Concordia students have been working with eighth graders at Moorhead’s Horizon Middle School for the past two years to help teach them how to bring more diverse books to their current and future libraries.
The RIDE, or Reading for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Program, uses an assessment tool based on scholar Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s essay, “Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors,” which details the importance of readers being able to see themselves in books.
“What we’re really hoping for is to empower these students to feel they have a voice in requesting books that are relevant to their life experiences and books that reflect their lives,” said Julie VanWatermulen, Moorhead Area Public Schools’ program manager for media services.
At a workshop on campus, the group of eighth graders picked a book and were partnered with Concordia students who acted as peer mentors to guide the younger students’ work as they learned key literacy concepts, such as implicit bias, intersectionality, and privilege.
Concordia library director Laura Probst said eighth graders were chosen as an age group because of their curiosity as well as their maturity level to handle a variety of topics.
“These eighth graders are great advocates for themselves,” Probst said. “They’re very indignant about what adults are doing or not doing and are very frustrated with how the world is now. If they could change it, they would. So I have every confidence that programs like this will help give them the tools they need to do it.”
Probst and VanWatermulen praised Dan Dooher, Moorhead learning resource strategist, for developing the curriculum and being a driving force for RIDE.
“He has long been committed to these issues,” Probst said. “The work he has put in has helped make it the success that it is.”
This year’s program ended with a presentation to families, Concordia leaders, and Moorhead district administrators explaining what they learned from and liked about the book and how they related to the characters.
The program was funded by the Minnesota Department of Education through the federal government’s Library Services and Technology Act. If funding is available next year, Probst and VanWatermulen hope to expand the program to seventh graders.
“They can see not only their own experience but, through reading, can experience a whole new world of home culture,” VanWatermulen said. “That helps them better understand the world around them and the students that are right next to them in the classroom. We feel that it just makes it a better school culture all the way around if our students understand where each other are coming from.”
The students in the RIDE program read and presented about one of these seven books:
- “Home is Not a Country” by Safia Elhillo
- “The Legend of Auntie Po” by Shing Yin Khor
- “When Stars are Scattered” by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
- “King and the Dragonflies” by Kacen Callender
- “The Barren Grounds” by David Robertson
- “Strange Birds: A Guide to Ruffling Feathers” by Celia Pérez
- “Other Words for Home” by Jasmine Warga