February - Celebrating Together and Standing Strong for HISD Students

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We promised you periodic information with suggestions of action you might take. Here you go.
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At the beginning of February, Friends of HISD Libraries (FOHL) and SNL hosted a Library Celebration for HISD library staff, featuring 1000+ new or like-new giveaway books, lunch, raffle prizes, and information-sharing. Libraries represented ranged from early childhood centers to high schools, and everyone went home with bags or boxes of books and new ideas gleaned from great conversations with colleagues. (We donated the leftover books to the Heights Neighborhood Library’s annual book sale.) We plan to host more such events for library staff; please keep an eye on your email inbox!

Shearn Elementary Media Specialist LeAnne Raimond loves her job!
That much is clear - read this interview. These photos show the friendly space she has created.

Finders Keepers!
Hogg Middle School Librarian Mary Chance offered her variation of a game called “Read It Forward.” In the original, a few students would get free books to take home and read, with the idea that they would share them with another student when they finished reading the book. Great – except the books somehow didn’t always go to the next student. So her variant is “Finders Keepers”. She wraps the same few free books in caution tape to hide around the campus with the instruction that the finder gets to keep the book. The kids are loving the treasure hunt and come running to report that they found this title or that. There are so many ways to get kids excited about reading! We just wish HISD would employ more of them.

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How to Critically Read a Press Release from the Federal Government (Kelly Jensen in Book Riot, Feb. 6, 2025)
​Finally, in this overwhelming time of frequent Federal Executive Orders and Press Releases, here is a piece to help you see how to read and understand what they do and do not say. While the overload may currently be federal, the same tools apply to state and local information. First, remember the “5 Ws and 1 H”: Who, What, Where, When, Why, How.”
But then there is TOADSRIG: Tone, Organization, Author’s message, Diction, Syntax, Rhetorical purpose, Imagery, Genre. I leave it to you to read the details – it is important to see through the ongoing flood of “government speak.” Book Riot is a great blog to follow.

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Texas SB 13
On Thursday, Feb 27, the TX Senate K-16 Education Committee will hold a committee meeting and public hearing in Austin on a number of proposed senate bills, including Senate Bill 13, a censorship bill which would give “advisory councils” complete oversight over school library catalogs and selection, and expands the categories of books that can be banned (among other terrible things). 
​The Texas Freedom to Read Project (TXFTRP) is coordinating a robust response. Please email your senators and the Senate Education Committee members. THIS VOLUNTEER FORM  connects you to TXFTRP, a grassroots group fighting censorship in the schools - and offers links to every member of the Senate Education Committee. We all need to pay attention to this and more in hopes school libraries can still offer students robust access to information.

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Students Need Read Alouds – HISD/NES Think Otherwise!
These two articles from reputable education sources remind us all how much reading aloud matters. Yes, phonics and decoding skills are important but if our students don’t have broader knowledge on which to hang their budding comprehension skills, they will not do well beyond drill and kill test prep situations. HISD students across HISD but specifically in NES schools are being denied opportunities to access that broader knowledge by borrowing a variety of library books or reading a few class novels during a school year, joining a literature circle with a few classmates to discuss a novel of interest. Or hearing books read aloud, a way to expand student vocabulary.

“What Nobody is Saying About the NAEP Reading Scores: They’re not just about phonics” (Natalie Wexler, Minding the Gap blog, Feb 2, 2025.

“Jump Into Reading: An Initiative Supporting Children Learning to Read” by Katie Eckert and Lori Frumkin (Children and Libraries, the Journal of ALSC, Winter 2024) [This article is paywalled, but I am happy to share my personal access. Just request by emailing [email protected] .]

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Your ACTION ITEMS:
Write your legislators about SB 13 ASAP,
            and other bills as they arise during the session.
Join the Texas Freedom to Read Project Mailing list.
​Understand Government Speak in press releases, etc.
Read the articles on Reading Aloud
Keep following Community Voices for Public Education
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