🌐 🙌 Celebrating Diversity Through Book Trailers

A celebration of diversity and inclusivity has been underway these last two weeks as the student body celebrates Culture Week. Students could sign up to watch book trailers featuring stories with diverse characters and written by diverse authors. With each click of the play button, students embarked on a journey of exploration, delving into the district voices and experiences that make up the literary world.

To access the document, click HERE.

These powerful narratives--many of them new books in the collection--explored themes of identity and belonging or were heartwarming tales of friendship and resilience. Students were not only entertained but also enlightened, gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation for the diverse perspectives that shape our society.

In our library, diversity isn't just celebrated; it's embraced wholeheartedly as we strive to create an inclusive space where every student feels seen, heard, and valued. When offering book trailers featuring diverse voices, we aim to spark curiosity, empathy, and a lifelong love of reading. So come join us on this journey of discovery as we celebrate the beauty of diversity through the pages of our books this week during Culture Week and every week. Happy viewing! 📚✨

🌎 It's Culture Week!

Because Culture Week was such a hit among students and staff a year ago, it's now a 2-week event with a week showcasing student, staff, and community presentations both in the fall and again the in spring. (You can read about earlier Culture Week sessions here.) Two sessions were offered in the library this week: Diversity in Books and Creation Stories from Around the World. 

Like previous Culture Week sessions, students could again sign up to watch book trailers and talk about diverse books. This time, students accessed a Google Drawing featuring 15 diverse titles that included book trailers or author interviews. While some of the titles have been part of the collection, new books to the collection were also included to encourage browsing and checkout during our time together.

CLICK HERE to access the resource.

Another sessions students could choose to attend featured creation myths from a variety of cultures. We chatted about several of the beginning Slides and identified the Adam and Eve/Garden of Eden story as a creation story they were already familiar with, and we also applied several elements from the Slides to the the Garden of Eden story. 

LINK to presentation

After our discussion, students had time to access the Slides presentation to move through an interactive world map featuring creation stories from several different cultures.

Clicking on a box took students to a Slide with a brief description and video about the creation story. Finally, then, students had the opportunity to add to a Padlet to reflect on what they'd seen or read.

Students had the option to watch and work independently or with others, and throughout their work, we continued to chat with each other about what they were seeing and what they already knew about creation stories, the cultures featured, or their Culture Week experience so far.

Culture Week continues through Friday, so students will have the opportunity to attend more sessions lead by students and staff.

🌎 Cinderella Stories from Around the World 🌎

We're celebrating Culture Week this week, and we teachers--along with many students--are offering advisory sessions that students can choose to attend. (You can read about how we recognized Culture Week last year with diverse titles and book trailers HERE.) This year, students can visit to learn about, read, and discuss Cinderella stories from around the world.

First, students gained some background knowledge about Cinderella stories with a Slides presentation:

The Slides also included brief descriptions from the online catalog to give students a quick idea of the stories. After forming groups of their own choosing, students moved to tables where the books and a T-chart for similarities and differences awaited. 

As they read, students considered the traditional Cinderella story with which they were already familiar, then added sticky notes with examples for the T-charts. As our time together came to a close, we shared out information from sticky notes and other points or connections from their reading.

Some examples of their work appears below:

With a limited amount of time during our session, students weren't able to rotate through more than 2-3 books, and some groups chose to focus on one book rather than skim several books and work quickly. Altogether, nine examples of Cinderella stories were featured:

👀 #TakeALookTuesday--Diverse Titles Edition

We're celebrating Culture Week here at DCG HS, and students are able to self-select from more than three dozen sessions discussing everything from food insecurity to specific countries to music and holidays. One session available to students is watching book trailers for books from diverse authors and/or featuring diverse characters.

CLICK HERE to access the book trailer playlist.

Nearly of the titles from the graphic are included on a YouTube playlist of diverse titles, along with several more titles that are currently checked out. To make browsing more convenient--and to talk about the books more easily--the titles are on display together in the library as well.

Students visited the library to watch trailers and talk about books of interest and read alikes, and while they were here, we also talked about accessing the titles electronically on MackinVIA.

Not able to make it to one of the book trailer sessions? No worries! Just stop by the library to browse the display--and chat about one of these or other titles and authors you're interested in!