Many teachers I talk to are amazed to find that every single student on our campus: the cutest little honor students, the snottiest 8th graders, struggling readres and Special Education student alike, all are provided with the same access to scheduling, curricuclum and my care and attention. This inclusive approach, frankly, is not negotiable. 

Here are some opening thoughts I had while researching this topic. Universal Design seems so obvious, yet every time I present this information in a professional setting, someone agrees with me that full inclusion for every student is still a work in progress. 

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Library Media Programs for Deaf Students is an action research paper I presented in 2007 that looks at how school libraries can be made accessible to a range of learners; this study focused primarily on deaf students and struggling readers. Contains a thorough Literature Review that focuses on specific learning needs of deaf students, and evaluates the use of Universal Design in my own library program. 

In Universal Design for School Libraries, I identified nine elements of Universal Design that were in practice in my library. Combining teacher observations, patron interviews, and personal experience, I provide specific elements any Librarian can incorporate to improve access at her school.

I believe this idea becomes even more essential when discussing school factors that affect student success. When considering the fact that a free and appropriate education is a basic right in our society, and the reality that college is no longer optional in becoming economically successful, creating a system that everyone can access seems essential. This idea encompasses many school factors that are directly tied to student success: curriculum, instruction, the use of school space and resources, as well as classroom environment.

“Universal Design for Instruction” (an excellent article I read on the subject: cited at the end of post) provides two important points of reference as teachers and librarians approach the task of defining curriculum and planning instruction that meets the needs of our students. The authors first demonstrate a new reality of education: populations of non-traditional learners, specifically students with disabilities and students considered at risk, are becoming standard participants in the education system. The statistics given focus on trends that stared in the 1990s, and that have been continuing ever since.

Since a range of different learners is increasingly accessing education, the way educators approach planning and instruction needs to adjust accordingly. This absolutely continues to apply in the K-12 setting; while Scott, McGuire and Shaw give us K-12 teachers credit for accommodating students much better than in college, my experience indicates that most of these efforts still fall into area of small-scale, personal accommodations, not fundamental shifts in thinking. A few Special Ed kids are given cursory accommodations, while large numbers of students still fail to find success. They point out that this method of “multiple separate solutions” is not effective when considering the wide range of learners that are looking for an education.

As stated by the authors, the goal of their research was to evaluate the application of Universal Design to a college instructional setting. Again, the results can be effectively generalized to the K-12 setting. The authors began their task by using the seven principals of Universal Design developed by The Center For Universal Design in 1997. The process focused largely on an extensive review of the literature, they then utilized interviews with colleagues and their own personal experience to refine these general principals for use in an educational setting. They were able to define nine principals for Universal Design specifically aimed at education, and tested these principals in context through a case study.

The case study tracked a college level Biology professor as she re-designed her curriculum to fit Universal Design principles. The comparisons were focused on how she planned instruction at the beginning of her career, 7 years prior, and how through her interactions with a wide variety of students and faculty began to see a need for Universal Design. Her current instruction was evaluated using the nine principles as a rubric; aligning elements of her class with these principles indicated she had achieved a high level of Universal Design without compromising her academic standards.

At our school, we have over 100 identified Special Education students, representing a varied range of learning issues and needs. Most of our students are still working to become proficient readers; over half of our students scored Basic or below as assessed on the 2006-07 STAR test. Despite at least three years of focused reform across the content areas, our students do worse and worse each year. Obviously, our curriculum and instruction is not meeting the needs of our student population.

Since the Library collaborates in all content areas, as serves every single student at this school, the Library can be used as a starting point for changing the approach for the entire campus. A universally designed Library program seems an obvious asset when approaching planning for such a diverse crowd. A Library employing these principles would also demonstrate the effectiveness of such a method for the learners at our school.

Article Cited

Scott, Sally S., McGuire, Joan M., Shaw, Stan F. (2003) “Universal Design for Instruction. Remedial & Special Education, vol. 24, issue 6.

“ My Teacher doesn’t like me. That’s why she gave me a D.”

“Middle school is TOO HARD. I can’t do it.”

” All the (books, teachers, kids, whatever) here are dumb. I liked my old school better.”

