Read Outside Your Bubble E-Book

Nita Creekmore

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 298

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Learn how to foster student engagement, cultivate empathy, and encourage a love of reading by bringing diverse literature into the classroom

Using an instructional coaching framework, Read Outside Your Bubble introduces teachers to a new mindset for helping students develop literacy and become lifelong readers. By building an accessible and inclusive literacy curriculum, you can pique students' interest in the world outside their #bubbles. “Bubbles” are identity markers of race, religion, orientation, and socio-economic status. In this book, instructional coach and parent Nita Creekmore takes a conversational and research-backed approach to introducing her L.E.A.P framework, which guides you through the process of crafting your curriculum. You'll also learn how to develop lesson plans that increase compassion, cultivate empathy, and encourage a love of reading and history.

• Follow the research-backed L.E.A.P. framework to choose diverse reading selections for K-12 classrooms
• Learn step-by-step techniques for creating an inclusive curriculum that engages students in literacy
• Help turn students into lifelong learners by encouraging them to think beyond their own circumstances and think critically about the world around them
• Teach students how to compare and contrast themes and ideas across content areas

The primary audience is teachers, curriculum coaches, curriculum specialists, instructional coaches, and homeschooling parents will appreciate the practical, future-minded approach in Read Outside Your Bubble. This book brings diversity into classrooms in a way that will prepare students to participate in the creation of a more inclusive world.

Leseprobe

Praise for Read Outside Your Bubble

“Everyone needs a copy of Read Outside Your Bubble in their classroom and at home libraries! It is a transformative, crucial read about the importance of reading inclusive books.”

—Kaitlin Johnstone, cofounder, Kind Cotton

“In Read Outside Your Bubble, Nita Creekmore calls educators to bring diverse voices into their classrooms, building spaces of trust, connection, and transformation. Through her LEAP framework and practical classroom insights, Nita guides teachers on a courageous path, showing how inclusive texts deepen relationships, inspire greater learning, and empower us to meet today's challenges with purpose and intention.”

—Lori Cohen, coauthor of The PD Book: 7 Habits That Transform Professional Development

“Nita Creekmore's Read Outside Your Bubble inspired me to rethink how I approach reading and teaching. Her blend of personal stories and practical strategies makes stepping outside our familiar boundaries both accessible and necessary. This book is essential for anyone seeking to foster empathy and inclusivity through literature!”

—LaNesha Tabb, author, speaker, and founder of Reimagine Writing

“Nita's LEAP framework is everything a teacher needs to build an inclusive and empathetic literacy curriculum that truly resonates with students. As an instructional coach, this is my go‐to resource for working with teachers as we build impactful classrooms that engage students beyond their ‘bubbles’ and foster a love for diverse perspectives. The framework goes beyond academics; it's a transformative approach that prepares students for a more inclusive world by inspiring compassion, critical thinking, and meaningful impact. Nita's research‐backed steps make it easy for educators to create classrooms that leave a lasting, positive impression on students' lives.”

—Nicole S. Turner, author and CEO of Simply Instructional Coaching

“Read Outside Your Bubble is a wonderful resource on the importance of diverse perspectives in the books that we read to our students. This book provides educators, instructional facilitators and administrators with a deep understanding of how varied voices can enrich classroom discussions and foster empathy. Nita shares her immense knowledge as an educator, parent, and instructional coach on the importance of incorporating inclusive books in order to learn more about our beautifully diverse world.”

—Jenny LaRocque, educator and author

“Nita Creekmore has written a book that I will be gifting to every educator I can. It is not just a powerful book but a necessary one. The impact and gift of literacy cannot go understated and Nita has perfectly encapsulated not only the importance of books but the real value in consuming a wide variety and how much it can change a life. I can't praise this book enough! I have sticky notes all over it!”

—Todd Nesloney, director of Culture and Strategic Leadership at the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association (TEPSA)

“Read Outside Your Bubble is a compelling dive into the world of lesser‐chosen reads, encouraging readers to step outside their comfort zones and open themselves to a myriad of books.”

—Silvana Spence, founder of the STEAM SQUAD LLC and author of Bella the Scientist Goes to Outer Space

Read Outside Your Bubble

Expand Your Bookshelf, Expand Your World

Nita Creekmore

Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies.

Jossey‐Bass, a Wiley imprint

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data is Available:

ISBN 9781394244638 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781394244645 (ePub)

ISBN 9781394244652 (ePDF)

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Images: © retouchman/Getty Images, © malerapaso/Getty Images

To my loving husband, Michael, and our amazing children, Bryson, Aspen, Simone, and Eva—my entire family. Your love and support have been my guiding light. You are the reason the search for diverse stories that reflect mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors was ignited. May you continue to expand your bubbles and embrace the richness of our world, making it a more compassionate and human place for all.

