Technology Essentials in Education Episode 43:
How to Build an Inclusive Classroom Library

Hello there, my name is Monica Burns, and welcome to today's episode of Technology Essentials in Education. Today I chat with Nita Creekmore. I met her as a fellow ASCD author, and we chat about inclusive literacy strategies, something that connects to her new book, Read Outside Your Bubble. She is a classroom teacher; she teaches fifth grade, which I taught for several years, an instructional coach, and a consultant. She does so many things within the education space and offers listeners information on inclusive literacy, finding inclusive literature, and leveraging technology tools to get collections of books into students' hands and find relevant resources online. It's a really fun conversation. You're going to want to take a listen. Let's get into it with Nita Creekmore.

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Welcome to the podcast. I am so excited to chat with you about inclusive literacy strategies today. But before we get into all of that, can you share with listeners a bit about your role in education? What does your day-to-day look like?

Yeah. Hi, thanks, Monica, for having me. Hi, everyone. My name is Nita Creekmore. I am a lot of things. I am an author, and I am also a literacy educator. I teach fifth-grade ELA, which is my jam. I love doing that. I am an instructional coach and consultant on the side. I'm also a teacher mentor, a team lead, and a teacher leader in my school. I present with my husband, too. Together, we have a business called Creekmore Conversations, and we co-wrote a book together, Every Connection Matters. I do a lot, but the root of what I do is talking about relationships in schools, ELA, English language literature, and inclusive literature. That's basically what I do each and every day.

We know each other as ASCD authors, and I'm really excited to talk to you about this topic today. I taught fifth grade for six years, so it's such a fun age group, right in the middle of so many experiences educators can relate to. For someone who hears the phrase inclusive literacy, how do you define that, and why is it so important right now?

Oh my gosh. Inclusive literature means being inclusive of other people's cultures, what they represent, and their identities, even outside of your own. The reason it's so important to me is that I'm a Black woman. As a Black child in school, I didn't see many books that represented me, my family, who I am, or who I was until about fifth grade. That was The Baby-Sitters Club, and even then, the Black character in that book was not the main character. I believe in making sure your shelves, your lessons, and everything represent the students in your classroom, and also the students who aren't in your classroom. It's important because it builds empathy, perspective-taking, and connection. We're more connected than we're not. Oftentimes, we see the differences first, but there's so much connection in our daily lives, our culture, and our stories. Those stories belong in classrooms. We might see ourselves in stories, or learn about others through them.

What does it look like when a classroom library, a reading list, or a literacy practice in general is truly inclusive versus falling short?

One way I notice that a library is inclusive is when students come to Open House and the first thing they go to in my classroom is my library. They see books, see themselves and other people in them, want to pick them up, and talk about them. They say, “Oh my goodness, this is like me,” or “This is like my grandmother,” or “This is my family's story.” But I also notice when my library falls short, because it's hard to offer a library for every student and every culture. I had a Muslim student who was in his first month of school in America. I had a couple of books, but because he became part of my classroom, I realized I needed to offer more. I became intentional about offering books he could see himself in, including books written in both English and Arabic. You may think your library is inclusive and that you're hitting the mark, but then a student comes in and you realize you're falling short. You have to be intentional about including them, their stories, and their representation in your classroom library. Even though I felt I offered a super-inclusive library, I realized I needed more variety so everyone could see themselves and my other students could see their classmates.

Yeah. And just that reflective practice of evaluating what's in a library and what might change from year to year—not just because a new book comes out, but because we're thoughtful and intentional about what students need. How can educators start evaluating the texts and materials they're already using through an inclusivity lens without feeling like they need to start completely from scratch?

I know we're in the era of curriculum and boxed literature, where we have to teach from a script, and I have lots of thoughts about that. Use your curriculum as a resource, but be intentional about how your students can see themselves in every lesson. How can they see themselves? How can you uplift student voice and representation in every lesson? When I look at a lesson, the first thing I ask is, “How can my students feel connected to this lesson and feel seen?” For instance, my first mentor text is Esperanza Rising, which is an amazing book. We engage with it as a class, but I also connect the story of her being an immigrant to other stories. I make sure I'm including other cultures, families, and stories to represent that. Whether you teach social studies, science, or ELA, make sure you're offering a variety of stories. Think, “This is my mentor text, but which stories are missing? What stories can my students connect with?” If you use that question as a reflective practice, you'll stay open to it. Also listen to your students' voices. When they connect to a text, that's your cue to see if you can find a book that brings in their story. How can you bring that in? Not only are you increasing engagement, you're allowing them to feel seen, want to continue reading, and stay engaged with the lessons you put in front of them.

And that's a great reminder for someone who might feel a little constrained by the curriculum they're being asked to teach or the book list they're working from: there are opportunities to bring other stories into that conversation. When we think about technology and reading, sometimes we think about audiobooks, podcasts, digital versions, or paperbacks. But there are lots of ways technology can influence a literacy environment. What role does tech play in making literacy instruction more inclusive and accessible for all learners?

Yeah, that's an amazing question. I can be honest: there's always a tension for me. I didn't start off as a lover of reading. I often tell the story of how I struggled with reading as a child. In fifth grade, I was the child getting pulled out for small-group intervention. If you had told my fifth-grade self that I'd be writing books and talking about books, I would have said, “No way,” because I hated reading; I struggled with it so much. But there's a tension, and we have to set our kids up for the world they're moving into. I offer a variety of ways for kids to read. I have lots of books they can pick up and smell the pages, which I love to do. My daughter, who's also a lover of reading, and I talk about the different kinds of pages we like. But I also offer kids the option to read on their computers using technology. It's been helpful when there are books I may be missing from my shelves. I've curated and compiled collections in Epic Reads, for instance, about the immigration experience. I collect those books into one collection in Epic and tell the kids, “This is what we're talking about as we read. Here's a list of books you can choose from.” They often write a response to their reading about what they like and where they connect. These collections offer more access to books that may not be on my shelves, both at home and at school.

