programming to meet the needs of our African American
students.  Although we did not have many African American students
enrolled (and she was the only African American teacher on our staff),
I felt that there was a need to include this population in many of the
activities and programs we offered.  She became very excited about the
idea of developing a program and we began working together to build
the collection to reflect the diversity in our population. I began
ordering books to build our collection in areas of biographies,
science, history, and fiction.  I also made sure to include videos
that covered topics of interest to the students and the special
curriculum that we were developing.

We expanded this collaboration into elaborate celebrations of Kwanzaa,
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Day, and Black History month.  We worked
together on writing a play to celebrate great African American writers
(we even created a huge book for the stage and each student "walked
through the pages" to tell about his / her life and the books
written).  Everyone loved this program because it included so many
students and so many unique individuals throughout history.

She introduced me to various members of the community who were
storytellers, singers, dancers, and poets.  We invited them to make
presentations throughout the year (they volunteered, so it was a
fabulous way to introduce the arts and the culture into our library
program).  One year the faculty was asked to learn about the different
"fashions" of the African American culture (we were doing a "fashion
show" for Black History month) and when one of the models became ill
just before the event, I was the "substitute model."  I LOVED the
clothes...and the Dashiki was just TOO awesome!!  (She told me that
with a name like 'Shonda', I was a "natural" for the show!!) *grin*

After I left, she emailed me to tell me that the next librarian was
not as receptive to her ideas and didn't want to expand on the program
that we had started.  I was saddened by those comments because we had
a great time ---and I think ALL of the students and the teachers
enjoyed learning more through the library's program.

I would suggest finding someone on your staff who is also interested
and begin working together to build a program.  Be sure to include the
students in the project, as they will be your best guides to what is
interesting to them.

Good luck!

~Shonda


-- 
Shonda Brisco, MLIS
Library Media / Technology Specialist
Digital Bookends wiki / blog:
http://digitalbookends.pbwiki.com
http://shonda.edublogs.org/
sbrisco@gmail.com

"Digital Resources" columnist
School Library Journal

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