[aisle] Banned Book Week

Moreillon, Judith Lynn jlmore at illinois.edu
Fri Sep 20 09:36:53 CDT 2019


Dear AISLE Colleagues,

Your sharing Banned Books Week ideas prompted me to see what ALA is offering to support BBW.

This ALA video “Top 11 Most Challenged Books of 2018” gave me pause: https://youtu.be/XXQtgx9HNxE

For me, one of these books is (as Sesame Street would say) not like the others. I live 60 miles from the Mexican border. Can you guess which of these books I would not have selected for our elementary school libraries?

On Monday, I am posting information about how we observed BBW when I was a high school librarian. I am including that part of the post “Speak-ing of Banned Books Week” below in case you’re interested. The full post will be on my blog on Monday: http://schoollibrarianleadership.com

I believe that nuances between selection, banning, and censorship are particularly complex for school librarians.

Best,
Judi


Judi Moreillon, M.L.S., Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor
2019 Scholastic Library Publishing Award
jlmore at illinois.edu<mailto:jlmore at illinois.edu>

School of Information Sciences
[cid:image001.png at 01D56F85.426E5C40]<http://illinois.edu/>


This week, classroom teachers, librarians, and libraries across the country are honoring the American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom’s annual Banned (and Challenged) Books Week (http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks). When I served as a secondary school librarian, this week was one of my most treasured. For those three years, I collaborated with 8th grade (one) and high school English language arts classroom teachers to spotlight the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books from 2000-2009 (http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009). (I look forward to the 2010-2020 list!)

I collected as many children’s and young adult books from 100 Most Frequently Challenged list as possible. (There were a few that were not appropriate for the school environment such as Private Parts by Howard Stern.) We launched the lesson by helping students make connections among these three terms and book written for youth: banned, challenged, and censored. We co-read one of the picture books and modeled a conversation about why the book had been challenged.

Then, students working in small groups were given a short stack of books and the task of discussing each one to determine why they thought the book was challenged. Students read picture books and book jacket information for novels to guide their thinking. Their ELA-R teachers and I facilitated these discussions by asking probing questions.

Each group selected the most surprising book in their stack and shared their determination for the “reason” the book had been challenged. One of the biggest takeaways from this lesson was that students had read a good number of these books and where annoyed or shocked that any adult would think they were incapable of thinking critically or shouldn’t have even be allowed to read the story or information.




From: AISLE <aisle-bounces at list.railslibraries.info> On Behalf Of Jeanne Brucher via AISLE
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2019 6:34 AM
To: AISLE-Share: Association of Illinois School Library Educators discussion list <aisle at list.railslibraries.info>
Cc: Jeanne Brucher <jbrucher at geneseoschools.org>
Subject: Re: [aisle] Banned Book Week

I find that so many of the banned books are checked out at the high school that I am printing off book covers in color and laminating them for my display tables.

For your younger students, I love to show Dav Pilkey's video about censorship to my middle schoolers:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paluqcTnRis&list=PLnD5w_9EPX7ZbcZ-GIas778BTmhS1mpAg&index=3&t=0s

On Fri, Sep 20, 2019 at 7:58 AM Flaherty, Megan via AISLE <aisle at list.railslibraries.info<mailto:aisle at list.railslibraries.info>> wrote:
Do you have Harry Potter, The Witches, or The Giver at your library?
They are some of the most challenged/banned books that you may be likely to have. Even if you don’t have all of the books available to check out, it is still really valuable to discuss the reasons for challenging/banning books and how that ties into civil liberties and freedom to read.
Good luck and let us know how it goes!
Megan Flaherty-Handoyo
Westview Hills Middle School

From: AISLE <aisle-bounces at list.railslibraries.info<mailto:aisle-bounces at list.railslibraries.info>> On Behalf Of Todd Freer via AISLE
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2019 8:27 PM
To: AISLE-Share: Association of Illinois School Library Educators discussion list <aisle at list.railslibraries.info<mailto:aisle at list.railslibraries.info>>
Cc: Todd Freer <TFreer at zion6.org<mailto:TFreer at zion6.org>>
Subject: Re: [aisle] Banned Book Week

Hi All -
I'm looking for some lesson points for introducing banned books to my 3rd -6th graders. Our library is small and not too current. It doesn't have too many banned books to choose from so I borrowed  13 from my library. It's sort of a hodgepodge of a selection. I see kids 2x/week for 30 minutes and was thinking about maybe doing this for two weeks if need be. Ideas include:
Introducing the concept of banning/censorship
Risk vs. Reward (of banning books)
Banned Book Debate (teaching the art of debate first)
First Amendment Lessons (which could lead to conversations about the Constitution)

I feel a bit restrained since I can't lend out these books but don't want kids to miss out on learning that "banning a book is a real thing."

I'd be grateful for your input.
Thanks,
--Todd


[https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/4RT4FoXjm6uC6_P4xPBkIy31tIL6OGugmbw0plnozXKHogbOAIRQCMT6Fs567MuXqKt3Qh2QTRsZMpN2AyUz-gC8EYu8HTz2aePhlakZLp5PZQqN3zJtDLtjTkcPYVPteQ0BobW2]

Todd Freer

Library Media Specialist

East Elementary School
2913 Elim Avenue, Zion, IL, 60099

847.872.5425 • 847.872.8130 (fax)

www.zion6.org<http://www.zion6.org/>
Currently reading: When the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin





















































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--
Jeanne Brucher
Librarian, Teaching and Learning Team Co-Leader
GMS Student Council Advisor, GHS Speech Team Advisor
jbrucher at geneseoschools.org<mailto:jbrucher at geneseoschools.org>
Geneseo Middle School (309) 945-0524
Geneseo High School (309) 945-0316
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