Sunday, 2 February 2014


Fostering Reading Cultures in School


How do we already foster a reading culture in schools?
D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) or USSR (Uninterrupted Super Silent Reading) is one way we've encouraged and tried to foster a love of reading in schools. Literacy centres in primary classrooms and buddy reading have also served this purpose. Home reading programs in primary classrooms where students get rewarded for reading so many books have tried to encourage reading as well as province wide events such as “Drop Everything and Reading” for 20 minutes and community programs such as “Raise a Reader” that schools have supported.


Moving forward, one tool that can be implemented in schools to help foster a reading culture is for the school to subscribe to www.razkids.com , where students have access to hundreds of ebooks online. Children can record themselves reading and take a reading comprehension quiz after if they like. There is a parents link also so parents can view which books their child has been reading and send them personal messages. My daughter loves reading books on this site which is linked to her classroom teacher.


When ever we give a child choice over their reading selection they often are more enthusiastic about what they are reading. One way to nurture and allow for a student to pursue the authors and book genres that they are interested in is to provide a school library blog with links to favourite authors websites as well as a school you tube channel with authors book trailers, and readings or performances of the books. One school that has done this well is coyotecreeklibrary.blogspot.ca This school blog has an excellent alphabetical list of authors that students can click on to get to the authors website for more information. I think providing these kinds of digital resources give students the opportunity to learn more about the books they enjoy reading and what new books may be coming out, which fosters a love of reading.

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6 comments:

  1. Invergarry Library4 February 2014 at 11:00

    Hi Denise,

    It sounds like you have some great strategies for promoting reading. I especially like the use of technology and your recognition of the importance of self selection for the students. The Coyote Creek resource is inspiring and has given me some ideas. In Surrey, we are fortunate to have a subscription to Tumblebooks, another excellent resource for electronic reading. I have used it with my adult students. For the Christmas Assembly, a student read "Olive the Other Reindeer" while the Tumblebook version was projected for the audience.

    Some other good online reading resources are:

    http://www.wegivebooks.org/

    http://www.storylineonline.net/

    http://www.allbooksfree.com/childrens.htm

    Check them out when you have some time.

    Thanks, Leslie

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  2. Melissa Lee7 February 2014 at 11:43

    We have a subscription to Tumblebooks at our school as well which is an excellent resource as well. I'm not sure if people are aware but you can actually access Tumblebooks for free through the GVPL (Greater Victoria Public Library). The staff at my school were unaware of this and ended up purchasing Tumblebooks for around $400 for the year before I started. I would definitely make use of this resource though especially since it is free!
    Thanks for your post, Denise!

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    Replies
    1. dhardman10 February 2014 at 15:23

      Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware of that!

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  3. Aaron Mueller8 February 2014 at 08:55

    Great post with nice visuals embedded to explore fostering reading cultures. Your ideas are useful and informative in creating the buzz and conditions for students to want to be caught reading! A couple of references and a few more links to resources or examples would have been a great improvement. I was also hoping you could begin tagging/catagorizing your posts with "labels" (right hand side widget when you are creating your blog posts).

    Finally, I can't seem to find your "Reading Review Part C" post, where you evaluate your selected resources in a mini-lit review format.

    Get in touch if you need assistance in anyway!

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  4. Clare10 February 2014 at 19:47

    I really like the idea of buddy reading in elementary school. Not only does it encourage literacy, it is a community building activity, giving younger students the opportunity to make connections with older ones with whom they may never interact otherwise. I spent part of my week subbing, often with primary students at a school near my house. It is always fun when the little ones wave and point out their buddies at assemblies or when they pass in the hall.

    We also have TumbleBooks in our district, but in my high school I do not know that it is very well utilized. A few teachers use it with a few students, but it is not widespread. I'm not sure if it is due to resistance by students or that teachers aren't aware it is available. I've sent out a few reminders but maybe they're ignoring emails from the library ;) There are many great titles and I would like to see it's usage increase. Perhaps as more students start bringing their laptops etc. there will be more traffic on the site.

    ReplyDelete

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