The Stairway to Reading

Courtesy of Estes Park News

Inquiry Blog Post #1: Fostering Reading Cultures in Schools

As our education system has embarked on the 21st century, learning has focused itself on incorporating new forms of literacy to increase student's educational opportunities and to develop proficiency with web 2.0 tools and technology.  Traditional literacy has in some cases, become undervalued in the flashy wake of media literacy, digital literacy, and network literacy.  Therefore fostering a reading culture within a school can be an uphill battle for many educators, but the Learning Commons can be a valuable tool in the fight to help ignite the desire for recreational reading in students.

Many Learning Commons around the world have begun to implement strategies to help foster an appreciation for reading and as a new teacher-librarian, I have tried to follow suit.  When I was a member of the Learning Commons team at Sullivan Heights Secondary, I sought to tap into social media and advocate for the library using web 2.0 technologies such as Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, QR Codes, Infographics, and Twitter.  Using Infographics and QR Codes, I took novels that were being turned into movies and created "Read it before you see it!" posters connected to YouTube trailers via QR Codes and placed them around the library.  Despite my efforts, I don't think it was a huge success.  The format of the Infographics and the graphics themselves were not the best and lead me to believe that the posters weren't 'attractive' enough.  The Learning Commons has seen greater success through Pinterest and Twitter.  As new books are added to the library, they are posted to specific Pinterest boards.  These boards are automatically connected to Twitter and send out Tweets to followers once a book has been added.  This is a great way to keep readers informed but with only 119 followers on Pinterest, and 27 on Twitter in a school of 1400 students, the reach of the Learning Commons could be improved.  Collaborating with other teachers and teacher-librarians via personal learning networks may be the key to helping me establish a 21st century learning commons, or classroom when the time comes!  The following two sites in particular provide great activities, resources, and ideas for supporting a 21st century learning commons as the teacher-librarians do a fabulous job of extending their network to not only their own students and staff, but the rest of the online community.

Courtesy of The Daring Librarian

1.  The Daring Librarian (international source)

2. Elgin Park Secondary's Learning Commons (local source)

While many teachers and teacher-librarians work hard to establish a reading culture within their schools, the approach is from the bottom-up.  As educators, we play a crucial role in the construction of our school culture, and whether we acknowledge it or not, we are role models for our students, but teachers are only one piece of the school puzzle.  Administrative officers also have a powerful influence on students and the ability to create a positive school culture around reading based on the policies they implement and values they place, a top-down approach.  Lord Twedsmuir Secondary School (LTSS) in Surrey is an example of administrative officers taking literacy to another level with what the school calls Sustained Silent Reading (SSR).  SSR provides 20 minutes a day of recreational reading for all students at LTSS.  As far as I know, this has been going on for at least three years and is still being implemented today.  LTSS is proof that if administration is really concerned about literacy, they can do something about it.  The National Library of New Zealand has a great video on how to foster a school reading culture along with specific steps an educator can take in order to promote reading. Their website is very informative and includes many sections related to creating a reading culture such as Boys and Reading, A School-Wide Reading Culture, Reader Friendly Environments, and Reader Friendly Policies.

Courtesy of Smith Public Library

Creating more school-wide initiatives such as SSR can have a dramatic impact on a students level of recreational reading.  When I re-enter the school district in a position, I hope to establish fun activities such as Drop Everything and Read, Bookface, Book Spine Poetry etc that encourage reading.  The School Library Journal has also published a great article called "How to Create a Culture of Reading" that indicates several steps educators, and more specifically, teacher-librarians can take to develop a positive reading culture in their schools. I particularly enjoy when the journal mentions that reading is reading and to not discount magazines, newspapers, and graphic novels as an opportunity to foster the development of a students literacy.

Bibliography

1. The Daring Librarian. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/

2. The Learning Commons @ElginParkSecondary. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://elginlearningcommons.com/

3. Creating a reading culture. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/creating-readers/creating-reading-culture

4. How to Create a. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://www.slj.com/2013/11/events/ala-conferences/how-to-create-a-culture-of-reading-aasl-2013/#_