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Dear Alison Although the following takes some preparation because I doubt it would be available commercially, I found it very successful last year when I implemented it before I retired. I called it Read Around Australia but you could easily substitute America or your state and change the scale of participation. Mine was a whole-school challenge.. I started with a large map of Australia, and using a map that the Olympic torch followed in 2000, I plotted a journey that went around this country. (This was a starting point because the original journey took the torch to within 80-100km of populated places, and I added extra places in when I did the final version with a more detailed atlas beside me.) Because this was to be a collaborative challenge, I had a mix of long and short distances, but nothing over about 600km. .I then got a group of students to use an Internet program that plots the distance between towns and we made a chart of these. Then, using a key of 1 book per 100 km (and a minimum of one book between places if it was less than 100kom) we plotted how many books needed to be read to "travel" from one town to the next. and this data was added to the chart. Conveniently, Australia has six states and two territories and we had 8 separate teaching units from K-6, so each unit took on board the task of reading around their state. Each unit was given a map of their state's route and the main large map was kept in the library as part of a special display which had lots of books about as many of the places as I could get. I also used calendar pictures of some of the key tourist places and had another class research and write a paragraph or two for each of these. These were written in clue fashion and we had a sort of Where's Waldo challenge going with students having to identify each place. (It all added to the reading experience and general knowledge about our country.) There were also student-created posters around the school asking "Have you read for Australia yet?" and regular bulletins of the progress posted on the notice boards (print and electronic.) There was a lot of reading happening without even opening a book! For kindergarten, each book read aloud to the class counted as 100km, but for older classes each student volunteered to read for a particular leg and this commitment was labelled on the unit map. Those who were not so keen chose a one-book or two-book journey whilst the better readers chose longer. Every book was one of the student's personal choice. This meant that each could have a personal target that could be met and each contributed to the whole. When the individual commitment was completed, the student coloured in their part of the journey on the unit map. Each day unit representatives brought me the newly completed journeys and I coloured these on the master map and the data chart so there was a cumulative record and everyone could see how well we were going. There was a lot of across-school discussion and it certainly drew the kids in and gave the school a really cohesive hum. The first part of the journey (a short one from our school to another part of the ACT) was covered by the principal reading the book at the launch and when the journey was complete (it took about 2-3 weeks) we had a celebratory assembly. No individual prizes or extrinsic rewards, it was all about reading for pleasure and achieving a common goal. Although the challenge might not have had kids individually reading dozens of books (or should I say skimming because that's what a lot of prize-oriented incentives do), it gave reading and the library a huge boost for a term as we worked through the build-up, the activity, and the celebrations. Sadly, I was not replaced by a qualified teacher-librarian when I retired so the program was not repeated but when I visit, the kids still talk to me about it. Barbara Barbara Braxton Teacher Librarian PALMERSTON ACT 2913 AUSTRALIA E. barbara@iimetro.com.au "Together we learn from each other." -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL 3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation. * LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/sub/ * LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html --------------------------------------------------------------------