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58 Knowledge Quest | Power to the Pupil: Student Agency in the School Library

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Grace M. Jackson-Brown [email protected]

In this article I share my story of involvement in a national literacy initiative known as the African American Read-In (A A RI) in a major city of the “Show-Me State,” Springfield, Missouri, population 164,122 (according to a 2013 census). The article highlights successes that public school librarians and university librarians are experiencing as we work together to promote diversity and reading through a community- wide effort. Our collaborative efforts may inspire other educators to learn more about the A A RI and to become involved.

About A A RI

The A A RI was founded in 1990 by Dr. Jerrie Cobb Scott, a long-time active member of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the Black Caucus of the NCTE. Dr. Scott is

now a retired professor of urban literacy and former director of the Reading Center at the University of Memphis. It was her vision to make the promotion of reading books written by African American authors an integral part of Black History Month. For the last twenty- seven years the A A RI has been a national event during the month of February to correspond with Black History Month. A A RI is sponsored nationally by the NCTE <w w w.ncte. org/aari> and is hosted by the Black Caucus of the NCTE.

The A A RI records the number of sites and level of individual participation through “report cards” that are sent to the national headquarters. Records show that individual participants “in recent years [topped] 200,000” (Aronson 2014, 17). Reports have come from forty-seven U.S. states and inter- nationally from the West Indies, Ghana, Germany, and Australia. An investigation of the number of indi- viduals participating in the A A RI in the state of Missouri for the period from 2009 to 2011 found that nearly 30,000 individuals took part in A A RI programs, and the majority were from public school sites ( Jackson-Brown 2011).

For the last nearly ten years I have served as chairperson of a

community-wide A A RI in Spring- field, Missouri, while serving as an academic librarian at Missouri State University. I’ve partnered with K–12 librarians and other academic librarians, in both public schools and universities, working together for two common goals: to promote African American authors/literature and to help build a community of readers. In fact, the Springfield A A RI is a collaborative partnership of five organizations:

• Missouri State University Libraries

• Springfield Public Schools

• Springfield-Greene County Public Library District

• Drury University

• NA ACP Springfield Chapter

The state-legislated mission of Missouri State University (MSU) is to educate students to be “global citizen scholars committed to public affairs” (MSU 2016). A compre- hensive undergraduate university, MSU also provides some graduate programs. Its focus on public affairs is exemplified by education using three pillar conceptual themes: community engagement, cultural competence, and ethical leadership. My involvement in the

Our collaborative

efforts may inspire other

educators to learn more

about the A ARI and

to become involved.

59Volume 45, No. 4 | March/April 2017

All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement

granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.

A A RI community literacy project as an associate professor of library science at MSU is a part of my engaged public scholarship, which aligns with my role as an informa- tion literacy educator. The benefits of K–16 collaborations have been outlined by Ellysa Stern Cahoy and Lesley Moyo in a chapter of a book about academic library outreach that specifically focuses on K–16, and they stated:

K–16 (K–12 and undergradu- ate education) collaboration is an educational initiative that has grown as a result of renewed higher education outreach efforts of the last ten to fifteen years. It is a collaborative effort among K–16 educators and the community to ensure that students have the academic preparation and support that they need to succeed in college. Collaborating to better understand and develop students’ information literacy skills is integral to impacting student academic success. Academic libraries are actively participating in this outreach model, increasingly reaching out and partnering with school and public librarians to improve and support students’ information literacy skills across the K–16 spectrum. (2009, 21)

Examples of Collaborations

Here are several project scenarios that involved university collabora- tion with school librarians and public schools. A ll of the projects to be highlighted incorporate the NCTE teaching philosophy to build teaching/learning environments that encourage students to “Read/ Write/Think.”

Two major authors Patricia C. McKissack and Shane W. Evans have participated in Springfield A A RI

programs through a relationship that the A A RI organizers developed with organizers of a parallel event, the Children’s Literature Festival of the Ozarks. The pairing is natural; most of the festival organizers are retired and active school librarians. The festival is an annual day-long event where children interact with authors who read from their books. The day after the festival in 2009 Patricia C. McKissack and in 2011 Shane W. Evans gave workshops for the A A RI youth audiences. These workshops were held in venues separate from the Children’s Literature Festival of the Ozarks and were free and open to interested groups of the general public. The expenses of travel, hotel accommodations, and speaking fees were shared by the two sponsoring groups, reducing the burden on A A RI, which has a modest budget.

A A RI covered expenses related to the author workshops. In addition, the workshops presented by author and illustrator Shane W. Evans received a funding grant from the Missouri Humanities Council (MHC) in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Humanities. The MHC grant was awarded to the NA ACP Springfield Chapter and several institutional partners of the A A RI, including the MSU Libraries, to support two workshops with the theme “Dream BIG.” In the workshops, Shane Evans presented information about his book Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom (Roaring Brook 2011) that had received a Coretta Scott King Book Award in 2012. His inspirtional and interactive presenta- tion inspired children and young people to follow their dreams. He also shared stories about his extensive travels and visits with people in countries in West Africa and in Japan.

