The Classroom Library: A Catalyst for Literacy Instruction serves two purposes by first providing classroom teachers with a how-to guide in setting up and using the classroom library to support literacy. Next, it provides teachers with excerpts and stories of practicing teachers who have successfully used their classroom library to teach literacy. A wide array of photos, documents, tips, ideas, and descriptions lead teachers to create a classroom library that will scaffold students in the classroom library to establish and extend their literacy development. Several chapters specifically focus on working with under-served students, including students in urban settings, those who are learning English as a second language, and students without access to other libraries. Content in this book is easy to use to help teachers establish a library oasis in their classroom to support learners in preschool through grade eight classrooms. This book is a companion book toMore Mirrors in the Classroom: Using Urban Childrens Literature to Increase Literacy. Both volumes cover the selection of culturally responsive childrens literature.

Susan Catapano, EdD, is an elementary school librarian and retired teacher educator with more than 25 years of experience working with early childhood and elementary school teachers. She still teaches part-time for several universities.

Candace M. Thompson, PhD, is chair and associate professor in the Department of Instructional Technology, Foundations, and Secondary Education at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She focuses on critical multicultural and antiracist education in teacher education in her research.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I. The Classroom Library by Susan Catapano

Chapter 1. The Role of the Classroom Library

Chapter 2. Building and Managing the Classroom Library: Considering Issues of Equity and Empathy

Chapter 3. Establishing and Organizing the Classroom Library

Chapter 4. Making the Classroom Library the Center of the Language Arts Program

Chapter 5. Advocating for Each Other: Connecting the Classroom Library with the School Librarian

Part II. Voices from the Field: Using the Classroom Library

Chapter 6. From Culturally Colonizing to Culturally Responsive: Using a Classroom Library to Shift the Curriculum

Michelle Falter

Chapter 7. Using the Project Approach as a Vehicle for Culturally Relevant Teaching in the Early Years

Meredith Jones and Jordan Bohannon

Chapter 8. My Teaching Comes from Them: Mediating Guided Reading in a Bilingual Classroom

Kindel Turner Nash, Alicia Arce-Boardman, Christina Luna, Leah Panther, Rhianna Thomas, and Hilary McNeil

Chapter 9. Using Culturally Relevant Mirror Books: Teachers Can Benefit, Too!

Laura Szech

Chapter 10. Supporting Students Through Re-Imagined Libraries

Tracy Reynolds

Chapter 11. We Stories: Educators Finding the Language to Talk About Race and Inequity Through Culturally Relevant Texts

Sarah Huismann

References

About the Editors

About the Contributors