{"id":12107,"date":"2015-12-19T00:01:47","date_gmt":"2015-12-19T05:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=12107"},"modified":"2015-12-21T09:51:36","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T14:51:36","slug":"two-takes-on-challenging-materials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/two-takes-on-challenging-materials\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Takes on Challenging Materials"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among the standard\u00a0review and professional journals to which my library subscribes, there are a few that are a little more unusual to find in a public librarian’s inbox.\u00a0Literacy Today,<\/em> the magazine of the International Literacy Association (ILA), is one of these. I certainly had never encountered it before I started in this job, but I’ve come to look forward to each issue. While ILA members come from a wide range of disciplines, I particularly value\u00a0the perspectives of classroom teachers that I get from reading Literacy Today.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"From
Source:\u00a0www.literacyworldwide.org<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A recent article on using challenging materials in the classroom resonated with me because of my work on the Intellectual Freedom Committee. More and more, the challenges to reading material for young people that we’re seeing across the country are coming from\u00a0school libraries and class reading assignments more than from\u00a0public library collections. As we consider ways in which we as librarians can support our schools in promoting the importance of challenging reads, I found the two\u00a0differing\u00a0opinions on\u00a0navigating book selection in the classroom featured in this article to be\u00a0truly thought-provoking.<\/p>\n

ILA has generously allowed us to provide the article here,<\/a> so I encourage you to take a few minutes to read and consider it.<\/p>\n

\"Source:
Source: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt website<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m intrigued by the middle school teacher who whets her students’ appetites for challenging materials by using excerpts in class, but encourages them to seek out the full book outside of school in order to avoid parent complaints. It’s evident\u00a0that this approach to potentially forbidden fruit gets teens excited about reading these titles.<\/p>\n

At the same time, I understand the perspective of the high school teacher who worries that teachers\u00a0deferring to outside pressure are diminishing their roles as professional educators. Additionally, as IF advocates frequently point out, no one can ever predict what someone else will consider “offensive” or “inappropriate.”<\/p>\n

What do you think of these two viewpoints? Does the first suggestion offer an acceptable compromise for teachers looking to avoid reconsideration battles? Or does it give in too much to a “potential challenge” that may never come? Do you have other examples of ways in which\u00a0teachers navigate the selection of classroom reading assignments?\u00a0Please share your thoughts in the comments, and visit literacyworldwide.org<\/a> for more information on Literacy Today<\/em> magazine and the International Literacy Association.<\/p>\n

Chelsea Couillard-Smith, Co-Chair ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee<\/em><\/p>\n

Two Takes article from Sept\/Oct 2015 issue of Literacy Today shared with permission of the International Literacy Association.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among the standard\u00a0review and professional journals to which my library subscribes, there are a few that are a little more unusual to find in a public librarian’s inbox.\u00a0Literacy Today, the magazine of the International Literacy Association (ILA), is one of these. I certainly had never encountered it before I started in this job, but I’ve come to look forward to each issue. While ILA members come from a wide range of disciplines, I particularly value\u00a0the perspectives of classroom teachers that I get from reading Literacy Today. A recent article on using challenging materials in the classroom resonated with me because of my work on the Intellectual Freedom Committee. More and more, the challenges to reading material for young people that we’re seeing across the country are coming from\u00a0school libraries and class reading assignments more than from\u00a0public library collections. As we consider ways in which we as librarians can support our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[272,11,22,25,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-intellectual-freedom-committee","category-priority-group-i","category-childrens-literature","category-evaluation-of-media","category-intellectual-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}