Some take-aways for school librarians from the Building a Bridge summit:

 

For background information and ideas, school librarians can begin by reading articles written by Sandra Hughes Hassel and students in School Library Monthly (October, 2010) >http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/BooneRawsonVance2010-v27n2p34.html<, including the Use This Page segment >http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/pdf/LiteracyModel-v28n3p2.pdf< that accompanies the article by Sandra Hughes Hassell and Casey Rawson published in the December 2011 issue of School Library Monthly (pages 15-17).

 

Some ideas for school librarians that emerged from the summit and from the above articles:

• Create inviting, welcoming, helpful and supportive library environments
• Create access for African-American male youth in the school library
• Work with teachers, administrators, and community members to identify and select rich and enabling texts for the library collection and to be used for literacy instruction and support
• Collaborate to provide authentic, real-world, relevant opportunities for literacy engagement
• Support book discussion groups for African-American male youth
• Actively advocate for excellence and high expectations in literacy goals for African American male youth
• Involve African-American male youth in decision-making for the school library
• Create programming that draws African-American male youth into the school library and engages them