Candidates use a variety of strategies to promote leisure reading and model personal enjoyment of reading in order to promote habits of creative expression and lifelong reading.
Reflection
"Any book that helps a child form a habit of reading,
to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs is good for him."
~Maya Angelou
I am always grateful to the adults that helped me foster a love of reading over the formative years of my life. One adult that had a huge impact on me was Mrs. Bennit, the librarian that introduced me to Lois Lowry's The Giver, my favorite book to this day, in the 5th grade. I hope that over the course of my career, I am remembered as the librarian that helped kids realize how great reading is. Throughout the program, I have been challenged to create a variety of reading promotion activities geared at motivating kids to read. One thing I know as an English teacher is that not all kids like to read the way I like to read. This is a challenge that librarians face daily, and they have to get creative when hooking kids. |
Artifacts
|
I approached the idea of reading promotion in two different ways. When I was working on the 504 reading web activity, I tried to choose a book that a librarian might recommend based on a curricular connection. I chose The Book Thief because of the prevalence of World War II in a variety of English and History curricula at the high school level. I then used the web to create connections to a variety of other books based on the themes and ideas found within the novel. I had never seen or used a reading web prior to this class, and I really liked it. Another new discovery while completing this assignment was Novelist. It is such a great place to start when looking for recommendations, and with the great partnerships with public libraries, our students have access to this great resource. I plan to have a link to the website on my library page.
Another great reading promotion activity I designed was the Kendra Reading Cube. I chose the book Kendra because of its high interest topic, great author, and appealing cover. It was a book that would be extremely appealing to a struggling reader. I really liked the cube design because it was tactile, fun, and would stand out on a desktop or next to a book. I think it would be a great activity to have students do as a way to share the books that they have read. While I was interning in the media center, we used the tops of the shelves to feature newly purchased books by designing signs that designated their genre with the hope that a student would see a cover or genre and pick it up. |
All of the promotions above had one goal in mind, to keep students reading. I have learned both in my teaching experiences and my internship as a media specialist, that students judge with their eyes. When I have my own media center, I know the constant promotion of books is going to be a huge challenge. I feel like the McDaniel program has provided me with a ton of great ideas, not just those I created, but those created by my peers. I have a whole binder full of materials that were created by my classmates that I will use for inspiration as I continue to engage students in the fun of reading,