Well, ladies and gentlemen, this year I have a solution for you. Success in Middle School: a Transition Road Map by Carol Carter (LifeBound Books) is a great book to guide kids through the terrifying, tumultuous path know as grades 6-8.

This book was sent to me by the publisher for review, and I have to say I was highly impressed. Success in Middle School takes the mystery out of this transition by explaining what to expect in plain English.  The author goes over logistical basics, like schedules, teacher expectations, and organizing all those notes, and explains social issues (there is nothing on the planet more complicated or traumatic than friendship dynamics at this age). She also goes over important aspects of maturing into a scholar, like taking risks, looking for talents, and taking responsibility for yourself in a way that is accessible to these already overwhelmed kids. The book is woven through with personal narratives from kids who have survived middle school (particularly valuable because, of course, none of us grown ups understand).

I’ll be adding this book to our school library, and will be encouraging students to take a look. Ideas on how to work with that teacher? Covered: chapter 2. How can you make friends? Got it: chapter 3. Is throwing that water balloon at lunch really such a great idea? Chapter 8–that’s the one on taking appropriate risks.

Other LifeBound resources for kids about managing school, being a scholar, and growing up:

Gifts and Talents for Teenagers: Discovering Your Unique Strengths by Carol Carter

People Smarts for Teenagers: Becoming Emotionally Intelligent by Carol Carter

This is the third time we’ve done this event, each time more successful than the last. I based the idea off my previous school’s “Read-a-thon, but  we adjusted a ew tings. First, I wanted a collaborative, but not personally competitive event. Nothings adder than being the kid who lost at reading; every reader contributes something to our collective goal. This makes it a much lower-risk event for students try out. 

During the event I make sure the kids are as focused as possible by serving only healthy snacks and a family style dinner. No junk food allowed (until the after party!)  I know it’s super attractive to kids to sip a coke and munch doritos, but we’re not helping anyone concentrate this way. Our PTA brings apples, bananas and grapes, several moms make a huge pile of PB&J, and I have out little cups of my signature  ”brain food” trail mix. We set out huge trays on each table, and  kids can graze while they’re reading. 

We’ll have prizes, donated by teachers ro gathered here and ther during the year (great way to recycle appreciated, but not useful holiday presents–don’t worry, no one will ever know!). At the end of out time we ring a gong and cheer and have cake. . .and enjoy our success together!

Extreme Read Challenge 2009

Have an Extreme Read Challenge at your school 

It may look like a huge event, but it only takes a few people and lots pf peanut butter & jelly  to pull this off. If you can get a couple of PTA parents and one or two teachers, you’re in business. This is a great way to promote literacy as well as your library program (because where else are they going to get all those books to keep them busy for 4 hours!). Invite guests, take pictures, call your local newspapaer. 

We’re looking for sometime to challenge to a “Read-off next year. We can post “team profiles,” set up a webcam to watch each other’s event. . .could be a blast!

Prevention, Prevention, Prevention.  Aside from doing an extensive library introduction, and demonstrating the calamities that can befall books with the Library Cart of Horror (it’s a hit right before Halloween!), I make a big produciton of calling parents at the beginning of the school year if students start to forget their library books. I usually only have to do this once or twice , and the rest of the class tows the line for several weeks. But even the best laid plans. . .

Free Gifts! Seriously. I know some librarians are cringing as they read this, but  have run “Free gifts with any over due book” offers, and for the most part they are successful. This is especially good right at the beginning of the school year, when you’re aiming to get back  books from last year. The gift is usually  a pencil or sticker, but they’ll still go for it every time. 

Bookfair Bargains. I let selected kids buy a gift book for the library during the booksfair, and trade for the one they lost. This is my way of trading an old copy of something boring like “The Giver” (we have a million copies, anyway)  for the latest Naruto or an extra Twilight. 

End of Year Events. I tell kids I will keep them out of the big End of Year events if they owe me books. This works great for 99% of the the students. I have to wheel a shopping cart around campus to collect them all. 

