Where Do You Start with Text Selection?

KIMBERLY N. PARKER: When teachers are thinking about where do you start or book selection, you always start with your kids. Who is in front of you, and what do they need? And also I think about a couple of things. Looking at your entire curriculum, either what you've chosen or what is prescribed, what's the story that it tells? Whose values are communicated to kids, either explicitly or not, like the hidden curriculum? What's missing, and what do kids-- again, what do they need?

Young people are always communicating with each other. Sometimes we don't necessarily love it. They always have something to say. And so it starts with a deep respect and value for who they are. So I would ask them. If you ask them, they're going to tell you the truth, so get ready.

And to ask them like what books that they're reading currently do they enjoy. What I think we know a lot about kids is that they're not necessarily reading the books. They're reading Spark Notes, they're reading other sort of aids, but they're not reading the books. Do we want to raise a really great crew of Spark Notes readers, or again, do we want to raise and support kids who really love reading?

Once the kids tell us what they think of their current text, what they miss, who are they as readers? What are their lives outside of our classrooms? How do we bring those worlds in? And I feel like asking that question, particularly of the kids who we think are the most engaged, will lead us to think about the text.

And I think we too need to have a really broad definition of text, so it's not just the book. Could be a podcast. It Could be poetry. It could be other genres.

How do we then think about like, oh, this is what the kids are telling me, of course, these are what the standards say, how do we bring them together? And then how do we give them time every single day to read those books that they want?

So how do you create sort of a holistic, thoughtful library or thinking about your text selection? I think it's a process. First, you have to think about why are you doing it. Are you doing it just because everyone says it's the time, it's the time, it's the time, or are you really thinking about it because you really want to fundamentally change your practice? The texts are the texts, for sure, and they're all sort of bound by the social climate in which we live, even when they are-- even the classics are also bound by those things.