Reading promotion

Many people believe the school library's main function is to promote and support reading. I agree that this is one of our goals but I do try to remind people that it is certainly not the only thing we do. There is much more a school library can do to support learning and the curriculum.



This week our two local public librarians were able to come and present booktalks for our sixth grade classes. Two of our classes did not get to hear them yet because we continually deal with bad weather on Tuesdays. It was kind of the librarians to come and share their time with the students. The booktalks they gave were much longer than any I have given. They like to read one or two pages out of a book to the students. This is one of the ways that we promote reading to our students (AASL 1.2) All of the copies we had of their four titles were checked out and we have a very long waiting list for one of the titles. We also like keeping a good relationship with the public libraries and we tell the students that their local public library is a good place to get materials that we don't own. We also allow the public librarians to come in at the end of the year and promote their summer reading program.

Last week I was able to do some quick book talks with the juniors and seniors in three English classes. (AASL 1.2) While I was doing this, I also showed two book trailers on the big screen. I knew that the visual book trailors would catch their interest. I did not have a lot of time to prepare for this but found a couple of trailers that were at the high school level on school tube. I also brought out all of the books that we own that are appropriate for high school students, not middle school students. I wanted to get these books out to be seen and touched because they are not highly visible where we keep them now. The students were attentive for the most part and a number of our high school appropriate books were checked out.

Another thing that we have done this year is to move a book shelf near the front of our library for new arrivals (AASL 1.2). We put it right where the students walk in the door. I love to see a student stop, take a second look, and say "this looks good", then pick it up and check out the book.

Since I have been staying in the AASL 1.2 vein, it makes me think of a conversation I had with one of my new library volunteers. We were able to sit and talk about what she has read lately and what I have read lately. I like to hear about what the students enjoy reading. I like sharing that I enjoy reading too. It is rewarding to hear students share about books they like and you can see they share your passion for reading. We actually had a student helper this year who was known for getting into trouble in class. He needed to work in the library to fill a block of time and we said we would try him out but he had to prove to us he was willing to work. What a pleasant surprise to see his willingness and his respect for us. One of the neatest things occured when he had to read a book for English class. He disliked reading but we got him hooked on Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and somehow we felt we were responsible for turning him into a reader. He loved the books and devoured the whole trilogy.

I also thought I might share about Teen Read Week that I promoted in October. My librarian does not like to spend too much time on things like these that appear to her as extra curricular activites. I feel that it promotes the library and it is good marketing to show students that we are there and that we actually give things away. It is a time for me/us to be giving, which is the way we should be all the time. A couple of years ago I was able to write an entire paper on how we could change the climate of the library in which I worked so that students would view us differently. I don't really mean we need to more permissive, even though we might, be we need to show the students that we care about them personally and we are there to help them. Anyhow, Teen Read Week did not involve reading as much as it involved getting students to practice their library skills by filling out a drawing slip that contained the name of a good book they have read, its author, and why they liked it. If they turned one of these slips in, they got a free pencil. There was also another drawing slip they could fill out that required pairing the a fiction book with a nonfiction with a matching topic. They had to use our catalog to find the books and the authors. We then drew thirty or so names for prizes. The teachers had helped us out by contributing some homework passes and bonus points for prizes as well. It did take some time to complete this week and the passing out of prizes but I felt that it was worth it to promote the library.