100 books challenge

I read a post on LM_Net about a challenge to read a 100 books before the end of the school year - here is a blog by a school librarian who has taken up that challenge and is posting about it... http://briarcliffmslibrary.blogspot.com

"OK - What can I do to read lots of books in a short amount of time and make sure I stay on track? Make a pledge to read 100 books during this school year then post it on the internet and tell all the students in my school so they can keep me honest, of course! My plan is to read 100 books during the 2010-2011 school year. I'm going to read all kinds of stories - funny, sad, scary, adventurous, quiet, long, short, with pictures, without pictures. All kinds of stories. Wish me luck and give me suggestions! I’ll keep you posted on this blog! "

It isn't such a revolutionary idea, but setting oneself a challenge (eg a certain number / by when / different genres...) and keeping a blog about it (or LibraryThing / Shelfari account) is a great way to be reading role model and promote reading to students - and fellow teaching / library staff - eg for summer reading...

Whangarei Libraries summer reading programme

At a meeting in Whangarei, Sue Scott promoted the Whangarei Libraries summer reading programme - Great Summer Read Library Pride (with lions motif).

Students come to the library and with a librarian set up a "contract" with their own goals eg total number of books read, or number of hours, along with number of reviews or activity sheets...

One element was the "Wild Card" which was simply a card with a letter of the alphabet and students then had to choose a book from that section - limiting choice...

The students got prizes at the end of the programme if they met their goals. It would be easy to adapt this programme for schools...

Summer slide - 3 - ideas from teachers

A couple of NLNZ sessions this term with teachers explored the importance of maintaining the progress made by students during the year by setting up strategies to keep reading and writing happening over the school holidays - avoiding the "summer slump".

Here are some links to articles about the summer slump :
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/c41/ Summary of articles...

Summer Reading Loss by Maryann Mraz and Timothy V. Rasinski (2007) http://www.readingrockets.org/articles/15218

These are some suggestions from the a group of teachers about what they plan to do:

• Intend to set up school LibraryThing for students to record summer reading
• Promote the library in newsletters and the need to read.
• School newsletter item about summer slide
• LibraryThing class site - link up with other classes as "friends"
• I will be better prepared to set up a focus group to monitor over summer.
• Will try and inspire community to make this work
• Look forward to bringing it up at staff meeting to discuss
  
• Good ideas for making books. Will follow through with newsletter
• Will make class slogan for summer holiday reading.
• Had not really thought about this issue deeply and now I realise we can make a difference.·
• Share at syndicate meeting.
• Discuss with librarian about holiday borrowing.
• Liaise with public library about their summer reading programme.
  

Summer slide - 2 - messages to parents

Here are some notes you may wish to use as a starting point for communicating with parents… Put them onto your school letterhead or in a newsletter, and edit them as you wish…

3 important messages for parents / caregivers / whanau

We know you want the best for your children.
Here are three things you can do which will really help them :

1. Encourage your children to read.

• If your children spend 15 minutes each day reading or being read to, it will help them become excellent readers, writers and thinkers and do well at school and life.
• 15 minutes is only 1 % of each day. It could be in 3 lots of 5 minutes. It isn’t much time but it makes a HUGE difference.
• If you would like some help getting books to read and share, then please ask us, we’d be happy to help.

2. Keep reading and writing happening over the school holidays.

• Many children, especially struggling readers, forget some of what they've learned or slip out of practice during the summer holidays. If you keep reading to your child and encouraging them to read and write, then they won’t lose ground they have made over the year and “slide” back.
• Keep it fun – read anything, write anything – lists, recipes, stories, postcards, comics… Ask your child’s teacher for ideas.

3. Read aloud to your children.

• The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.
• Reading aloud to children stimulates their interest, their emotional development, their imagination, and their language.
• Reading aloud to your children every day will help them become great readers and listeners, but most of all they will love you for doing it with them and they will remember the times you read to them all their lives !

Summer slump / slide...

Overcoming the “summer slide” : students and reading mileage, summer holidays and the school library…

• The “summer slump” or “summer slide” is the decline in reading achievement children suffer just from being away from school and formal literacy instruction.
• Often it is the students who can least afford to lose the reading gains they've achieved during the school year who fall the furthest behind when they return to school after a summer break.
• A New Zealand masters thesis[1] showed a 5.8 month summer reading slide for pupils in a Decile 1 school who were reading at below-average levels. · In a key Baltimore study[2] it was found that low-income children fell further behind than their classmates – characterised as the “the Harry Potter divide”, and that the effects are cumulative and long-term.
• Term 4 is the time to consider how your school can prevent any “summer slide” and what strategies you can implement before the end of term for the coming holiday...

Perhaps the two main actions to consider are

• getting parents on board, informing / reminding them of the powerful benefits for children of reading and being read to, and that even just 10 minutes reading a day by or to children will maintain / develop their child’s reading skills, habit and enthusiasm…
• looking at ways to get books in hands / homes during the holidays and what role the school library or the resource room might play in this, as well as liaison with the public library to encourage membership and use…

There are other strategies, such as making sure children have the skills to choose reading material independently, how to build some fun writing activities into their summer reading programme, or setting challenges – individual, class and school targets for reading mileage.

It would be also be productive to gather evidence of the impact of any initiative you take.

Perhaps the discussion at your school could also include an invitation / challenge to teachers to extend their own summer reading of children’s books – getting to know children’s books that they can promote to their students next year, read aloud, incorporate into their teaching programme…

For more information, discussion or workshops at your school on this topic, please contact me jeannie.skinner@natlib.govt.nz

1 An investigation of the effectiveness of a summer school reading intervention in a low decile school as a way of preventing the summer slide in reading, Shanthi Tiruchittampalam, University of Auckland, MEd thesis 2006
2 Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap Karl L. Alexander, Doris R. Entwisle, Linda Steffel Olson, John Hopkins University, Baltimore in American Sociological Review, 2007, Vol. 72 (April:167–180)

Reading at the beach

National Library Auckland runs a summer reading development programme for teachers called "Reading at the beach", designed to give teachers some great reading material over the summer holidays.
It's aims are to provide a supportive and enjoyable community in which to explore the pleasures of children's literature and to help increase teachers' awareness of literature for children and young people...
You need to enroll by the 13th November, completing a survey around reading preferences, and you will be sent a bag of books and instructions on how to participate in the blog.
There is a free introduction session held at National Library Auckland on the 1st December at 4.30 but that might not be suitable for those in the Far North, and it isn't compulsory...

Contact Jeannie to be sent a copy of the enrollment and profile form jeannie.skinner@natlib.govt.nz

As Donnalyn Miller says, her "summer slump" is lying happily prone, deeply engrossed in her book !