The A A RI workshop that featured multi-award-winning author Patricia C. McKissack was a teaching workshop titled “Finding Your Own Voice” developed for middle school and high school students. This half-day workshop brought participants to an MSU lecture auditorium where they received instruction on writing short stories from this master teacher and author. Students were given the opportu- nity to write their own short stories during the workshop with the option of receiving feedback. Discussions centered on how a writer finds his or her own voice in writing fiction or nonfiction, and on techniques writers use to develop and project their own unique voices.

In another example of collabora- tion, in 2014 the Springfield A A RI arranged a virtual visit between a selected group of students from one local high school and U.S. Con- gressman John Lewis, who is coauthor of the graphic novel March trilogy that, in part, covers his experiences as a young person in the Civil Rights Movement.

60 Knowledge Quest | Power to the Pupil: Student Agency in the School Library

All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement

granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.

The A A RI provided free copies of March: B ook One to the participating high school students. A formal book discussion during a study hall was conducted with the students. In cul- mination, a small panel was selected from among the students; panel members developed questions to ask Congressman Lewis during a Skype forum. In a follow-up discussion, students expressed appreciation for the opportunity to speak with and learn from someone who was deeply involved in a student movement that helped to usher in major civil rights changes that resonate with the current generation of high school students. Research in the scholarly literature has found that African American students often have a special reader appreciation and gain greater self-esteem by reading about characters who “look like them” or with whom they can identify culturally (Mestre 2009; Blas 2014).

A final collaboration example involves the planning process for the events of the February 2017 Springfield A A RI. Planning for the annual A A RI event starts the previous August—or even earlier. The steering committee is made up of a representative from each of the five partnering organizations. For 2017 the committee decided to adopt their upcoming theme based

on an inscription from promo- tional materials provided on

the NCTE/A A RI website. The inscription on the

postcard template in the Read-In Toolkit states, “It is important for all of us to see ourselves in books” (NCTE 2016).

As I write this in October 2016, the Springfield A A RI steering committee for the 2017 event has plans to work with one of the local middle

schools with a newly remodeled school library containing a makerspace area where students can create posters or other media using the event theme. Among the ideas generated have been student-created posters featuring African American characters from novels that the students admire. Real African American persons who represent heroism or other admirable traits and are featured in nonfiction works may also be used in publicity for the 2017 A A RI event. The middle school students involved will be asked to write poems or brief book talks to accompany their posters and other works selected for presentation during an A A RI program.

As an academic librarian, associate professor, and chairperson of the A A RI in Springfield, I developed relationships with local area school librarians at all levels (elementary, middle, and high school); these relationships have helped to lay a

foundation for working together. Since 2008 the Springfield African American Read-In programs have also established embryonic relation- ships between other librarians in the area, relationships that could be further developed into strategic Pre-K–16 literacy partnerships. If your school district doesn’t already participate in A A RI events, I strongly recommend reaching out to school, public, and academic librarians in your geographic area to organize 2018 events and start building bridges between your libraries.

Grace Jackson-

Brown, PhD, is an

associate professor

with the Missouri State

University (MSU)

Libraries, Research and Instructional Services

Unit. She is chair of the Spring field African

American Read-In, a community-wide literacy

project made up of five organizations, among

them Missouri State University Libraries

and Spring field Public Schools. She teaches

for-credit information literacy courses for

MSU. She has taught librar y science courses

as part of a cooperative agreement between

MSU and University of Missouri-Columbia,

including Reference and Information Resources.

Between 2013 and 2015 she served on the

A ASL/ACRL Interdivisional Committee on

Information Literacy.

Works Cited: Aronson, Deb. 2014. “The African

American Read-In Marks 25 Years by Looking Forward.” Council Chronicle 24 (2): 17–18.

Blas, Elise A. 2014. “Information Literacy in the 21st Century Multicultural Classroom: Using Sociocultural Literacy.” Education Libraries 37 (1–2): 33–41.

Cahoy, Ellysa Stern, and Lesley Moyo. 2009. “K–16 Outreach: Creating Connections That Matter.” In Academic Librar y Outreach: Beyond the Campus Walls, edited by Nancy Courtney, 21–30. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Jackson-Brown, Grace. 2011. “Promoting Diversity and Literacy, African American Read-In Programs in Missouri Libraries.” Presentation at 2011 Missouri Library Association Conference, October 6. Kansas City, MO.

Mestre, Lori. 2009. “Culturally Responsive Instruction for Teacher-Librarians.” Teacher Librarian 36 (3): 8–12.

Missouri State University. 2016. “Mission, Vision and Values.” <www.missouristate.edu/about/ missionstatement.htm> (accessed December 14, 2016).

National Council of Teachers of English. 2016. “African American Read-In Toolkit.” <www.ncte.org/ aari/toolkit> (accessed October 17, 2016).

61Volume 45, No. 4 | March/April 2017

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granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.

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