Two for One. I will sometimes make deals with kids about their old fines, or fines I know are probably not for new, good condition books anyway. They return the brand new copy of  Tears of a Tiger, I’ll clear that paperback Goosebumps from two years ago. Lost a Bart Simpson comic that was on its last leg anyway? “I’ll give you a special deal– half price!” They think they’re getting a sweet deal while still being at least partially responsible, and I get to clear my fines. Win-win. 

About our library circulation policy: Plenty of librarians will not allow a child to check out a new book until they bring back the old ones, but when a whole class of 8th graders happily informed me during my first year “Oh, we owe fines, we can’t get books,” then proceed to talk and play the rest of the class period, I knew this was not going to work out.

It is our position that part of middle school is learning how to be responsible scholar, and that includes library use. I have told kids, “Library is no more a privilege than Math homework is a privilege. You will be a responsible library user, even if I have to call parents and assign detention to get you to do it.” We have one of the highest circulations in the district, and lot of overdues, but after all is said and done, we don’t see any greater losses compared to the other libraries in our district.

But this time of year always brings up waves of deep emotional  inquest for me. It’s not too surprising, when you think about it; you’ve been through the hardest part of the year, pulling day after day of meaningful learning out of 900 unwilling children, desperately applying booktape to everything (Please let this last copy of Naruto last for one more check out!)  and scrapping for pennies to keep the library eking along. Blood out of stones, people; I’m telling you.

But while all these immediate issues keep you hopping along at quite a clip, you also being to realize that the year is wrapping up: your window to improve, create and implement the perfect library program that you so brilliantly envisioned is pretty  much closed. Testing is imminent, discussions pop up about end of year activities and teaching assignments for next year, and kids begin to show up in their summer clothes (translation: uniforms are out the window).

This presents an entirely different set of thoughts to sort out, and these questions are much more personal and frankly, a little difficult. The thoughts sneak in, “Did I really do my best job teaching this year? Could I have put in better effort, taught more focused lessons, provided more collaboration? Do I make any difference at all? Is this credentialed Information Specialist really as valuable as she likes tell everyone she is?”

Well, the answer I’ve arrived at is “who knows.” When I taught English these same questions came up, but with the acceptance that you are dealing with way too many variables to determine if it’s you or not. You teach the best you can, adjust the best you can, and send ‘em off to seventh grade, crossing your fingers that they arrive at their new teacher’s class a little smarter that the first day of your class. You don’t beat yourself up over “should haves,” you just chalk it up to “will dos”  for the next school year.

Maybe all librarians have trouble living up to their own high standards (or maybe it’s just me–completely possible). Maybe it’s because we plan and implement our own instruction; there’s no department head or curriculum guide to turn to. Maybe we feel the need to be so productive because we cost so damn much (not to mention the money that, if we’re any good at advocacy, gets spent on our libraries). Or maybe it’s because we sometimes feel like libraries are the last best hope for balanced literacy in public schools, but there’s a pretty high level of performance expected–realistically or not, self-imposed or not, I think now’s a good time to give myself a break.

Repeat after me, Crazy Expectation Teachers everywhere– “you are a competent teacher and a asset to your school. Expecting perfection is not going to work out so well.  Just keep doing your best.”

Here are a few Power Point Presentations I use to review content with students. While I’m the first to advocate for pulling away from the high-stakes testing universe, as long as we have to do it we might as well use well-designed tools. 

Use this presentation to review basic subjects, predicates, fragments and run-ons. Reviewing Complete Sentences

Use this presentation to review the four types of sentences. Reviewing Types of Sentences

The White Gates by Bonnie Ramthun. This was a wonderful novel that I think will hit our “top ten” list in no time. When Tor moves to Colorado with his mom (she’s divorced, and a new doctor) he immediately figures out that to fit in here, you’ve got to snowboard. In between lessons, he and a friend discover a Native American curse, a rare river otter, and uncover a plot to illegally enhance the school’s snowboard team’s performance. Tons of snowy-surfy action as Tor snowboards his way through the book. Well written, great characters, lots of fun!

Lockdown by Diane Tullson (Orca Soundings Series). This is the story of Josh, a boy who is bullied and teased, then tragically brings a gun to his school. The story is told by Adam, a student who gets stranded in the hallways when the school is under emergency “lockdown.” As he and a friend hide, they talk about what drove Jost to this act.

