Abstract
In the ever-evolving educational landscape, book challenges have gained prominence, prompting discussions within education about how to respond to such challenges. Educators and librarians often encounter obstacles in championing students' right to read due to a lack of resources and confidence. Young adult (YA) literature courses are a valuable avenue to equip educators and librarians in navigating book challenges. This chapter illuminates an instructional approach used in the authors' YA literature courses, demonstrating how pre-service and in-service teachers and librarians may prepare to counter instances of book challenges within their unique environments. Through collaborating with colleagues using the RAFT instructional strategy in a safe setting, the authors suggest educators and librarians will become more self-assured in standing up to book challenges.
TopBackground
First, teachers, librarians, and their educators need an understanding of the current climate of book bans and challenges. In-service teachers’ and librarians’ knowledge trickles down to young adults, co-workers, and others surrounding them. This trickle down creates empathetic students who aim to understand others’ different lived experiences. Next, they need knowledge of the standards and support available via various professional organizations (e.g., ALA, NCTE). After this background knowledge, educators need information about the Role, Audience, Format, Topic (RAFT) strategy and collaboration. RAFT provides students opportunities to expand their understanding of composing informational text while learning the nuances of their roles as writers in communicating with different authors in various formats.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Censorship: Censorship occurs when an authority or its representatives restricts or blocks access to information resources due to language, background, viewpoints, or authorship.
Book Challenges: Requests to remove books from libraries, classrooms, or curriculum.
Collaborative Learning: Small group learning that involves participation and interaction between group members in order to promote a meaningful exchange of ideas and create deeper shared knowledge and understanding of information.
Effective Communication: The ability to send and receive information and ideas in a clear, accurate way through active listening, written, and oral language.
Intellectual Freedom: To freely explore and express ideas, each individual has the right to access and receive information from multiple viewpoints without restriction.
Book Bans: Completely removing a book from the shelf, blocking a person’s ability to access the book.
RAFT Strategy: An instructional strategy intended for students to write with a particular role, audience, format, and topic in mind.