In 1990, Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop coined the term “Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors” to describe how literature allows readers to see themselves, understand others, and step into different worlds. Since then, educators have worked to provide texts that not only reflect students’ identities but also broaden their perspectives. 

At my school in Albemarle County (VA), teachers do an excellent job selecting a diverse range of literature. We have found that students often need additional background knowledge to fully understand texts set in different time periods or regions of the world. As the librarian, I frequently collaborate with teachers to provide resources and lessons that build this context. 

Videos available through eMediaVA are a perfect starting point for this work. Below are several examples of how I’ve integrated these videos into background knowledge lessons!

1. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez – Use Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined so students can see how Julia Alvarez was influenced to tell the story of female resistors to the Trujillo dictatorship and her research process meeting the Mirabal sisters’ family and seeing their home and artifacts. 
2. Night by Elie Wiesel – Clips from Return to Auschwitz: The Survival of Vladimir Munk allow students to see images in a chronological journey from the early stages of discrimination to the death camps of the Holocaust. Providing this journey is essential for students to understand the progression of discrimination and segregation of the Jewish people under the Nazi party’s totalitarian government and how it expanded over time to the ghettos and death camps. 
3. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah – Winnie Mandela’s speech on Raising Children Under Apartheid allows students to hear about the impact of apartheid on the children of South Africa. 
4. Taking Flight by Micheala DePrince or A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah – students can listen to Alvin’s Story as he chronicles his experience as a child soldier in the violence of Sierra Leone in the 1990s. 

Although these are all titles with an international focus, providing context is essential when reading about different time periods throughout American history. Here’s a couple of examples from the eMediaVA library.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry – a combination of clips from the play and movie, images from the time period, commentary and quotes in Lorraine Hansberry | A Raisin in the Sun: Jim Crow, Home Ownership, and the American Dream allow students to understand Hansberry’s personal experience with housing discrimination and inspiration for the play. 

The Crucible by Arthur Miller – The American Experience video clip The Speech That Launched the 1950s Red Scare | McCarthy explains the importance of McCarthy’s speech that ignites the Red Scare of the 1950s that subsequently inspired Arthur Miller to write The Crucible. 

How are you providing context for American and international literature you’re using in your classroom? Let us know in the eMediaVA Facebook group!

Erica Thorsen is a high school media specialist in Albemarle County Public Schools and an eMediaVA Ambassador.