Fostering a reading culture is an important role for a teacher/librarian. It is a role I would like to improve on and hopefully, in turn, more students will find a love of reading. Currently in my school we have several ways to foster a reading culture. Most of the classes in my school do buddy reading which not only has younger and older students reading together, but often includes working on small projects together. It is a kind of collaboration. The older students often modelling the way people can work together towards a common goal and learn more than they might have on their own. At least once a year, everyone gets together for a school wide book talk. Student are in small, multi-grade, family groups for the event. Each group has a grade six leader running the group and an adult,teacher,ea, parent in the background just to make sure all goes well. Students are encouraged to bring props, or dress in character to enhance the experience. Teachers are free to determine the parameters for book selection. Sometimes the books are fiction, sometimes nonfiction, and often both. Other teachers have asked students to pick just a chapter to book talk from a novel the class is studying.
In the library, I have my usual seasonal and new book displays. I have the most popular series grouped separately in a labeled baskets for easy access. The books are well loved and the baskets are often empty. I also have another basket I call skinny books. This was not my idea, but I can't remember where I learned about it, so sorry no citation. Skinny books are just that. The books are fast reads and very often high interest, low vocabulary. An example of the kinds of books in this basket are the, And Then it Happened, series.
hotcupofteaandagoodbook.BlogSpot.
I give book talks and show book trailers. Just outside the library I have a, Need a book,
Take a book, Have a book, Leave a book, box. I need to remind students about the leave
a book part because the selection has been pretty narrow lately. Another way I try to
encourage reading is with a used book fair. The students are always excited to see how
much a loonie can buy them and often leave with bags full of books. They also like to
buy books for their parents. This activity does raise some money for the library, but
from the students reaction to the sale you can tell they are excited to read their new
a year, the primary teachers and I put on books for bedtime, a program for 3 to 5 year
olds. The children participate in story time other reading related activities while the parents
are given a short presentation about community resources, like the public library,
or Mother Goose story time, a program for very young children presented by Mission
Literacy in Motion. Children always leave with a new book and a bag of literacy goodies.
Our school also hosts, Little Readers, a parent run program for 3 to 5 year olds. Kids and
their caregiver participate in story time, crafts and a book exchange.
A great way for the little ones to get used to the school they will probably attend and for
parents in the community to connect. All of theses strategies and program help to promote a culture of reading, but I am interested in finding some ideas or ways to spice up current strategies and programs.
When I was searching YouTube, I found some great videos to promote reading. My favourite is Dear Summer Reader. I would love to get the staff together and create something similar for the end of the year assembly.
Another video I like is the Roosevelt Flash Mob: Gotta Keep Reading. It would be great for the classes to learn the dance and perform it together in the gym before our Book Talk.
My research on Twitter also lead me to the article, What are Young Learners Reading?or How Does What They Are Reading Fit in with Building a Community of Readers? by Sharon McElmeel. In the article she makes a clear case against Accelerated Reading, a program I have never agreed with, as a way to motivate readers. McElmeel goes on to examine what does motivate readers? The key ideas McElmeel focuses on are TIME, ACCESS and CHOICE. I very much agree with her conclusions especially CHOICE. As long as the reader sees value in the book it doesn't matter if we see the value. She also brings up an idea that I hadn't really thought about before. "Sometimes books need time to resonate with the reader," says McElmeel. Student don't always understand everything about a story at the time they read it, but later in their life they have an experience that reminds them of something that happened in the book that they always wondered about. For example, McElmeel tells a story about her son. He had read Farmer Boy, by L. Wilder in Elementary school and never really understood how the donuts Ma was frying turned over by themselves. Three years later, he saw donuts frying at home and saw the donuts flip over alone. He said to McElmeel " I always wondered how they did that." I love it when students have "Aha" moments. McElmeel also leaves teachers with a good reminder at the end of the article.
"It is our responsibility as educators to implement the most effective strategies that reach our objectives, to create life-long readers and build a community of readers."
References Cited
Herbert, Jesse. "Dear Summer Reader." YouTube. Np., n.d. web. 06 Oct. 2015.
McElmeel, Sharron. " What Are Young Learners Reading?" Teacher Librarian (2015): 29-33. Web.
Read-A-Thon Flash Mob channel."Roosevelt Flash Mob: Gotta Keep Reading." YouTube. Np., n.d. web. 06 Oct. 2015.
Well done post! Your discussion of what you've done in the past that works well and what you've found via social networks was very insightful. Good reflective piece as well about choice and allowing students to pick what they want to read and when to make reading a pleasurable activity, not school-work. Good embedding of videos, media and tagging of your post as well!
ReplyDeleteFun video about summer reading! I think encouraging reading of the summer break is a great idea, and a good way to keep fostering that culture of reading.
ReplyDeleteHi Julie,
ReplyDeleteI think that it is a great idea to call quick reading novels skinny books instead of easy readers. I will have to start calling books like that skinny books in hopes of attracting the right readers. Also, I liked the videos. What a fun way to motivate students to read during the summer!
I also agree that student choice in books is important. As long as they are reading, it shouldn't matter what they choose.
Hi Judy,
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of having a school wide book talk. The idea of everyone talking about literature, demonstrating a school wide community of readers. It pairs well with Drop Everything and Read. I wonder if you did it twice, once after Drop everything and read, where the students got together in their classes and shared what they have been reading with each other, and then later in the year in your family groups with your grade 6s as leaders. It also reminds me of a book I have, "Mrs. Brooks Loves Books, (and I Don't)" by Barbara Bottner. The teacher librarian always reads her stories dressed up as characters from the book she is reading. She is fun and exciting, but when all the students are asked to choose a favorite book to share, one student really struggles. She eventually finds her book, dresses like an ogre and even makes warts for all the kids to wear.
I also love the idea of skinny books, what a great way for lower level readers to maintain their self esteem and yet to fit in with class expectations. The skinny books give permission for students to make that a choice.
I do like the summer read video, but after spending the first few weeks talking about book care, watching "Don't Let the Pigeon Touch the Books" YouTube were he takes the book in the pool and spills water and food on the book, I think some of their choices for places to read would send a mixed message. Definitely fun though.
Hi Judy,
ReplyDeleteLike Heather, I really loved the idea of a school wide book talk event. What a great way to involve the entire school community! Thanks for sharing that idea.