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Keywords

English teaching, high school teaching, diversity in education, diversity in literature

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Walking around my classroom library, I noticed a recurring theme among the books: White characters and White authors. While this technically reflected the demographic of my predominantly White community, it did not provide enough representation for my BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other Persons of Color) students. Rudine Sims Bishop (1990) compares literature to windows (where readers see a different life experience than their own) and mirrors (where readers see themselves and their potential); she warns, “When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read… they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part.” Recognizing the importance of diverse literature as mirrors for BIPOC students and windows for White students, I embarked on a journey to introduce more inclusive texts into my curriculum. This article will focus on inclusive texts paired with traditional texts in a social justice unit. If you do not want to restructure your entire curriculum but still want to add diversity, try the following.

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