Yesterday I met with the reading coordinator of our local school board. I met with her because of a session I attended at PLA in Minneapolis; the presenter encouraged us to learn how reading is taught in our local schools in order to support young readers. We do so much to encourage early literacy, and we really should be helping those young readers as well. Learning to read is a difficult process for about 80% of children. I’d be willing to wager that a large group of that other 20% end up as teachers and librarians.

As a result of my 90-minute meeting, I’ve already made changes. I’ve tweaked some of the wording on our Summer Reading booklet to reflect the terms that teachers are using at the schools. For example—they encourage kids to find books that are “just right” for them—meaning they can read them without too much struggle, but are also encountering new words or ideas. I’ve included this sentence on my SRP booklet: “Have fun, and read lots of books that are just right for you!”. The school also encourages reading aloud—parent to child, child to parent, etc. So I’ve included that on the SRP booklet as well—“Audio books and reading aloud, or listening to someone read to you, counts as well.”

So with two simple changes to an upcoming program that reaches a large amount of students, I’ve been able to extend what the schools are teaching. This meeting was invaluable—I learned so much about the school board’s reading philosophy, and how classrooms teach kids to read. And I convinced my school contact that our SRP is a perfect extension of school—so much so, that they plan to include something about SRP in every final report card that goes out this year. Now that’s partnering!

I’ve gotten other ideas as well, which will take much more time to implement. I hope to label our easy reader collection, as the West Bloomfield Township did (they were the PLA presenters). Their site Grow Up Reading is great, check it out.  

 I’ll be using the terms –and the same colours—that the local schools use for the book labels. I plan to create simple labels for subject areas, just like the classrooms do, and encourage our libraries to make displays, or bins of books that reflect high-interest areas. Let’s face it, Dewey is NOT a kid-friendly system. It is up to us to make it easy to find the books they want to read.

 I encourage you to go talk to your reading specialist—find out how they teach reading in your area. You might be able to make some easy changes as well, and make a friend in the school to boot!

Posted by angelaNS

Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 6:12 am and is filed under Blogger Angela Reynolds, Call to Action, Child Advocacy, Conferences/Meetings/Institutes, Library Design and Accessibility, Partnerships. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.