To my mother who introduced mirror books to me at a young age. Thank you for all your unconditional love and support.

To my students past, present, and future I hope you use inclusive books to change the world one drop at a time.

To my dearest yaya sisters—your support has always meant the world to me. Thank you for always tellling me to shine bright. Love you both. #lovetranscends

Foreword by Charnaie Gordon

There may come a time in life when you realize your world feels smaller than it should. Maybe it's a quiet realization when you're scrolling through social media and see conversations you've never had. Or perhaps it's a sharp jolt when someone shares a perspective that challenges everything you thought you knew. Either way, that's your bubble tapping you on the shoulder. It's a reminder that your life, your choices, and your reading habits are all shaped by the limits of what you've allowed in and what you've intentionally or unintentionally kept out.

I remember the first time I realized I had been living inside my own bubble. It wasn't intentional; it's just what happens when you lean into what feels familiar and safe. My bookshelf, my friends, my worldview—they all reflected what I already knew and believed. But one day, while in college, I began reading more books by authors of color. The stories I read shook me. They forced me to sit with discomfort, beauty, and truths that were outside of my lived experience. I read books that were mirrors, windows, and doors all at once. That's the power of reading.

Nita Creekmore captures this idea perfectly in Read Outside Your Bubble. With her warmth, insight, and ability to challenge without judgment, she invites readers to reconsider not just what we read but how we live. This book gently guides you toward a richer, fuller way of being in the world through relationships, reading, and intentional growth.

The beauty of this book lies in its practicality. You won't just be told to “read more inclusively” and left to figure it out on your own. Instead, Nita introduces her LEAP framework—Learning, Equity, Access, and Purpose—a roadmap for making inclusive reading part of your everyday life. She'll help you find books that reflect the world's diversity and teach you how to use them in ways that deepen understanding, spark curiosity, and transform conversations.

I recommend this book for educators, librarians, parents, or anyone who wants to expand their bookshelf and their world. It's for those who've realized they've been standing still while the world moves forward. It's for the curious souls who are ready to push past comfort and into growth. And yes, it's for the skeptics who might think, “Does this really matter?” (Spoiler: It absolutely does!)

I love how Nita challenges us to think about books as more than stories. They're tools for empathy, change, and connection. Each chapter builds on this idea, showing us how books can be mirrors that reflect our experiences, windows into other worlds, and sliding‐glass doors that invite us to step outside ourselves. Through her words, you'll see how reading outside your bubble can help you build relationships, dismantle biases, and see the world and yourself more clearly.

The chapter on banned books hit me the hardest. Nita flips the script, reframing these often controversial stories as VIBs: Very Important Books. These are the stories someone doesn't want you to read, which makes them all the more essential. It's a powerful reminder that every time we choose to read outside our bubbles, we're making a statement: we refuse to be closed off. We refuse to be stuck. We choose growth, connection, and understanding.

So here's my challenge to you: let this book be your invitation to POP YOUR BUBBLE! Start with curiosity. Let Nita's wisdom guide you as you fill your bookshelves and your heart with stories that challenge, inspire, and expand you.

Chapter 1What Is a Bubble?

Bubble

Bubbles are translucent globules that are usually hollow and light. When thinking about the word globules, the word that immediately comes up for me is globe. A globe is a spherical, rounded object. If you begin to mesh the two together to find connection, you can compare the hollow, translucent bubble to a globe or a world, filled with spaces, places, and diverse people. The individual bubble is hollow and translucent; however, when it becomes filled like a globe with learning and connections to self and others, it is no longer hollow. However, that bubble can still float. It gives the appearance of being light in weight because gravity is holding the globe, or the world, in place. When expanded, the bubble can be filled with light and beauty just like the world—the globe.

When I thought about the best way to explain what the bubble actually is as it relates to reading outside your bubble, I began thinking about how a bubble for a person is formed. I thought about what makes a person stay enclosed in their perspective bubble and what would intrigue a person to expand outside of their bubble to see—not only a translucent bubble but a bubble expanded filled with color, diversity, and beauty.

The bubble for a person is a space where they begin to grow and learn about themselves through knowledge, experiences, and their environment. As a person continues to grow and learn about themselves, they access knowledge they have learned either directly or indirectly. They gain experiences by moving through life within their bubbles. A person also reads and learns in their bubble because of the environment that surrounds them and the environment they are accustomed to. The bubble continues to form, and it creates a translucent globule around them.