Northville Public Schools recently upgraded all six libraries at the elementary level by adding thousands of new books.
"A lot of our new books were purchased with ESSER III money through 11t. And we have a process where we brought together a committee of parents, and students, and educators who put together lists of titles that they thought would be really high student interests," explained Dr. Sandra Brock, Director of Instructional Programs & Services for Northville Public Schools.
The committee quickly identified a need.
"Books about different kinds of places, books about folktales from different cultures, holidays, biographies, and history so kids could get a feel for different things that have happened in the past and how that might affect them in the future. Kids ask for the things that interest them based on their culture and Northville is a very diverse community," said Kimberly Meisel, media specialist for Silver Springs Elementary.
"So a really important piece is having kids see themselves in the literature. So it would be authors from various backgrounds, protagonists in books from various backgrounds. So I do have some examples here, we have My Diwali Light, we also have Kelly Yang which comes highly recommended from some of our students that we did pilot readings with," said Dr. Brock.
And the process was quite extensive with a lot of research and reviewing of books.
"It was really exciting to find things and research and then call the other schools and say, hey did you guys see this, and share those ideas. It was a lot of work but it was also exciting and fun." explained Meisel.
Dr. Brock reiterates, "And again, student voice was a really big part, so when the 11t committee put together a list of titles, we actually went out and purchased the books and went to buildings and had kids read the books and get their feedback on all of the different titles. So those were the books we ordered."
Through the 11t funding, we were able to purchase $200,000 worth of books that will appeal to Kindergarteners all the way up to fifth graders.
"It's thousands of books, it's really high quality literature for students who are four all the way up to 12 in our elementaries. And we're excited about it," said Dr. Brock.
"I think the community and the parents are just excited that we got this funding and we were able to upgrade our libraries. What was more exciting to me was the kids. So Office of Instruction, they actually purchased some of the books that we recommended and they brought them to every school and then they had groups of kids come in and look at the books and those kids faces were amazing," explained Meisel.
With the dedicated efforts of the 11t funding committee, students are now embarking on an exciting literary journey that reflects their own stories and cultures.