This is a rather mature subject, but it is dealt with very tactfully and compassionately. All of our kids have heard about this kind of thing happening, and I feel that Lockdown tells a needed story about how tragic this whole situation really is. There is some death, but nothing overly graphic or too unsettling.

Death by Latte by Linda Gerber. This is the eagerly awaited sequel to Death by Bikini (there’s a sizable waiting list already). Aphra is somewhat of a reluctant spy: her parents are long time CIA operatives and when things go wrong, she always gets swept up in the action. In the book, her boyfriend, Seth’s, father has been kidnapped, and the demands are for a special ring Aphra was given as a gift. As the plot unfolds, plane crashes, parental drama, and secret messages line the path to rescuing Seth’s dad, only to discover perhaps he wasn’t really “kidnapped” in the first place. This is a very fun read with a great narrative voice. Definitely a high-interest series!

Project Sweet Life by Brent Hartinger. Dave is 16, and his parents decide it’s time for him to have a summer job. Dave and his friends concoct Project “Sweet Life,” a plan to make money while only pretending to work. This involves a range of schemes: combing garage sales for antiques, entering contests, and solving crimes for reward money. They discover that fake-working is much harder than working at McDonald’s ever would be. Good life lesson for kids: nothing comes for free, there’s hard work involved if you want to be successful. Funny narrative voice and lots of  silly scheming makes this book a good selection for middle school.

Between Mom and Jo by Julie Ann Peters. This story may be too controversial for some libraries, but I think this is an important point of view to represent.  

Nick has two moms. He is the natural child of one parent, raised by her and her partner, Jo. Like any family, there are problems. Jo has had trouble keeping a job, and has turned to drinking. She does not always make the best parenting decisions. When the family splits up, Nick finds himself in the middle of a painful custody dispute, and experiences depression as he loses one of his moms.

Nick sums it up well when he declares “I don’t care what people think, I love my moms.” Gay marriage is  hotly debated issue right now, and coming form Long Beach, many of my kids know someone (are are someone) who comes from a non-traditional family. What this book does well is it illustrates that all families, whether traditional or not, have problems to work out, and that love between a parent and a child is no less powerful when the bond is not biological. Other issues worth discussing are brought up, including adoption, legal rights for gay partners, legal rights for children in these families, and attitudes towards a child raised by gay partners.

Peeled by Joan Bauer. Hildy is a lead reporter for her high school newspaper, and she’s determined to break a huge story. When rumors of a mysterious curse surface in her town, strange people start arriving, and the local grown-up paper starts running sensationalist headlines, Hidly knows something is up. She gets to work and discovers a coordinated plot to profit from the town’s hysteria. Great story for a range of readers!

This may sound simple, but we’re talking about some hard words here.  ”Analyze the characterization,” and “Compare the two passages in terms of effectiveness.” Stuff like that. And to complicate things, these are often used in directions, making it even more likely the student will become confused. I can remember being in college and still not really getting what some of them mean. So one of our 8th grade teachers, Ms. Knibb, and I created a very successful lesson that increased students understanding of these words (these actions, essentially) by applying them to everyday resources from our library collection. 

Objective: Students will demonstrate understanding onf 4 academic vocabulary words by applying the action indicated to a common library resource. 

Content Standard Addressed: Reading 1.0 (Systematic Vocabulary Development).

Time: one class period (appx. 50 minutes)

We began the lesson by organizing students into tables of 4 or 5. We took brief notes that included the objective and purpose for completing the lesson. 

Each table was assigned one word to work with. We chose four common words: Analyze, Describe, Compare, and Explain (we had 7-8 tables, so we used words more than once.)  We would be rotating tables to the extant time allowed.

 On each table was a set of information cards, including the word, a simple definition, and the directions for that table. Ms. G selected resources to accompany each word.Here are the general activities:

Students would look at picture books and Analyze the elements of the story. 

Students would Compare the cost and benefits of two pets using two different books. 

Students would read a recipe of their choice for a cookbook and Explain how to make it. 

