Inquiry Blog Post 1 - Fostering a Culture of Reading

    In order to build a culture of reading in schools, children need to encounter many engaging opportunities to develop a love of reading and be surrounded by other who they perceive as being readers. Librarians, administrators, and teachers must work together to build a school and community culture in which reading is accepted as a socially acceptable practice (Merga & Mason, 2019) to overpower the “negative stereotypes connected to reading [that] bombard kids: readers are intellectual snobs, socially inept nerds, and bookworms” (Kelley & Miller, 2013, p. 91). It is the responsibility of all adults within a school to help develop a reading culture. I have reflected on what I am already doing in my classroom to foster a culture of reading and have also considered other strategies to try in my classroom and school community. 

Strategies for Fostering a Culture of Reading – Classroom strategies 

• Book Twins - Each student was assigned a Book Twin (or Triplet) and they chose a book to read together. Each week they would meet to discuss their book, share what they enjoyed, make predictions, and plan for their next meeting. I think that this was an effective step toward fostering a culture of reading as students had the opportunity to make connections with other readers on a book that was interesting to them. Kelley & Miller explain that “building relationships with other readers sustains a student’s interest in reading because it reinforces that reading is an acceptable and desirable pastime” (2013, p. 98). 

 

Photo: The idea for Book Twins came from Rachel Castaneda (@mrscteaches4th) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLMk19WhrHa/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=  

• Daily Read Alouds – Carefully selecting engaging books and encouraging students to discuss them helps develop a love of books and reading. 
• Author Visits – My grade level teaching team has reached out to authors to meet with our students both in-person and virtually numerous times this year. We all read aloud Andreas Oertel’s book History in the Faking. A few weeks after reading the book, Andreas Oertel came to speak to our students about his books and his experiences with writing. Suddenly, his books are constantly on hold in our library and my students proudly show off when it is finally their turn to take out another book in the Shenanigans series.  

 

Photo: Screenshot of Tweet from a Teams visit with author, Jarrett Lerner. https://twitter.com/lagimodieret/status/1390407074081738755?s=20&t=EUGvMwU2DcuPNttV7ZPL2w

• Daily Silent Reading / DEAR – I try to make this a really enjoyable time for my students where they can choose to get comfortable in the room, choose their own books, and turn the lights out on “Flashlight Fridays”. Kelley & Miller (2013) stress the importance of silent reading time during the school day in order to build a reading culture; “the more students practice, the more they enjoy and develop confidence in reading and the more likely they are to read in their free time” (p. 9). 

 

Photo: Students in my classroom engaged in silent reading time on a Flashlight Friday. 

• Conferring with students to identify their reading strengths and goals – I follow Jennifer Serravallo’s approach to reading conferences. As I confer with students, I try to help them see themselves as readers with strengths and help them to identify their goals as a reader.
• Global Read Aloud – this kick off to the school year reading the same books that are being read by other classes around the world and sometimes connecting with those classes is a great way to begin building a culture of reading in your classroom. 

Strategies for Fostering a Culture of Reading – Strategies observed in my school/ library

• Read alouds on Teams – The Teacher-librarian at my school has adopted Teams as a tool to provide fun read aloud activities with the whole school at once. 
• Regularly updated physical and digital collection including placing a focus on diverse representation of all in library materials – the TL at my school does an excellent job of ensuring our students have access to enjoyable, engaging books. She also works hard to ensure that all of our diverse students can see themselves represented within our library collection. “For students to be able to enjoy reading, they need access to enjoyable literature” (Merga & Mason, 2019, p. 178). 
• I Love to Read month – including activities such as dress up days, mystery readers, book bingo – while fun activities related to reading occur throughout the school year, I love to Read Month is used to highlight a culture of reading in our school. 
• MYRCA Club – Grade 4 – 6 students are encouraged to participate in the Manitoba Young Reader Choice Award club. Students are encouraged to read all the MYRCA nominees and meet to discuss them. In May, students vote on their favourite MYRCA nominees. 
• Inviting physical space – the physical space of our library is very welcoming and engaging. Students always find something new to explore on each visit to the library and cannot wait to return each week. 

Strategies to foster a reading culture – Strategies to try 

• BookTube / BookTok – I am interested in getting students to participate in creating videos inspired by BookTube and BookTok to promote new books as they are added to the library. Ehret et al. (2018) define BookTube as “an online youth culture built and maintained through the media productions of passionate youth readers who are also passionate about connecting with others by sharing their reading experiences” (p. 153-154). I think it would be meaningful to encourage this type of participatory culture of reading in school and potentially see students continue this type of participation in reading outside of school. 
• Including Parents – one area of building a reading culture that I feel I need to address the most is encouraging parents to become a part of our school reading culture. I think this is especially important after parents have only recently been allowed to enter our school since the beginning of the pandemic. Kelley & Miller (2013) and Merga & Mason (2019) both stress the importance of involving parents while trying to build a culture of reading. Kelley & Miller (2013) state that “When flooding students with proreading messages, we must flood their parents, too” (p.92) which I would like to do by connecting parents to the library through the library website. I’d also like to host family literacy events to help promote reading to families. I think it would also be beneficial to invite parents in to be guest readers in the library. 
• Guest Readers – I mentioned wanting to invite parents in to be guest readers, but I think it is also beneficial for students to see other community members as readers, too. This is something I would like to begin to do more in my classroom, and in my future library. 

Photo: a Winnipeg Blue Bombers Player reads aloud to my class. 

• Book club for Grade 1 – 3 students – While MYRCA is a great opportunity to be a part of a reading-focused club for our grade 4-6 students, I think our younger students would also appreciate the opportunity to be a part of a lunch hour book club reading books more appropriate to their age level. 

Resources:

Castaneda, R. (n.d.). Book twins [Photograph]. https://www.instagram.com/p/CLMk19WhrHa/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

Ehret, C., Boegel, J., & Manuel‐Nekouei, R. (2018). The role of affect in adolescents' online literacies: Participatory pressures in BookTube culture. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(2), 151-161. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.881

Merga, M. K., & Mason, S. (2019). Building a school reading culture : Teacher librarians' perceptions of enabling and constraining factors. The Australian Journal of Education, 63(2), 173-189. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004944119844544

Miller, D., Kelley, S., & ebrary, I. (2014;2013;). Reading in the wild: The book whisperer's keys to cultivating lifelong reading habits (1st ed.). Jossey-Bass.