Sunday 12 September 2010

School Libraries

Great news!  I've been offered the chance to 'take over' my school's library for the forseeable future, and I'm really excited to do so.  We don't have a school librarian, although the library is up and running with the facilities in use to check out books onto individual student library cards.  One of the teaching assistants helps with the running/sorting of the library and is available at the beginning of every lunchtime for children who want to check out books.

I teach in a primary school, which is for children aged 4 - 11, and my class are all currently seven years old.  Each class has an allocated half hour slot in the library each week, which is used for taking out new books and also for storytime. The library is small, but it is inviting with comforting chairs etc.

I'm hoping to be able to set up some kind of book group/after school reading club, but wondered if any of you book-loving people had any other ideas to inspire children to love reading?  I teach in a socially disadvantaged area and most families don't prioritise reading at home, so anything I can do at school with the library to help children enjoy reading would be fantastic.  All ideas welcome :)

7 comments:

  1. Congrats on being offered that position :D Will you still be teaching?
    Anyway, I don't have any ground breaking ideas, but think that encouraging kids to read is awesome!

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  2. @noiashui
    Oh yes, I will most definitely still be teaching - just doing this as well. But at least it's something I want to do :)
    Hopefully I can reach at least a few children.

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  3. Well done on the position.

    I can remember at school when reading a book - it was Goodnight Mister Tom, that we had to draw what the village looked like to us after having read the book. It was a great fun because everyone had a different view from their imagination of the book. This has always stayed with me - but I think at 32 I might be a bit older to get the crayons out and start drawing again! However sometimes writing timelines or family trees can be a great help, especially when reviewing a book.

    Anyway, enough wittering - best of luck.

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  4. @josbookjourney
    Thank you :)

    I like your idea, it might be something I can incorporate into my after school club - it seems a bit boring to just have the children come and read either to themselves or to each other for an hour. The pictures would make a nice decoration for the walls as well!

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  5. Congrats on the position! From what I remember as a kid, the teachers and librarians that most inspired me to read and love books were the teachers and librarians that were passionate about reading themselves. Also, I think even at older ages, kids can benefit from being read aloud to. Sometimes older elementary or junior high kids will try out a book that they might otherwise ignore if someone reads them the first chapter. Good luck with it!

    Oh and I also awarded you the One Lovely Blog Award here: http://herbookself.blogspot.com/2010/09/bbaw-future-treasures-one-lovely-blog.html Congrats!

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  7. Reading competitions are fun-- the ones in your club who read the most books get prizes and if the whole group reads a certain number they get a party.

    That could work for the whole school with classes competing against each other too.

    What about targeting the 1-3 year olds by encouraging students to check out picture books to read to younger siblings?

    Have you contacted First Books about donating books for students to keep? Maybe local businesses would donate books. You could have a drawing at every club meeting and give books as the doorprizes.

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