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As a special education teacher, when I think of the media center and diversity I quickly think of students who read at very low levels, but who want age appropriate materials. The media specialist must make sure that she has some of these books or at least, books with cds, so that these students can enjoy books appropriate to their age group. My husband use to read books for an organization called Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB &D). When one goes to the RFB & D website, a search can be made for almost any book or textbook that is used in school today. What is costly is that the playback machines are around $350 to $400. Of course, if a student has an Individualized Education Plan, the Special Education Department may purchase the equipment he needs. If not, the media specialist may want to talk to the special education teacher to see if funds exist in her budget for one of these devices if they do not exist in your budget.
Accessibility to the media center is the other topic that I think about. Is your library one that will allow a student who is in a wheelchair to comfortably come in and sit at a computer and do research? Is there a wheelchair ramp if your media center has stairs? How will this student access books on the third, fourth, and fifth shelves of your library? There are usually simple answers to these questions; however, one does have to think about them so she is not caught off guard when the occasion arises.
Of course, diversity extends way beyond the realm of special education. There are so many good books out today on multiculturalism and the different races that exist in the schools. Now that some schools are teaching languages other than Spanish, the media specialist can include books about those languages, too. And because children come from such blended backgrounds, I think we will be fascinated by the number of different students who will be interested in checking these books out.
Accessibility to the media center is the other topic that I think about. Is your library one that will allow a student who is in a wheelchair to comfortably come in and sit at a computer and do research? Is there a wheelchair ramp if your media center has stairs? How will this student access books on the third, fourth, and fifth shelves of your library? There are usually simple answers to these questions; however, one does have to think about them so she is not caught off guard when the occasion arises.
Of course, diversity extends way beyond the realm of special education. There are so many good books out today on multiculturalism and the different races that exist in the schools. Now that some schools are teaching languages other than Spanish, the media specialist can include books about those languages, too. And because children come from such blended backgrounds, I think we will be fascinated by the number of different students who will be interested in checking these books out.
I agree with you about purchasing different materials for students with special needs. Lately, mentor has been paying a lot more attention to books that come with CDs or with audio somehow part of the package. She says it is not just for special needs students though, but for those who prefer listening to a book than to reading it off a page. It is still encouraging students to read, even if not in the traditional method. And I love it, because I remember how much my sister loved her audio books when she was younger.
When I was at UGA, I also volunteered at a center for the blind near campus. I wasn't a reader, I was kind of the "proof-reader" and I listened as the reader was recorded reading textbooks aloud to be sent to blind students. I had to make sure the reader pronounced everything correctly and didn't skip a word. It was really a fun program and I felt like I was actually doing something worthwhile.
I appreciate that you think of special education students. When we opened our school media center two years ago we didn't have very many books for slow readers. I have tried to add some high-low readers for the middle schoolers, but the lower 4th graders are a totally different story. We are struggling with them. Some of their reading levels are so low that it is hard to find chapter books (which they want to read because they don't want to look like babies) for them. This year I have purchased the complete set of Black Lagoon and Mighty Robot "chapter" books, but they are so short they can read them in an hour, although they often still struggle with the AR tests. Longer chapter books like Magic Tree House and Bailey School Kids are too high for most of them. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Accessibility is also a good issue to bring up. We have one student in a wheelchair, but he rarely comes in. His para usually comes in and picks up books for him. We do have some ebooks, but he prefers to read regular ones!
Kristin,
Like Chloe, I appreciate your way of thinking. From my experience, too many times I see the ELL and also the special education students overlooked with big gaps in collections as far as these groups are concerned. Your idea of making sure there are age-appropriate materials is really good because it will make students feel more comfortable if they have options for the books they see everyone else reading, and we want all students to feel at home in the media center so that they come back.
We also have students with behavioral issues and some who are autistic, and if a student comes in fired up, we reiterate the rules and give them additional help. For example, one student gets easily frustrated when he can't find a particular type of book. We keep a stash of two or three of these books on the side of the counter so he can check them out. We don't keep other students from checking these books out, we just keep ourselves from having to deal with him taking 10-15 books off the shelf and depositing them wherever as he gets stressed out. The madder he gets, the louder he becomes. When he behaves appropriately, we reward him with a "Caught Ya" to provide positive reinforcement. We have one or two students who really need that extra reassurance.
