Empowering teen readers: The role of the teacher librarian in supporting reading for pleasure

Teacher librarians are in a unique position in the school to build reading motivation and support positive reading identities for students. This book chapter will focus on the link between reading identities and motivation for secondary readers and the role that teacher librarians play in this process. This theoretical exploration will explore four reading identities, including the avid reader, the proficient reader, the struggling reader and the reluctant reader. Research suggests that each of these identities are dependent on the value a person places on reading as well as that person's self-concept of their own reading ability and can also be linked to the availability of diverse books and thus, school library collections. A discussion of these links will be presented with a focus on collection diversity including themes of social justice issues such as sustainability, gender, sexuality and race. Additionally, this chapter will cover the role of the teacher librarian as an enabling adult and social agent and the influence they have in developing reader identity and increasing teens' motivation to read. The chapter will offer strategies and ideas from the research to help librarians and educators harness that influence most effectively in positively impacting the reading lives of teens.