Fostering a Reading Culture

According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), “Students who read for enjoyment tend to be more proficient readers than students who do not read for enjoyment” (PISA, 2009, p. 34). In addition, reading enjoyment is associated with higher overall academic achievement because students who enjoy reading spend more time reading (People for Education, 2011, p. 1-2). I believe the Teacher-Librarian plays a huge role in fostering a reading culture. If we want students to be checking out books, they need to enjoy reading so rather than forcing students to read books they aren’t interested in, we need to find a balance between helping students become better readers and allowing them to read books they’re interested in while at the same time promoting other types of books in an effort to get them to branch out.

School Wide Instruction & Initiatives

The entire staff at my school works to foster a reading culture. Classroom teachers engage students in read alouds and work to improve reading comprehension through daily guided reading and by engaging students in Adrienne Gear’s Reading Power strategies. In addition, teachers give students some choice during read-to-self and literature circles. Teachers also engage students in buddy reading where an intermediate class gets together with a primary class and older students read with younger students.

Our Learning Assistant Teacher also organizes a morning reading club. Students who are struggling with reading are invited to the program where they are able to read 1:1 with the Learning Assistant Teacher, Certified Education Assistants and volunteers from the community. While students are learning reading strategies, the team works hard to foster a love of reading by celebrating each student’s growth.

In addition, our Learning Assistant Teacher also organizes a book swap three times each school year. Students have the opportunity to bring books from home that they no longer read and “swap” them for books they would like to read. The students get really excited about this event because the Learning Assistant Teacher works really hard to offer a wide selection of books. She shops at garage sales and second hand stores and acquires additional books through donations. As a result, every child in the school gets at least two books and those students who bring in books to exchange get even more books.

Importance of Physical Space & Selection of Books in the Library Learning Commons

Bringing students into the Library Learning Commons (LLC) is also important to fostering a reading culture. Students come into the LLC once a week for book exchange. During this time, we can promote books through book talks or simply though the placement of books. Only a few students from each class come in with a specific book in mind while most students are browsing. For this reason, we want to highlight and display books to catch their attention. This was hard for us in the past because our LLC was very cluttered. Based on circulation reports produced at the beginning of this school year, there were approximately 4000 nonfiction and 2700 fiction books that had not been checked out in the last five to ten years. According to Allen (2010), “Students cannot efficiently find quality information if outdated, wrong, or poorly presented information is overcrowding your library shelves” (32). As a result, one of the first things we did was begin to weed our collection and remove old furniture and shelving that was no longer needed. For example, in our early primary section we had three levels of shelving so many of the books were too high for our youngest students. Luckily, we discovered the top shelf was not attached so we removed it and now we have more space to display books for these students.

On average, students and teachers check out over 1200 books from our LLC each month. The books students are checking out most often include books such as Dogman, Amulet, Lego and Barbie books, books on hockey and dinosaurs as well as graphic novels. In addition to purchasing more of these books, we recently moved these books to the front of the library so they are easily accessible to students. While it’s important to allow students to read books they are interested in, we also want them to be reading other fiction not just graphic novels. For our reluctant readers, we had a section called “Easy Readers” that was located next to our other fiction books. There were many great high interest low level books in this section, but students were reluctant to even look there because of the label, so we moved these books next to the graphic novels and relabelled them “Fast Reads.”

Now that we have more space on the shelves to display books, we are also putting out a variety of fiction books we think might be of interest to our students. As we display books, we are also thinking about other ways to promote them. For example, Darcy mentioned Book Recommendation Speech Bubbles, so I would like to try using something like this to promote some of our books. In addition, as a staff we decided we would like to have a Staff Recommendations section so students can check out what we are reading. Another idea a classmate mentioned was the idea of having a bulletin board to highlight particular books but where students have the opportunity to contribute to the content. I am thinking of starting with something simple like a bulletin board with the question “What’s your favourite book?” where students can post their responses along with an explanation of why they like the book. We now have Library Leaders who help us out in the library once a week, so we can get them involved in these initiatives.