CommonLit is a wonderful tool dedicated to inclusive literature and including marginalized voices that aren't usually uplifted in the curriculum. You can integrate it into your work. I often use CommonLit to find those stories. Last year, I realized they had Walter Dean Myers, whose work I used to read, so I connected my kids to his work, brought him up on the screen, and talked about his work and life. They also have Amy Tan. Through those lessons, I have my curriculum that I have to teach, including the scripted curriculum, and I integrate other lessons alongside the standards. CommonLit is a great tool. Another tool I use is Newsela, where current events can connect to what they're reading and make engagement even more exciting. Students hear about these things on the news and may see a story that interests them. Newsela keeps up with current events that can connect to what we're reading, like Esperanza Rising and immigration. What connections can you make between what's happening now in our world and what's happening in the story? It can offer a whole new world. I know there's a tension, so I try to have a healthy balance between reading books in hand, annotating text, and integrating technology intentionally.

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Yeah, and even the things you mentioned around tools that support student choice, giving them that selection and differentiation—like Newsela, where you can change the levels of different passages, and high-interest current events—are huge. People ask me about reading habits as someone who might be right underneath that tech-friendly category. If someone recommends a book to me or I hear about one, I immediately categorize it in my head: “This is a book I want on paperback, this is a book I want to listen to, and this is a book I could read on a Kindle.” There are different ways of consuming content, and kids are navigating those choices too. Exposing them to lots of different texts is huge. As an instructional coach and literacy educator, you're supporting teachers in lots of different ways. I'd love to hear more about your book, Read Outside Your Bubble. What inspired you to write it, and what do you hope educators take away from it?

I had been talking about inclusive books for a while. As an instructional coach in schools, I often saw a lack of diverse and inclusive literature in lessons. When I modeled lessons for teachers, I intentionally used diverse literature, hoping they would catch on to the importance of representing all students in our teaching and making sure kids see themselves. Oftentimes, we forget that piece while checking off standards. We forget the foundation of students feeling seen, acknowledged, and represented in our work, because that's how they connect to it, how it lands, and how it sticks in their brains. That was the reason I wrote the book. I was doing this work in schools and thought, “How can I get the work I'm doing in schools into a book?” I was sought out to write it. The first time, I wasn't sure and started having imposter syndrome, wondering if I could do it. Mike and I had written Every Connection Matters together, but we had a partner, so it was easier to have a thinking partner. I was sought out again and ended up writing Read Outside Your Bubble. The title comes from the bubbles we all live in. My bubble is one that is often marginalized, but as I've gotten older, I've been intentional about reading about my heritage, my Black experience, and the Black experiences of others, because it's not a monolith. I've also read outside my experience as a Black woman to learn about other people's experiences. I wanted teachers, educators, leaders, and parents to learn what goes into beginning the journey of including inclusive literature in lessons. It's more than picking up a book about a Black person or an Asian person and putting it in front of kids. You have to vet books, because there are biases and stereotypes. It's important to vet books before putting them in front of kids, and I talk about that in the book. I discuss my LEAP framework and my LEAD framework. It includes learning for yourself as an educator before you begin teaching kids, though that learning can happen simultaneously; equity, making things equitable for all learners; accessibility; purpose; and ongoing professional learning, rather than a one-and-done approach. Through the lens of mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors—the work of Rudine Sims Bishop—I move through the different layers of my framework for doing this work in any lesson with any curriculum. This is work we must do. We often talk about the science of reading and structured reading, and this work should be integrated and embedded in that, too. Culturally responsive teaching, which is basically what I'm talking about, is often left out of conversations about reading. As a struggling reader, I needed something to connect me to reading, to help me see myself and feel engaged. That desire made me want to read more and more. That's the premise behind my book, and it is the work. I think that this work not only creates readers, but good humans.

And just having a resource that a teacher can dive into if they're curious about this, committed to this work, and need an extra set of next steps is so important for someone looking for takeaways. Nita, this has been such a fantastic conversation, with lots of great things for people to think about and great tech connections for people looking to leverage technology in their classroom. Where can people connect with you and learn more about your work?

They can find me at loveteachbless.com, and on social media. I'm on Instagram. I dabble in TikTok. I'm 40—I'm going to be 47 this year—and I try my best with that. I'm also on Threads. They can find me at Love Teach Bless. Just Google me anywhere, and you can connect with me there. You can also email me through my Instagram account if you have more questions or want to do more work. This is the work, and I love to collaborate with folks.

Well, thank you so much for your time and for all of your great strategies and tips that you shared with listeners today.

Thanks, Monica.

It was so much fun chatting with Nita today. Let's finish up this episode with a few key points from the conversation. Build a classroom library where students see both themselves and others reflected in the books. Stay reflective and intentional, since even a strong library can fall short when a new student arrives with a story you haven't fully represented. Use digital collections and tools to offer curated, choice-driven texts beyond your physical shelves. Find online articles to connect current events to what students are reading and boost engagement through leveled texts. If you want to learn more about Nita's work and her book, make sure to follow along and check out what she's working on. Her book is called Read Outside Your Bubble, and it's definitely worth checking out. A big thank you to Jotform, the presenter of today's episode. To learn more about Jotform and how educational institutions can get a 30% discount on Jotform Enterprise, head to jotform.com/enterprise/education.