How to Feed the Need to Read?

LIBE 477 63A Fostering Reading Cultures in School: Reflecting on classroom and school wide literacy plans

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Figure 1. A photo of personal notes taken in Abbotsford, B.C. October 6, 2020.

A quick brainstorm of activities that I feel have helped nurture a love for reading made me realize how much I myself, love reading.  I can admit I do not have the best retention of plots I read, so re-reading the same book  still brings me joy, wonder, and curiosity the second and third time round.  So, how have I promoted this in my classroom without outright demonstrating it?  Believe me, I have thought about it and I have tried it a handful of times, but the guilt of losing so much teaching time has made it one of the few activities I have not included in this list below:

• utilizing Daily 5, a balanced literacy program that focuses on five essential literacy habits (Read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, word work, work on writing) and allows differentiation to occur while the teacher is able to work on specific skills in small groups.
• Mem Fox stresses the importance of Read Alouds with children: https://youtu.be/OxcHy59_Q84

          and most recently, the class and I set a goal of 100 books read aloud and chart them on our wall. 

          Our reward?  A movie based on a book complete with pyjamas, stuffies, and snacks.  Of course we

          we will be celebrating differently this year.  We are at 25 already!

• As a grade 3 class, we are gifted with a kindergarten/grade 1 buddy class.  We collaborate weekly on various playful learning and curricular activities.  During read to self every day after lunch, a group of grade 3s will head down to the K/1 wing and read or listen to reading with our buddy class.
• Each student has a reading bin with “Right Fit” books that they have access to at all times of the day.  My PAC funds and personal money go into my every-growing classroom library.  I hope to think the texts reflect student interest (Dog Man and Raina Telgemeier graphic novels) as well as diverse text, genre and non-fiction.  Along with a classroom library that is set up as a mostly genrefied collection similar to their school learning commons, there is a bin of student-made books that peers can enjoy reading.
• Quick Post-it reviews: I encourage students to add a little sticky note in a book they have finished reading for those peers that have difficulty choosing something to read.
• District Media story kits:  our district learning commons has prepared grade-level story kits with lesson plans as well as kits that cover genres from habitat non-fiction readers to indigenous graphic novel sets.
• Book swap: Around Christmas I do a classroom book swap.  Students can trade in their very good condition books for someone else’s.  It freshens up their home library and gets them excited to read something a classmate also loved!
• Book talks:  Before I introduce new titles into the classroom library, we often do book talks.  I will show a video of the author talking about the process or have students in pairs take a new book and gather some quick information to present to the class (author, genre, recommendations).
• Home Reading: in previous years, I have been graced with lots of adult volunteers who are able to come in every day and listen to the students read, check their home reading, hand out incentive tickets.  The focus is not on the amount of books read, but making time each day to read to someone for at least 20 minutes and talk about what they are reading.  We have reading draws and prizes as well.  I know we have naysayers about extrinsic motivation.
• Skype in the Classroom offers virtual meets with authors.  I have had Sarah Giles and Cressida Cowell booked in the past.  I am very disappointed I just missed Todd Parr, but we have one scheduled with Howard Binkow next month.  There are also many robust webpages that authors have, like Peter H. Reynolds, Robert Munch, and Mo Willems, which offer readings of their books, insight to the writing and illustrating process, and interactive activities.  
• I used to have the Langley Rivermen, a junior hockey team, come in and read with the kids.  They would challenge the kids to 21 days of Reading straight, and award them with signed swag and tickets to their games.  The players would tell the kids about their favourite books growing up, and stress the importance of reading.
• Reading groups are alive and well in the grade 3 class, and due to the prolonged absence last year, I feel like students more than ever, need small group instruction to support their decoding and comprehension skills; being able to discuss the same text with their peers.
• The problem of not always having access to quality books right away has been more evident this past month.  Websites and YouTube playlists like Story Line Online and Save with Stories have celebrities, natural storytellers, read quality picture books.  
• Epic! My children at home and my students love this free digital library.  It has kid-safe, engaging videos on how to make slime, audio books, read to me books, of all different levels, genres, and types of texts.  This library was a game changer for remote learning. Unlike Raz-Kids, which uses levelled readers, Epic! allowed students to use any text of their choice to explore reading and writing elements.
  
