The concept of books as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors is a powerful idea to teach students. It brings a different level of comprehension and metacognition to reading and young readers.
Books that act as mirrors allow us to see ourselves in them. We may see characters who look like us. Characters that have similar experiences to our own. Perhaps we’ll even see families that are similar to ours. We may even see familiar places.
All of this helps us connect to the character, settings, or even the events.
When we can connect to characters, settings, or events books are incredibly powerful tools. They help us feel like we are not alone. Sometimes, they can even help us better understand ourselves or our lives.
Even better, books help us work through a problem or prepare us for a problem we may encounter in the future.
Young readers are pretty egocentric. This isn’t a bad thing; just a developmental characteristic. They are concrete learners.
They don’t quite see a world outside of their immediate surroundings. Nor do they always understand the lives of anyone outside of their own life and experiences.
This is what makes teaching books as mirrors to young readers so much fun. They absolutely love seeing themselves reflected in books.
Books that act as windows give us a glimpse into the lives of other people. We get to take a peek into new and different worlds. And we get a little taste of unfamiliar experiences.
This helps us learn more about the broader world. It begins to develop a better understanding of others, other places, and situations we may not know or ever come across.
Developmentally, young readers begin to understand a world outside of their own around age 9 and 10. This is because they are just beginning to develop those abstract thinking skills.
What’s really fun about introducing children to books as windows is that they get to meet new people and travel new places. Some of them even start to understand that life is different around the globe.
Books that act as sliding glass doors let us slip in and out of the story. They immerse us.
We can really feel what it’s like to be that character and feel what they feel. We can be worried for them as they are exposed to particular situations. Just like readers of The Life I’m In get so worried about Char as she gets groomed for an abusive prostitution ring. (Nope, not an elementary read. More YA. But still a great read!)
As readers, we get lost in the setting. We may be absolutely terrified of it and never want to return. We may be completely enamored with it and want to go there ourselves. Very much like Harry Potter fans want to go to Hogwarts!
All of this is so necessary as books like these give us perspective. They helps us develop empathy for others.
It is so much fun to share books as sliding glass doors to young readers. It is a blast to introduce them to new and fantastical places.
It is necessary to get them steeped in literature that introduces them to people who are different from them. And who have different lives and experiences from them.
The idea of books as mirrors, windows, and sliding doors can bet taught whenever you think is best for your particular groups of students.
Personally, I prefer teaching this concept to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade.
In 3rd grade we focus on books as mirrors and the types of books that reflect us. In 4th grade we focus on books as windows and the titles that give glimpses. In 5th grade we focus on books as sliding glass doors and the titles that immerse us.
Doing so allows me to meet each grade’s developmental needs.
It also let me introduce specific titles, authors, and series available in the library.
Not to mention the genres I get to introduce to them. Genres that they may not have previously considered.
All of this provides us with a super clear focus of what’s available in the library and how the library is organized.
I also choose to introduce this concept early on the year; during the first weeks of school. It’s amazing how many children borrow books that they never even noticed before!
Introducing the concept early in the year allows us to revisit how we care for books, how we search for books, and how we work in the library media center.
When teaching children about books as mirrors, windows, and doors, a few things make it super successful.
Long ago, I used to use comprehension strategies like making connections to books to get kids hooked on reading. I like this concept more than that.
It gets kids thinking about literature on a deeper level. And I believe that it creates this metacognitive opportunity where they’re thinking about themselves in relation to the literature.
How do you get your students to think about books? I’d love to hear! Pop a comment below.
