Hello!
A few years ago I found some ideas for encouraging reading that sounded pretty easy and fun. Some of these ideas are things that you could have parents or students set up for you which also promotes ‘buy in’ to reading. I found these ideas in some of my library journals and books.
Enjoy them. If you have other ideas, please let me know and I’ll add them to this list.
1. Inside some gift cards these days there is a little cell that can be used to record a message. You can use this technology to do ‘book talks’. Print a small cover of the book and place the cell with the recorded message behind the cover to make your own book talks. Students just push the button and hear a short book talk about the book. You could let students record book talks for books. A great book report idea! You can buy just sound chips from various resources if you are interested.
2. Signage for libraries can be very expensive, but you can make your own with a large coffee can, a yardstick, pebbles or rocks, spray paint, and paper. Spray the outside of the coffee can and both sides of the yardstick. Fill the can partway with the pebbles or rocks. Attach a sign to one end of the yardstick and stick the other end into the pebbles. Put these types of sign on table or shelving or wherever works in your library. These can be changed easily when needed.
3. Have a hard time getting your boys to read? Try what one school did. They took pictures of the adult males on campus reading a book and made a bulletin board titled “Real Men Read Books”. This really increased interest in reading and the boys began asking the men about the books they were reading. What if you are a small school and don’t have many adult males on staff? Use pastors, parents, or older siblings. I would advise that you have these males hold books from your library, possibly books that they enjoyed as a young person.
4. Encourage reading by using vendor’s catalogs. Vendors’ catalogs have small pictures of the covers of their books. Cut out all the pictures of books that the library owns or just books that you feel would be appropriate, laminate them and glue them to clothes pins or large paper clips. They can be used for bookmarks, genre sorts, library skills games or whatever you can think of. Don’t have vendor’s catalogs? Try using the book jacket. I usually cover the book jacket in plastic and affix to the book. But if you don’t use those book jackets, cut the cover off, then laminate and hang with clothes pins along a line in your library to call attention to the books and promote them.
5. One school had a Junior Prom Etiquette check day. Students were invited to bring their lunches to the library and different situations were reenacted such as introducing their date to their parents, table manners, and tips for awkward situations. We might not have the same situation, but our students can still profit from learning more about manners. Showcase books on manners and etiquette and have students act out etiquette tips and situations.
6. If your school allows students to use their cell phones or tablets, try using QR codes. You can type a book report or record a sound byte for a book, then attach a QR code to the URL. Readers can just aim their phones at the QR code and get the information. You may have seen these in magazines where an advertisement has a QR code to direct you to their websites. If you don’t know how to do this, let your older children figure it out. Once you’ve done a few, it will be very easy to do.
I hope you have a great week.
Audrey
Currently Reading:
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Millionaires by Brad Meltzer
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon (Book 3 of the Mitford series)
No comments:
Post a Comment