In addition to thinking of new ways to promote books, we have been working on a plan to make the LLC more inviting so students will come before or after school or at lunchtime. According to the Canadian Library Association (2014), “The library learning commons is the physical and virtual collaborative learning hub of the school” (p. 5). In the past, our LLC has only been used for book exchange, but we want it to be a place where students can come and enjoy reading. According to Johnson (2010), “Upholstered seating, flexible furniture arrangements and attention to aesthetics in lighting and colors help make libraries places where students and staff want to be” (para. 5). Now that we have weeded a large portion of our collection and removed old furniture, we are moving around our existing furniture around to open up the space.

Before and After Pictures. It is still a work in progress!

As part of our three-year plan, we would like to get more flexible seating, create a reading area with a soft carpet and create cozy spots or themed reading nooks around the library like they have at the Calgary Read’s Children’s Reading Place.

Calgary Reads Children’s Reading Place

Building a Sense of Community Around Reading

In addition to supporting students in choosing a variety of books, we would like to build a sense of community around reading so students can have conversations about what they are reading. For example, in our school district most schools host a DEAR Challenge in October, but for our school this has often been just for staff and students. In the future, I would like to include families in this event. In addition, I would like to welcome students to come in to the LLC and read with their families once a month after school. Bringing in families will give us the opportunity to highlight the benefits of recreational reading because students who read with family at home are more likely to enjoy reading and do better in school (People for Education, 2011, p. 3).

Our school has often participated in Battle of the Books in which they read from a list of books, get together to discuss them and then compete in teams at a district competition to answer questions based on the books. In addition, I would like to look into starting a Red Cedar Book Club where students in grades 4 and 5 read books from a list of nominated fiction and non-fiction titles and vote for their favourites. I’m also interested in hosting a Book Tasting event. Darcy talked about this during one of our Google Hangouts and it I would like to try something similar at the elementary level. 

In addition to getting students conversing about books, I would like to bring in other people from the community to our LLC to promote reading. For example, we are hoping to host an author visit in May and we have some students from our local high school coming in to read with our students in April. As part of a grad council initiative, they have chosen to donate funds to our LLC towards new books so they want to come in and read them to some of our younger students. In addition, I have met the Children’s Librarian at our nearby branch, but I would like to have her visit the school so we can work together to help students get a public library card. I am hoping to promote the public library so students can continue to visit the library during school breaks and when they move on from elementary school.

Using Technology to Promote Reading

While there are many ways to promote a reading culture in our school, technology is a passion of mine so I am looking for ways to incorporate technology as well. Because our non-fiction collection is dated, I often use the Epic app to help students find information on topics they are inquiring about. In addition, I want to get students involved in promoting books and the love of reading whether it is creating their own books using Book Creator or Storybird, designing a new book cover in Photoshop or creating a stop motion animation to retell a story. Students could also create a book trailers in iMovie or write book reviews. A local bookstore in Kelowna called Mosaic Books actually invites students to read new novels and submit a review. Their reviews then get displayed in the store.

References

Allen, M. (2010). Weed 'Em and Reap: The Art of Weeding to Avoid Criticism. Library Media Connection, 28(6), 32-33.

Calgary Reads. Visit the Children’s Reading Place: Building a community one reader at a time. Retrieved from https://calgaryreads.com/get-involved/visit-reading-place/

Canadian Library Association. (2014). Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. Retrieved from http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/llbibliography.pdf

Johnson, D. (2010). Changed but Still Critical: Brick and Mortar School Libraries in the Digital Age [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20180727104328/http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/changed-but-still-critical-bricks-and-mortar-libraries-in-th.html

People for Education. (2011). Reading for Joy. Retrieved from https://www.accessola.org/web/Documents/OLA/issues/Reading-for-Joy.pdf

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). (2009). Learning to learn: Student engagement, strategies and practices (Volume III). Paris, France: OECD. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/48852630.pdf