• I don’t want to discredit Raz-Kids at all, but as we know, we read for different purposes.  Especially for those lower readersRaz-Kids ensures that students are not missing important sight words along the way, and have a chance to record and listen to their reading.  There are also comprehension questions so this can help parents and educators decide whether or not the book level is a “good fit” for the child.  There are lots of incentives for the students to read as they gain points to do more to their account. 

What makes a reading culture weave magic and wonder?  What measures have created an ineffective concoction to promote reading as a daily, positive habit?  

By the power of School-Wide reading, what can be conjured up to support and nurture a community of readers?

Our B.C. teacher’s contract was stripped and school funding was bare in the early to mid-2000s.  During this time, non-enrolling staff like teacher librarians were cut.  In Langley, the learning commons positions began to open up about four years ago.  Having a skilled co-teacher available to a school to support literacy as well as other subject areas, including A.D.S.T. has made a huge impact.  With a hub in place, our TLs have been able to connect, collaborate, and support whole-school goals like literacy.

Here are some tools and implementations I have seen at my K-5 school (pre-Covid):

• Book club for students that are reading chapter books: students come from all grades and classes and meet with the TL, have some hot chocolate, and enjoy discussing their book of the month.
• Family Literacy Night: Parents come with their children to the school and learn about ways to help with home reading.  They sit and read books with their family and play literacy activities with support of teachers that make reading a part of the family’s activities.
• Connecting with the public library and hosting author visits; advertising summer reading program, and participating in the Langley Reading Link challenge (schools create teams that read chapter books freely given by the public library, which can be sourced into the school library,  and answer comprehension questions)
• Langley Picture Book of the Year is something that the district TLs started.  They pick a handful of quality picture books for K-3 and chapter books for intermediate classes.  School TLs purchase the texts and teachers read them to their classes.  The school votes on their favourite, all the schools participating votes get pooled, and the book winners are announced with special stickers to mark their significance in the school library shelves.  This used to be done by the classroom teachers, but TLs now incorporate it into their teaching. 
• The Scholastic Book Fair is always a sure-fire way to get families into the school and purchasing books for their kids and their kids’ classrooms.
• The TL has an instagram account for parents and students to follow.  They can see the new reads and what they are doing in the learning commons.
• Many school groups like the Garden Club, Legoclub, Makerspace club, etc. meet in the learning commons creating a community atmosphere in the learning commons.
• During remote learning, our TL created a page with activities and on-line reading material.  Activities ranged from school staff reading a chapter of a book each week, emoji clues to guess a book title, and a reading of a story while the PE teacher led students in a yoga exercise.

Sounds fanciful, but what is missing here?  What are some other ideas that will strengthen that Home-school connection and engage even the most reluctant of readers?

https://www.weareteachers.com/build-reading-culture/

Some great ideas that I have pulled from this website:

📕Making a “What I’m Reading” bulletin for the entire school community to SEE from students to teachers and perhaps, even parents!

📗Spice up morning announcements by having students share a quotation from a book, a joke, a poem, etc. to get students excited and engaged.

📙Following literacy movements like #WorldReadAloudDay or start a school-wide reading challenge and publish an ongoing tracking system in public areas of the school

📘Using social media, start fake profiles for book characters

You haven’t mentioned anything about “what is not working”?

The years vary, like one such as this, and I think as educators we do what works, until it doesn’t and we try something new.  Asking your class what they are interested in, why they like reading, why they don’t, will help guide your literacy practice for that year.  Knowing whether or not a digital platform is redundant or produces more benefit to engaging readers is also a critical skill to practice in today’s classroom.

Bibliography

Barrett, Lindsay. (2019, March 18). 25 Ways to Build Your School's Reading Culture. Retrieved October 09, 2020, from https://www.weareteachers.com/build-reading-culture/

Bitmoji.  Retrieved October 09, 2020, from https://www.google.ca/search?q=bitmoji

Daily 5. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2020, from https://www.thedailycafe.com/daily-5

Inc., E. (n.d.). Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic. Retrieved October 09, 2020, from https://www.getepic.com/

Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2020, from https://www.raz-kids.com/

Rockets, R. (Director). (2004, April 23). A Passion for reading aloud [Video file]. Retrieved September 09, 2020, from https://youtu.be/OxcHy59_Q84

Save with Stories - Coronavirus Response. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2020, from https://www.savethechildren.org/us/what-we-do/emergency-response/coronavirus-outbreak/save-with-stories

Skype in the Classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2020, from https://education.skype.com/

Storyline online. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2020, from https://www.storylineonline.net/