A ZSR Field Trip to Speas Elementary
This past Monday, ZSR’s “Banned Books” First Year Seminar visited the school library at Speas Elementary School. We were there to learn about school libraries, how collection decisions are made, collecting for and serving diverse student populations, and how school librarians are meeting the challenge of increased book challenges in school libraries. The students are working on developing their own “mini” collection development and reconsideration/challenged materials policies, so this trip was both informative and fun!
On the topic of banned and challenged books, we learned more about the policies and processes in place around material reconsideration in Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools. Speas has thankfully never had a book challenged, but we learned about the review process in place at Speas for handling the challenge if that ever occurred. We also discussed commonly challenged books at the upper-elementary/middle school level—several of which we will read later this semester, including Jerry Craft’s New Kid and Raine Teglemeier’s Drama.
The students asked Mrs. Kadlac, the Speas librarian, some great questions, here is a sample of fun information we learned:
- What is the students favorite genre to check out? Graphic Novels
- What are the most popular books with the students? The Dogman series and The Babysitter’s Club Graphic Novels
- Are there any books checked out that might surprise us? The students love to check out big reference books.
Logistics
If you are curious about logistics — we were able to transport all 16 of our First Year Seminar students to Speas using two of the 12-passenger vans operated by Campus Life. The cost was $35/van — a big thank you to the ZSR Dean’s Office for funding this field trip! The drivers had to complete online van training two weeks in advance of the trip. It was well worth it — the students were very thankful afterwards and told us how much they enjoyed the trip! A couple let us know they plan to volunteer at the Speas library in the future 🙂
7 Comments on ‘ZSR’s Banned Books FYS Visits Speas Elementary’
This is a wonderful effort to discuss an often difficult and divisive topic. Well done all and thank you!
What a wonderful experience for your students. And shout out to Ms. Kadlac!
What an amazing field trip! (and thanks for the inside info on Campus Life vans!)
What an awesome FYS! This is such a unique and impactful way for students to engage with the topic and local community.
Amazing!! Best FYS ever!
I love this! Also, it makes me happy that students are checking out big reference books. 🙂
What an amazing opportunity! Banned books and censorship are such important topics, especially in this current political climate.