This is a guest post from Barrington High School Teacher Librarians Janet Anderson and Jennifer Walsh.
On February 23, 2021, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Walsh, BHS teacher Kathleen Duffy, and Barrington 220 Director of Grants, Professional Development, and MTSS, Margo Schmitt, will present at the ESSA & Multilingual Illinois Virtual Conference via video. Their presentation entitled Using Book Clubs to Promote Social & Emotional Learning highlights the power of literature to promote empathy and inclusion. The presentation demonstrates how technology can be leveraged to conduct virtual book clubs during distance learning.
As librarians, we know and understand the power that books can have on people. It has been said that libraries, and the books within them, are the great equalizers of humans. No matter who you are, the library offers you the opportunity to learn through books. To understand through books. To build empathy through reading.
Researchers have tested, then retested, verified, then re-verified that reading books, especially fiction, "provide[s] us with the opportunity to take other people's perspectives in a safe, distanced way. In that way, fiction serves as a playground for empathetic skills" (Chopik, 2016). The evaluation resposes from the teachers who took this professional development suggest that they agree.
To learn more about the classes, watch the video, ask us, or take some of the courses this summer!
Using Book Clubs to Promote Social & Emotional Learning
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