Interview with a Librarian: Julia Brown

Julia Brown, from Green Sea Floyds Elementary School in Green Sea, South Carolina provided me with great insight and information regarding her work as it pertains to the AASL Standards for school librarians. In the interview, I asked Julia five questions that discuss what the day-to-day events look like for her when using the domain “Include”. I chose this domain because I feel like it is such an important aspect for the entire school community to be a part of. Julia was quite excited to share her knowledge and experience with me and, in turn, I was able to take away meaningful information and learn about new skills that I cannot wait to apply to myself once I become a school librarian.

The questions I asked Julia were as follows:

Questions:

1. What are some examples of the ways in which you are implementing these competencies in your library program?
2. What are some of the resources in your library program that you are using to implement these competencies?
3. Do any of the competencies that you are implementing include collaboration with classroom teachers? If so, please provide examples.
4. What are some of the challenges that you face when trying to implement these competencies?
5. Are there any other comments that you would like to make regarding the Shared Foundation / Competencies and Domains?

The answers Julia provided to the questions above are outlined below:

Answers:

1. Julia provided some examples of how she implements inclusion in her library program. One is when she is conducting a read-aloud to students, she ensures that the resources are inclusive for all. For example, during her read-alouds in the library, she reads books with diverse characters featured in the story. Another example is when she teaches her lesson on fairy tales, she exposes students not only to the traditional version, but to several other versions of the fairy tale from different cultures. One other way she includes diversity in her library program is having students read and research how other cultures celebrate holidays or what different celebrations they may have instead. Another way she implements inclusion is for students in grades 3-5, where Julia conducts an inclusive activity where students begin library class with a fun debate about preferences (such as eating at McDonald’s or Wendy’s or going to the beach or the mountains). During these debates, students are able to share their opinions and responses with one another while maintaining respect. Lastly, Julia informed me that the digital citizenship curriculum she uses through Common Sense Media asks students to put themselves in different scenarios as the bully and the victim and think through what those people may be feeling. Students must decide what the best response would be for each scenario. They also must give advice to friends based on fictional scenarios they are given.
2. Julia offered information about some of the resources she uses in her library program to implement inclusion. Firstly, she uses the Multicultural Fairy Tales book series books by Cari Meister during her fairy tale unit so students can be exposed to, understand and empathize with other cultures and their version of well known fairy tales. She also uses the Follow Me Around book series by Wiley Blevins to enhance social studies curriculum and expose students to different countries and cultures around the world that they may not be familiar with. In doing this, she hopes to give students a new perspective and more inclusive worldview. Julia also uses various books from multicultural award lists, such as Pura Belpré Award Winners and Coretta Scott King Award winners in her library program to implement inclusion. She introduces these books to students in hopes to get them excited to read stories about others like them or of others different from themselves. Lastly, Julia ties in the South Carolina Social Studies Standards and Curriculum into her lessons for grades 3-5 to enhance student learning and supplement what they learn in their classrooms via their teacher.
3. When asked about collaborating with teachers, Julia had a lot of input. She mentioned that when second graders are studying people and cultures, she collaborates with teachers to implement a lesson on cultural celebrations. When the second graders are in the library, she reads them books and lets them explore books about traditions and celebrations in other cultures. Students then research and explore more information on PebbleGo. When they return to class, they have new facts to share with each other and their teacher during Social Studies. For third grade, she collaborates with teachers on unit about perspectives and respecting others’ perspectives. After they begin discussing this topic in their classrooms, students begin having weekly debates during their library time and share their perspective on a certain topic while respecting others’ perspectives in civil discussions. She also collaborates with teachers in grades 3-5 when they use Skype to communicate with high school students in Kentucky. They discuss the differences in their towns and schools and gain a wider perspective and worldview outside of their community.
4. Julia highlighted a challenge she faces when implementing inclusion within her library. She noted that since a lot of her students have never traveled beyond their attendance area, it is sometimes difficult for them to grasp the idea of very different places and people with very different beliefs from their own.
5. Julia had no further comments regarding the Shared Foundations along with the Competencies and Domains.

It was a pleasure to talk with Julia about what she does to ensure that inclusion is a part of her students’ lives in the library. I could tell she is very passionate and serious about her role as the school librarian at Green Sea Floyds Elementary School. I think her students are quite lucky to have her in their lives.