SCHOOL LIBRARY: MEDIATOR OF READING AND LITERACY PRACTICES FOR STUDENTS WITH READING DIFFICULTIES

Abstract

The poor reading and writing performance of students entering the final years of middle school (grades 6-9) has been increasingly significant, compromising their academic success. The school library is seen as a way to minimize reading and writing difficulties, skills that should be developed in the early grades of elementary school (grades 1-5). The National School Library Program (PNBE), developed since 1997, aims to promote access to culture and encourage reading among students and teachers through the distribution of collections of literature, research, and reference works. However, the democratization of access to reading expected from the distribution of these books, with regard to users, students, teachers, and community members, has not occurred as anticipated. The existence of literary collections and reference works does not, in itself, change the deeply rooted practice of using only textbooks; classrooms do not reserve time for diversified work with other available literary titles. Even with advancements in the quality and distribution of these collections, the textbook has imposed a pedagogical approach, a way of being a teacher, and a way of being a student. The textbook has become the "central book," holding all the knowledge that students need at each stage of their schooling. This, in the view of teachers, due to a lack of training and reflection on their pedagogical practice, prevents them from discussing different conceptions of language, reading, and writing, and limits them to using only the material available in the school library.