As a teacher-librarian, my first priority was to foster a reading culture in my school library. I have focused a lot of energy into promoting books by:
- Setting up book displays – such as “Good Reads”, “New Books “and “Featured Books”
- Acquiring couches for students to read on
- Reading books from our collection so I can discuss them with students
- Knowing our collection so I can recommend books to students
- Asking students to request books they would like to have added to the collection
- Providing high interest lower level books for reluctant readers and ESL students
For other great suggestions, I checked out a
website called Te@ch Thought and
perused the article “25 Ways a School Can Promote Literacy and Independent
Reading.” 25 Ways A School Can Promote Literacy
Compared with the elementary level, reading
incentive programs at the high school level dry up considerably. Elementary schools have book fairs, local
companies such as Natures' Fare and Dominoes Pizza provide reading incentives by
offering prizes for students meeting reading goals, and there is a competitive annual
district wide battle of the books. This got me thinking about how I can help
students make connections to others in
the school and the community that would encourage students to read. I would also like to promote different genres of books and have students
try reading different types of books. Some
of the ideas that I would like to explore are:
1.
Starting a book club where students can make connections with each other
and share their love of reading. I found
a number of websites that include tips on starting your own book club and
possible books to use for the club.
2. Starting
a "Battle of the Books" for high school students in our area. I found a newspaper article describing how
this is actually happening at a school in Montreal. There are many American websites that are
informative on this topic. They give a
step by step description on how to set up your own "Battle of the
Books." This would be a great joint
venture with our local library.
Oregon Battle of the Books - Book Choices
3. Making connections with local businesses
or request PAC money to run reading contests or to provide reading
incentives. This could be connected with the "Battle
of the Books" idea. Asking local
businesses to provide prizes or prize money would help to connect to the
community and to forge relationships based on their love of reading.
Publishing Perspective Article on Funny Raps about Reading Books
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l8wkfpSzOu1qa9a0do1_500.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l8wkfpSzOu1qa9a0do1_500.jpg
Hi Kelly - I was at a meeting held in your library not long ago and I found that I was wondering what kinds of things you do at the high school level to promote reading! I was wondering this because I teach grade 7's and I find year after year they are definitely not interested in using the library. They are a "tough crowd" and I thought that it must be even tougher to get high school kids to engage in reading. I wonder if your reluctant readers would be engaged by meeting authors. Could this be done even via Skype? I took my class to meet an author at the public library and after that, their interest and participation definitely spiked for a few months! I love the elementary Battle of the Books but I do find that typically only the kids that are already interested in books attend...reaching our reluctant readers is much more challenging. One of the ways that I have done this using Battle of the Books this year is to allow the reluctant readers to attend Battle of the Books practices as "reading coaches". In this way, they do not have to participate in the actual battle and also only need to read a book or two rather than aim for the ten books. The reading coaches get to come to all the practices and as coaches, their job is to have conversations with other readers about the books they've read in order to help the "contestants" remember more details about their Battle books!
ReplyDeleteA great post that had many engaging elements! First off, the Zoolander quote was priceless and almost made me spill my coffee, and the "I'm reading a book" video was also very good, and something I might show some of my senior secondary students! You've done some very good thinking-out-loud in this post with some strong reflection on what is working in other places, and what you plan on trying with your community. Your post had lots of good media embedded, a strong discussion and good use of "labels" to organize your posts!
ReplyDeleteHi Kelly - I found this article today that you might be interested in as a high school teacher-librarian:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2015/01/30/ordinary-kids-read-as-infrequently-as-ordinary-adults-less-than-5-books-per-year/
I read the article. It doesn't surprise me a bit. Many parents are as addicted to the internet or social media as their teenagers. I love to read whenever I can and so do my kids- - coincidence?? Genetics??? I should also say that we don't have cable and limit screen time!
DeleteLots of great ideas and suggestions! I am particularly interested in your reference to high interest low level readers. I am currently on the hunt for some recommendations. I realize your at the high school level, but if you have any series that you really like I'd love to know what they are.
ReplyDelete