Re: Reading Motivation Techniques (bit long)

[Barbara Braxton <barbara@DYNAMITE.COM.AU>]

Dear Bernardine
I see the promotion of reading as one of the two most important things I do
in my library, the other being working with the kids.  Therefore I do lots
of different things to get the books into their hands.

1. Displays, displays, displays - on anything and everything using as much
razzle-dazzle as I can to attract attention.  At the moment I have themes
of The Centenary of Federation with novels that are set in the various
stages of our history; Family Favourites which features all those
'classics' that our grandparents read like The Water Babies (and this is
now being extended to having school families send me in their list of
family favourites and photos of their families for display);
Survival, capitalising on the interest in the TV show; Teachers Top 10
where the teachers display their favourite books and write why; Scholastic
Book Club Highlights for the current issue; New Releases; Traditional tales
which makes finding the fairy tales so much easier for the little ones;
and my current favourite, Fantasy, which is all the fantastic Harry Potter
stuff that my US colleagues have sent me plus a few extra things including
a Sorting Hat that the kids can .put on and listen to the song.  I strung
some Christmas lights around the ceiling then swathed it a length of sheer
black fabric and hung all sorts of cheap Christmas decorations to create
the effect of the Great Hall at Hogwarts.  Some cardboard boxes and silver
paint made a model of Hogwarts.

2. I have all the series together in baskets so the kids can just come and
select the next one, and each series has a card that tells the kids the
titles that we have.

3. Last year I allocated about $500 of my budget for our senior kids (Yr
5/6) to choose books for the library from a selection from my local
bookseller.  We did lots of stuff in a unit I called "Don't judge a book by
its cover" and after making their selection and discussing the sorts of
criteria that make a 'good' book, the kids had to read their choice and
decide if it lived up to its promise.  They loved it.

4.  Wherever there is space to have a book's cover facing the kids, I use
it.

5.  I created Read Around Australia (a poor man's version of The ReadIn) so
kids read and discuss and do via email with other schools.

6. We join in Book Raps which are another form of electronic book
discussion.

7. I read, read, read to the kids, anything and everything.and I get the
principal and any other person passing by to come in to read too.The kids
also have the chance to borrow at least 16 sessions a week.

I have taken up enough bandwidth but really the list goes on forever - the
only thing I don't do is have a reward-based system such as AR

Hope this helps - I would love to see other people's ideas.

Cheers
Barbara

Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
Palmerston District Primary School
PALMERSTON ACT 2913
AUSTRALIA

T. 02 6205 6162
F. 02 6205 7242
E. barbara@dynamite.com.au
W. http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au
"Together, we learn from each other."

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