3 Ways to Make the Library More Useful to Multilingual Learners

When the 17 students in my school’s Spanish/English dual-language program visited the library at the beginning of the school year, my main concern was, how do I get them connected to reading? Seventh and eighth graders are on the downward slope when it comes to wanting to read. When our program started three years ago, we knew that seventh and eighth graders were notoriously difficult to engage in reading.

We set out to create an atmosphere that engaged our multilingual students, offering them a wide variety of formats to choose from and presenting them with representation in the materials in the library. This has worked to welcome multilingual students into the library, and, more important, to keep them reading.

Show all students that they are welcome in the library

For students who may be new to our school and our country, seeing something familiar is really powerful. When I teach library skill lessons, I assign them to tables numbered in both English and Spanish. I do this with our dual-language class, as well as our general education classes, because our multilingual students are interspersed with the general population for most of the day. If I write directions on the board, I translate them into Spanish below the English. I try to speak the little Spanish I know, but I never hesitate to ask the students for help! Little things like signage can make a big difference, and it takes hardly any time with the tools that are now readily available online.

For example, a Chromebook extension allows me to translate documents and slide presentations. Whenever I’m curating information for teachers, I put it in the language that I know students in their class are most comfortable with. We just had a student enter our school who is from Iran and reads Farsi, so I’ve worked with her social studies teacher to translate her slides and also purchased some books in Farsi.

This is part of my job as a librarian. As I’ve learned from teachers I’ve worked with, making this sort of effort helps multilingual students feel safe, comfortable, and seen. Reaching out to your teachers and offering to do this work with any materials you are providing is such a valuable time saver for them, and greatly appreciated by the students. While this scope of work goes beyond the library walls, it is encompassed by the idea of helping provide a welcoming environment for the students wherever they are in the school, and the more I can expand my walls, the better.

Ask students what formats they prefer, and validate their choices

I often ask students what titles and formats they want to see on the library shelves. When it comes to reading the wide range of literature our library offers, large-print books, graphic novels, and books designed for struggling and striving readers have been nothing short of life-changing for our multilingual students. It is powerful to booktalk Ghost, by Jason Reynolds, in English and point out that I have it available in large-print Spanish. When students are able to read books in a language they are comfortable with, it can make all the difference in learning for them. Orca Publishing has books in both Spanish and French, so offering easy-to-read, quick books in languages that students can access creates opportunities for inclusion and comfort.

Students often seek entry into wider reading with graphic novels, so having them in multiple languages is key. For example, Mexikid, by Pedro Martin, is a graphic novel that I have in Spanish and is also available in English. Starfish, by Lisa Fipps, a novel in verse (another format that some students prefer), is in English and Spanish, as well as in large-print English and large-print Spanish! It might take some searching to find the various formats for these titles, but it is worth having so many points of access for students.

Making a commitment to developing your format (graphic novels, large print, audio, and novels in verse) and language collections is necessary. One year, I decided to spend half of my yearly budget just creating my World Language collection. Today’s school libraries serve an increasingly diverse population; I passionately believe these books are a worthwhile investment in our students’ future.

Present diverse characters and formats in booktalks

As part of my library program, I booktalk many reads over the school year. At the beginning of each book talk, I ask the students a question to get them thinking and connecting with the characters. I read from the books and then close them at a place where I hope students are wondering, “What happens next?”

The idea is to entice them to read the book. I’ve recorded over 300 of my booktalks in a podcast so that students and teachers can play them and get ideas for reading. When I present my book talks to a class, I make sure I’m representing different genders, diverse characters, and diverse formats. If teachers have a particular topic or theme they want me to approach, I try to show students as broad a spectrum of perspectives as possible. For our multilingual students, I want them to see their stories and backgrounds reflected not only on the shelves in the library, but also in the books I choose to share with everyone.

And while the books I share are in English, because I’m not multilingual myself, the collection of books I have curated allows me to say, “If you read in another language, hopefully we have it in a format that works for you.” For example, one of my teachers is using the books Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, and The Wednesday Wars, by Gary Schmidt, for a historical fiction/nonfiction comparison unit, and I have both titles in Spanish, large print, audio, and English.

For teachers who unfortunately do not have access to a school library, having a classroom library is of paramount importance. Often, funds are limited for developing a library, so reaching out to your local public library and seeing how resources can be shared can be instrumental in getting books into the hands of students. Also, checking for district grants, organizations that donate books such as We Need Diverse Books, or places with discounted books like Bernie’s Book Bank, can go a long way toward creating classroom collections. Even my teachers have seen the value of creating personal large-print and novel-in-verse collections within their own classrooms, even though our students have access to a school library.

Making small changes to your library in a systemic commitment to serving your multilingual population can make the difference in their lives at your school, and for us as librarians, that is the goal for all of our students.