A Closer Look at the Include Foundation with Jennifer Gibson

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Photo by Tara Winstead from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-person-holding-a-puzzle-piece-with-a-heart-8386182/

The Include domain is one that I was very interested in interviewing a middle school librarian about because I am curious in how this would look at this level. For this interview, I interviewed Mrs. Jennifer Gibson. She is the library at North Central Middle School, which is in the most rural part of Kershaw County. Throughout this interview, I learned a lot about the school and community that I did not previously know. 


The most impactful part of this interview was our discussion about how she uses Holocaust lessons each year. These lessons build on one another and provide discussion amongst the students. For example, she does an interactive timeline lesson, a map with the Holocaust and its impact, and a psychology lesson. You might assume that students in rural South Carolina cannot connect with the Holocaust in a personal way, but you would be wrong. Many of these students move around a lot, and not by choice. They might move away due to financial or other reasons one year and the next they are back at North Central. Mrs. Gibson said that the students can relate to the Jewish population after learning about their experiences. It was profound to me that they can have such a deep connection with a group of people from a different time and country. This makes their learning more impactful. I can tell that the students really learn from these lessons and leave feeling empowered to make a change. This conversation about the Holocaust truly inspired me to find those connections that do not seem apparent right away. 


Another takeaway I got from this interview was the discussion about how she includes the teacher’s perspectives in her lessons. She has a library schedule where she sees every class during a two-week period. Taking into consideration what students are learning in class, she creates a lesson. As she teaches the lesson, she tweaks parts of it through reflection and teacher feedback. As a former teacher, I thought that it really strengthened her lessons to include input from their perspective. It shows how you are continuously improving to be better for the students. 


Photo by Polina Zimmerman: https://www.pexels.com/photo/globe-on-shelf-3747519/

One of the best pieces of advice she gave during the interview is that everything in this domain can be included at some point, but not all at once. In reflection, middle school students are learning so much about the world and themselves. They are developing their own opinions as they discover more about the world and their values. This domain can be used to powerfully help this group of students as they navigate growing up. 


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