Stole my title a bit from a fellow Richmondite, Chris Kennedy, and his awesome blog The Culture Of Yes, as my theme this week is about saying yes to all kinds of reading. Like when kids come to me in the Library and ask, "Mr. Ward, does this Archie comic count for my book?" YES. "Mr. Ward, can I take out this graphic novel?" YES. "Mr. Ward, Can I read my Twitter and Facebook Feeds for reading time?" Hmmmmmm, I suppose so, no wait; YES.
There are lots of ways we promote reading in our school, from participating in Drop Everything And Read at whole school assemblies, to hosting a Scholastic Book Fair this week (it is a lot of work!), to participating in our District Battle of the Books Competition. These are initiatives I either organize from the Library, or collaborate with staff members to make happen for the kids in our school. Perhaps most importantly, I spend time modeling reading with students each Library period. I can't emphasize this point enough. Genuine enthusiasm and daily reading with kids each and every time I work with them is vital to having a culture of reading in my opinion.
Not only do I help students choose books, expose them to a wide variety of books during read alouds, and give lots of opportunities to read throughout the day, but we also allow kids to use laptops to access RAZ Kids, and have instituted daily school wide "Lovin' Literacy" blocks. Each class has a daily, 30 minute chunk of time with 5 staff members who divide the class into ability groupings and work with them teaching guided reading, literature circles, or genres and reading skills depending on the needs of the kids. It has really transformed our kids and their confidence, attitudes, and abilities in reading.
For these reasons, I think we are doing a good job of promoting reading in our school. We also host an After School Reading Program in partnership with the Junction Literacy Centre in town to help kids gain confidence and skills in reading while also having volunteers come into our school to read with primary students in our 1 to 1 reading program. I even had the Strong Start teacher approach me at the start of the year so we could find a time during the week for her to bring her classes of 2-4 year olds to the Library so I could read to them and chat with parents about the benefits of reading with kids even at the youngest of ages. I gave up a half hour of my Admin. time to make it work. I look at it as an investment since many of the kids in the Strong Start Program will one day attend our school, so if they already love books and love the Library, we are setting ourselves up for success in the future.
As a school we also formed book clubs with our staff around 4 books they were interested in, and have been working together to share our findings, wonders, and ideas at monthly staff meetings. One thing I would like to see more of in the Library are teachers who want to collaborate with me and their students instead of "dropping them off" for their prep. I see our book club as a foot in the door to do so, and I will be suggesting to staff that we co-teach something we read about in the book and see if it has an impact on student achievement. Perhaps I could tie this in as part of my inquiry into kindling student motivation as our course progresses.
Great post full of very useful suggestions for crafting a reading culture. I'd love to hear more about this "District Battle of the Books Competition" and was equally impressed with the community partnerships you've developed. Also very insightful was to find some time to work with the strong start kids as the more reading they are exposed to early on, the better prepared they will be when they start attending. Overall, a ton of useful, insightful and fresh suggestions with some fun memes and great tone. Only one small aspect to work on, and that is to "Tag" your posts with Categories or Keywords so that you can easily find all your blog posts that are tagged with "reading" or "literacy" or "LIBE477" for example. Let me know if you need any pointers on tagging your blog posts.
ReplyDeleteSpencer, I like the idea of a staff book club as an indirect way to promote reading in the schools. I can recall hearing somewhere that the best indicator of kids growing up to be readers is having parents who are readers. Couldn't that idea be extended to encompass the teacher - student relationship? And I think you're right that a book club could be a "foot-in-the-door" for encouraging collaborative opportunities.
ReplyDeleteHi Spencer - I completely agree with your culture of YES! Reading is the key to everything and subsequently is the number one thing that we need to make sure our students are truly engaged with and successful at! I am definitely going to "borrow" the Strong Start idea! We have a well attended Strong Start program with about 20 participants each day - it would be fantastic to have them come to the library! I was discussing public library cards with my classes last week and I was quite shocked that more than half of the students in each class had never accessed the public library! Not even online! I am determined to make this change this year. I think that it is another sign of how busy our families are these days and priorities have shifted. We need to get our parents involved with books just as much as the kids! Do you have a library blog on your school website? I am thinking that might be a great way to high light some home reading strategies/activities as well as a book of the week, etc...seems like a rudimentary idea, I know...but I haven't done it yet so for me it could be an exciting endeavor!
ReplyDelete