Student would read about a natural disaster and Describe what can happen. 

The information cards had very specific directions about how long to read, what to write down, and what information to focus on in order to appropriately address the task. 

Students were then directed to write a paragraph that synthesised the activity into one brief answer. Ms. Knibb and I circulated and looked over thee responses, checking fo runderstanding and answering questions. After about 10 minutes, we all rotated tables, and repeated the activity with the new word. 

We were able to get through about 3 tables, but this was a challenging class. We collected all the notes. As their “ticket out the door,” one students form each table had to tell in their own words what their word means. 

Complete Information cards can be downloaded here:

Information Card: Compare
Information Card: Analyze
Information Card: Describe
Information Card: Explain

There has been much discussion in our district about where boundaries are between middle school and high school fiction. It’s true; these are grey areas. Kids generally want to read about characters who are  older and more mature then they are; this is what makes it so thrilling and exciting! But there’s a huge difference between what a 12 year old understands about the world and what a 15 year old understands. Sure, Breaking Dawn may be extremely high interest, but can a sixth grader reasonably handle the “marital relations?”

On the other hand, can words on a page really hurt them, anyway? 

There are even more variables at work. Each site is different, as well. I know my kids are WAY grown up when it comes to things like gang affiliation, teen pregnancy, and drug use (a sad reality, but it’s true). Hate to say it, but Misty of Chincoteague is not so relevant to their experience. Many other school librarians completely disagree with me, and are determined to present a spotless, sanitized reading collection for their students. 

 So, I am pretty liberal with my approvals, and finding three in a row that failed to make it past my review card is unusual. Here are some of the things I keep in mind when deciding what is OK for middle school readers;

1. Bad language is not a deal-breaker. I know there are plenty of librarians who would yank a book if even one swear word was found. Like it or not, that is, in fact, the way kids talk to one another. I hear it every day, and if you’re anywhere near a public school, so do you. If the dialogue in a book is not realistic, then it’s not believable, and that makes it an inferior book. Now, I am NOT advocating that all books should have swearing included, or that there’s something wrong with the book if it does not, but many of the novels I approve focus on developing these characters in a way kids will understand, mirroring the modern child’s own experience. A quality novel can stand to have a few bad words. 
2. Drug use is also not a deal breaker. I actually feel very strongly about this one. Drugs are a big issue in today’s youth, and “Just Say No” only goes so far. Kids should be able to read realistic depictions of what happens when drug addiction becomes a part of someone’s life. In almost every case I’ve seen, the drug use is followed by some realizations that it was a bad choice, and the conflict become getting past it. On another very depressing note, many of our kids have family members and parents who may abuse drugs, and are struggling to understand the consequences. I think it’s important for that experience to be acknowledged
3. Sex, however, is another story. This one is the toughest one for me. I am not one of these who believes that not one of my eighth graders could possibly know anything about sex, but there is a developmental thing in play here. Kids perceive romantic or sexual feelings very differently depending on their physical and emotional maturity. When I read about any sexual issue in a book, it’s all about how it is presented. Are the characters experimenting, wondering about things, etc, or are they completely OK and open with having sex. Do they discuss it like grown-ups, or like kids? 
4. That’s the key issue: Context. You have to consider the appropriateness of how the appears in the book; this remains the basis of any rejection or approval. 

A few disclaimers: Long Beach has a very thorough review procedure (as well as a good complaint procedure), so none of this is ever just one person’s opinion anyway. I can argue my case all I want, but unless two other middle school librarians agree with me, I’m outta luck. 

Just because a book is OK’d, it does not mean every library or every reader should have it. That’s why we’re considered experts. Librarians should evaluate the needs of their own students. If I don’t think a kid can handle a certain book, I will re-direct them. (But whatever you do, do not tell them it’s because the book is “too mature for them.” There is no faster way to get that kid to decide they absolutely MUST read it).

Last thing: if you are a parent reading this, please know that you are the only one who can utimately determine if something OK for your child. Likewise, you cannot decide that something is not OK for everyone else’s child. We have a very wide variety of books avable for a very wide variety of readers; I am confident we can find books that aligns with your family’s expectations.