"Foster Reading Cultures in Schools"

For me, understanding what you read is the key that opens many doors.  I also believe that the more that one reads or being read to, the better reader that they will become.  I believe that it is never too young or late to read to the students.  It is important to make reading fun and motivating.   For my husband and I, we read aloud to our children the minute they were born.  I also encouraged my parents at school to read to their children at home and spend time to go to the library for storytimes and to sign-out books.  

My Guy

My Guys

It is important to foster a culture that values literacy and enthusiasm about reading.  There needs to be many opportunities for diverse reading and writing opportunities in the classroom, learning commons, and the school as a whole. In order to engage and challenge students, they need to have experiences with a variety of different reading strategies, reading resources, and genres of books for them to read.   

Reading in the Classroom

When I taught the primary grades, ESL and LAC, I used many different ways to foster the love of reading and for the students to read for critical meaning,  My students all had different reading needs, learning styles, and interest so diversity of resources and variety of strategies were utilized in my classroom so that they can take ownership in their learning and develop deeper understanding of way they are reading.  Ways that I encouraged and developed skills in reading in my classroom were:    

·        buddy reading with an older age class  (the older students read to them and mentored with classroom projects)

·         buddy reading with a younger age class (they can read and be mentors to younger students)

·         books on tape with headphones  (20 years ago)

·         novel and book study

·         guided reading in large and small groups

·         silent reading

·         teacher reading aloud language rich books with expression

·         used my Scholastic money to buy books as giveaways at the end of the school year

·         Canuck’s Raise a Reader Program (which is now for the community and does not provide resources and incentative materials for the classroom anymore)

·        home reading program (individual reading and having family read with them or to them), reading log

·        reading inventory to evaluate their reading needs

·        extensive classroom library that ranged from picture books to novels, fiction, non-fiction, different themes, magazines,

·        every student read aloud to the class with a book of their choice

·        parents and support staff were encouraged to come in to listen to the students read or read to them

·        modeling reading and thinking aloud strategies about the authors intent,  what the pictures convey, elements of a story, questioning what they are reading,  and their thoughts

·        acting out part of the books, created reading posters

·        brainstorm and predict about a book to build background knowledge and comprehension

·        create their own books individually or in pairs and then put the newly published book into our classroom library to share with others, publish a quarterly classroom newspaper for writing and reading

·        invite parents or grandparents into the classroom to read

·        visit the school library

·         celebrate authors

·        cross curricular activities with books such as art projects or tied them in with Social Studies, Science, music, drama…

·        self select books that challenge them but not frustrate them by using their 5 fingers

·        word wall, vocabulary meaning, and phonics (I volunteered for a couple of years before my work permit with Reading Assist in Delaware to help students individually who struggle with reading by teaching them that letters have sounds that form words, phrases, and sentences with meaning)

School Reading Culture

I think the Learning Common should lead the way for the school reading culture in print and digitally.  School wide reading endeavors fostered by the LC will make reading fun, cool, motivating, and valued.  The Learning Common should be the place where they have the freedom to choose what they would like to read and passionate about.  Such activities could include:

           

·       DEAR (Drop Everything and Read)

Retrieved from http://bctf.ca/bctla/info/advocacy.html

*     Book Contests with entry tickets for students and staff for reading different genres of printed or E-books  (my parents didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing us so we couldn’t afford to buy books but I recalled winning my first book , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, at a library contest and how much I valued that book and reading)

·        Book Fairs (I chaired my son’s Scholastic Book Fair for 4 years and it was a great way to encourage reading and provided money for the LC and classrooms to purchase more resources.  We had book fair contests for gift certificates and encouraged donations to All for Books that uses the money to give books to communites that need books.  We also had the librarian dressed in pajamas for family reading night and the local fire fighters came in to read in the evenings)

Local firefighters reading to the students at the Book Fair

·         Literature Circles with students and other staff

·        Celebration of authors and themes with books displayed in the library, in a prominent display case, and discussed online

·        LC Blog and/or website that has a literacy presence on-line

 *       Modelling the online library catalogue and how to find literary resources & e-books

·        Public Librarian come by to discuss summer reading programs and activities at the local libraries 

·         Literacy week with special activities like my son’s school in California which had author visits, books for purchase that will be signed and personalized by the visiting artist, family members signing up to read in the classrooms, community readers, Skype sessions with MarkCheverton (Minecraft writer), and dress like your favourite character from literature

For Literacy Week, my son dressed as Buzz and made this Fly Guy hat.

·     

Present

With the growth of information on the internet and new technology, there is so much more that we can do as teachers to continue to foster the culture of reading. There are so many multiliteracies that we need to use and in multimodal ways.

I would still do many of the literacy strategies that I have done in the past but there are so much more available that I can use to engage the students and have them deepen their thinking in the 21^st century.

Once I am back in a LC, I would like to encourage reading and literacy by using quality printed resources as well as digital resources like:

·        iPads – I thought that it was great how in William Kist’s book, The Global School, in which  the Black River Local School District described as being a rural community with “31% categorized as economically disadvantaged” (Kist, 2013) were using iPad apps for digitial literacy and developing global awareness by learning about Chinese culture and language

·        Digital Storytelling – This would be great for students who struggle with writing.  It is also beneficial for students who are more visual and auditory learners.  Students that are more kinestica learners can act out their favourite parts of the book or what they think will happen next.  It also encourages the First Nations oral story traditions.  Here is a link to an article about "Top Tools for Dynamic Storytelling."

·        Blogs – The students can use their private class blog to discuss about a book that they have read.  Videos can be added or personally created.  The class can add their comments and their thoughts.

·       YouTube and other video clips.  There are many videos from the authors of great children’s book.  If the students are interested in Fly Guy who my son and I love, the following video can be shown to them to engage them.  This YouTube video from Scholastic can be retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yxSOyHfNtc.  After the video and books, they can create their own creative digital or print books called "Mosquito Guy" or "Green Peach Aphids Gal".

·       Skype with book writers and illustrators

·       creating on-line books that can be shared digitally through class sharing sites like Fresh Grades, reading on a private classroom YouTube group,  or online blog.

*   for the classroom, I would use a reading program especially for struggling readers that is catered to their individual needs like Accelerated Reading or Razz Kids

References

Accelerated Reading 360.  Renaissance.  Retrieved October 6, 2017 from https://www.renaissance.com/products/practice/accelerated-reader-360/

All for Books.  Scholastic.  Retrieved October 6, 2017 from http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/content/programs/allforbooks

BCTLA DEAR.  Retrieved October 6, 2017 from http://bctf.ca/bctla/info/advocacy.html

Kist, William.  (2013).  The Global School.  Solution Tree Press

Mark Cherverton.  Retrieved October 6, 2017 from http://markcheverton.com

Meet Tedd Arnold. (2017).  Scholastic.  [YouTube].  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yxSOyHfNtc

Pappas, Christoforos.  (2013).  How to Use the Blogs in the Classroom.  eLearning Industry.  Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/how-to-use-blogs-in-the-classroom


Raise-a-Reader Day. Vancouver Canucks.  Retrieved October 6, 2017 from https://www.nhl.com/canucks/community/raiseareader

Razz Kids. Learning A-Z.  Retrieved October 6, 2017 from https://www.raz-kids.com

Reading Assist Institute.  Retrieved October 6, 2017 from http://www.readingassist.org

Top Tools for Dynamic Digital Storytelling. Common Sense Education.  Retrieved September 23, 2017 from  https://www.commonsense.org/education/top-picks/top-tools-for-dynamic-digital-storytelling