Regarding accessibility, we have a wheelchair-bound first grader, and it is important that there is room for her during story time or computer time first and foremost. Our books are pretty low, with very few shelves out of reach, so a parapro is able to do the additional reaching when necessary. We tend to put reference books on the top shelves because they don't circulate, and in reality, more third, fourth, and fifth graders than younger students use those resources anyhow. When she comes to the circulation desk, she sits high enough to put the book on the counter, and I reach down and put the book "behind her back" in the seat after checking it out. The teacher puts it there when she's done so she can wheel herself down the halls back to class. But handicapped students aren't the only ones with special needs. For those who are visually impaired, we recently acquired a document camera. We project the pages of the book onto the SMART Board during story time, and, of course, the words and pictures are much bigger than they would be if the media specialist held up the book as she read. We love this new gadget because students appear to be following along and paying more attention. Is it the novelty of having a new toy? Perhaps, but time will tell.
In the future, I'd like to see our school acquire more audiobooks. We have a few in the teacher resource area, but they are outdated. My only other concern is that teachers rarely ask for resources for these students. I am not sure if they have found technology elsewhere or are just unaware, but I hope in the future we can collaborate with them. The good news is that we've bee working continuously with our ELL teacher. He's new and shared between VRE, Glanton Hindsman, and Ithica Elementaries though, so he needs resources. Sadly, our Spanish collection is about the same as our audiobook collection, severely lacking to say the least. Unfortunately, I don't know how this can be remedied at this moment if there are no funds available and no one writes grants to obtain new materials. Perhaps its something to consider as we move forward.
Throught my courses over the past few semesters, I seem to have very negative opinions about the school where I work. Internet blocks keep us from using some really cool websites or doing interesting research; we are behind in technology and content in our library. I still find myself leaning in a more negative way when talking about diversity. If diversity is all about race, gender, etc. then I feel our media center does a good job of meeting those needs because we have very little diversity; However, if we are talking about all the other charactersitics that make up diversity, then we don't. We have very few resources on tape or CD to meet the needs of special learners, and because we are surrounded and supported by a very close-knit, conservative community, I don't feel that our books are diverse enough. They aren't necessarily "censored" but I don't feel that many step outside the conservative "safe-zone".
On the other hand, I do feel that our media center meets the physical needs of diverse students. We have recently had several students in wheel chairs who are able to come, go, and utilize the media center as needed. We also have a self-contained set of students who are able to come in and have access to the media center.
As media specialists, we have to be ready for each teachable moment. The media specialist can be a real catalyst for educational openness in this. Diversity in instruction invites creativity and exploration, teaches to the strengths of the individual, while searching for ways to support the weaknesses. Because children see us accepting and embracing the diversities of others, we are role models to them in overcoming mistrust or fear of those who are different. We want our media centers to be welcoming places that invite all in. We expand our collections to include more children of color, single parent families, and other languages.
Because we know our media collections well, we are best able to suggest materials that may differ in language or format but will teach the concept. I agree, Kristin, about the students who are physically unable to reach the high shelves. Literally and figuratively, we may have to lower some shelves to help some reach the learning they need. We must be equally ready to stretch out and search out the materials for those learners who need a challenge. Going beyond our media center walls, we can enlist local citizens, regional libraries, governmental agencies, or the Internet to help students learn and teachers teach.
We must be open to new strategies—digital storytelling, podcasting, or streaming video—anything that will let our students in on enjoyable, reachable, comfortable ways to learn. Diversity should not set people apart or keep them out because they are different. Instead, media specialists will work to secure the best possible media—printed, not printed, electronic, spoken, or animated—to help all learn at their highest potential. The media specialist can be a real catalyst for educational diversity in this activity. Diversity in instruction invites creativity and exploration, teaches to the strengths of the individual, while searching for ways to support the weaknesses. No longer restricted, learners can become excited about themselves, their ways of life, their opinions, their ways to learn.
Your focus on students who are reading below grade level addresses another special population of students. And I agree with you--this is a special population that the media program can have a profound influence on just by including in the collection appropriate books and multimedia materials (books on "tape," eBooks, etc.). At a recent cluster meeting of fellow media specialists, I discovered that there are publishers that specialize in publishing books that have conventions that break down barriers for low level readers--type of font used, spaces between words and between lines (I'm not referring to large print books). Their practices were supported by research. I was so intrigued by this. Perhaps I'm late getting this information and everyone else knows about it. I'm planning to purchase some of their books for my library.