Finding Agency in Choice Reading
Giving students choice in what they read and study gives them agency when other options are limited
Welcome to From the Teacher’s Desk, where we take turns further reflecting on our episodes and applications to the classroom.
When Alicia and I first started discussing an episode over the film adaptation of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, we knew it would be the ideal opportunity for us to finally talk about censorship and book bans.
As both teachers and parents, we recognize the tension between intellectual freedom and what our children are exposed to in the world at large. It is an issue without easy answers and solutions.
A Teaching Reality
Books have always been challenged. When I taught Huck Finn, I made sure to discuss with my students the reasons why the book was challenged or banned from libraries and schools, starting immediately after publication. Initial reasons had nothing to do with the racist language and everything to do with the portrayal of a “bad boy” and the mockery of religion. As times have changed, so too have the reasons why parents and citizens do not want children to read the classic text.
For nearly every English teacher and librarian holding a book in their hands, it is not a question of if but when. We live in a pluralistic society in a nation that has the freedom of the press. Texts that offend are always being published, and individuals and groups are always finding things that will offend them. This goes for everyone. I may support a person’s constitutional right to create art of any kind, but that doesn’t mean that I personally haven’t been offended by the final product. In fact, sometimes that is the very goal of the artist.
Changing the Conversation
As educators, our job is to prepare the next generation of citizens. That is why I often feel it is necessary to nudge my students outside of their comfort zone, to expose them to ideas and perspectives that encourage them to think and defend the positions that they hold dear. Sometimes that even includes introducing my students to ideas with which I don’t necessarily agree.
And this can make everyone uncomfortable: teachers, students, and parents. The goal should never be pushing the envelope; the goal should be growth. As teachers, we should know our audience. We should have a reason for everything we put in front of our students. And we should be willing to listen when students and parents have concerns.
That doesn’t mean caving to pressure when you feel that a text is in the best interest of your students, but it does mean open communication. Parents and even students will object for reasons we expect and some that are unforeseen. And while it is frustrating to feel like our expertise is being questioned, it’s more important to listen to concerns and come to the table with options and suggestions.
This is how we model open, honest communication for our students and their families.
Give Students Options
It is one of the first issues brought up in English education courses: what do you do if a book you are teaching gets challenged? Our instructors and cooperating teachers give us ideas and strategies, but nothing will perfectly protect you from that first challenge.
As someone who has taught many different English courses throughout my career, I have learned that choice reading often helps me head off some (but not all) concerns. I’ve orchestrated literary circles where students selected a book from a short list of books I have read and vetted. I did it with classic literature in my AP Literature course and with memoirs in both Pre-AP and American Literature. I’ve given students the freedom to pick a book from a broad theme, which I currently do with my Monsters and Monstrous themes course.
Giving my students a choice has put the ball in their court. Communicating those expectations with their parents puts the ball into a bigger court. And it has opened opportunities for me to put books in the hands of students who desperately need to see themselves in what they are reading.
None of us have perfect solutions for giving students the freedom to read diverse voices, but we can figure out a way to creatively work with students and their parents to keep doors open.
Additional resources
The website diversebooks.org offers suggestions for diverse YA books and ways to financially support the development of more diverse offerings for youth.
The International Literacy Association offers research about choice reading and suggested lists depending on your needs.
Additional choice reading lists can be found at YALSA, a division of the American Library Association.
If you can’t find anything above, this website focuses on reading lists broken up by age, starting with kindergarten and offering options through high school.
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