Topic: Fostering Reading Cultures in Schools (And Classrooms!)

In your school and practice, how do you already foster a reading culture?

First of all, what does reading culture mean to me as an educator? I’m sure each person in the education system would have a slightly varied response, but I think in the simplest definition, reading culture is “an environment where reading is valued, promoted, and actively encouraged.” (Wilson, 2020)

As a classroom teacher, my main goal for building a reading culture in the classroom is to foster a love of reading among my students. I share my love of reading with them through picture book read-alouds, with different voices, enthusiasm, and pausing to talk about the different elements at play. I also share books that I’ve read with my 4-year-old nephew and tell my student about his funny reactions to the books we read.

Students are encouraged to share what they are reading by completing a Book Review and posting it on the wall above our classroom library. I first teach student the basics of opinion writing, formatting a book review, and using respectful language. All students complete one book review as part of a writing assignment. However, I found that many students continued to write book reviews on their own time throughout the rest of the school year!

This year (grade 3/4), I played an audiobook of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series during the time that students ate their lunch. All of the students, even the ones who are reluctant readers, were so excited to listen to the books and follow along with the words I projected on the big screen. Some would even check the book out from the library and follow along on their own. I found this to be great for my class because it got students excited about hearing the stories, reading the next books in the series, and finding other books by the same author. This school year, we managed to finish listening to the entire Diary of a Wimpy Kid series during our lunchtime listening sessions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FZ9imqzI6Y

Before Covid, I planned a field trip each year with my students to visit the beautiful downtown branch of the Vancouver Public Library. Students enjoy a book talk with the Children’s Librarian, and each student would have a chance to sign up for their own personal library card. (You can plan ahead so all the forms + parents signatures are completed before the field trip). I always love seeing their faces light up when they find out their new library card gives them access to books from ANY branch of the Vancouver Public Library. I hope to continue with this once Covid is over and we are able to go on field trips again. Not only does this create a new community connection for students, it also provides more accessibility (in person and in the digital world) to reach for books they will enjoy.

I also believe that sharing personal stories and experiences of hardships with students can build a sense of empathy, connection, and inspiration. I like to share my experiences as an ELL student with my class, where I didn’t know how to speak fluent English in Kindergarten, and how I struggled with decoding and reading comprehension in my early years in school. I also talk about how I overcame obstacles and started to gain a love for reading, which I still carry into adulthood. By sharing these stories, I hope to encourage some of the reluctant readers in my class to continue with their efforts in reading. I find that at the grade 3-5 levels, students are very aware when their reading skills are lower than their classmates, which sometimes deters them even more from reading. However, I found that cultivating a safe, inclusive classroom community where we explicitly talk about kindness, helping others, and different learning styles, helps students show empathy towards their peers, even when it comes to reading levels.

In the school setting, our current Teacher-Librarian fosters a school reading culture by organizing book talks, hosting reading challenges, and creating vibrant book displays with new and interesting books each month. She also manages our school library website/blog.

What tools, strategies and resources can be implemented to encourage and support a school-wide reading program?

Most of my experiences in fostering read culture have come from a classroom context. In the coming years, I would like to take it further into the school and try to engage my students with their school community in building a love of reading. I think that the School Library Learning Commons can play a significant role in the school reading culture.

Standards of Practice in Canada

Starting from a theoretical framework, I decided to revisit the Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Common in Canada. All around Canada, the “school library” is making a shift to becoming a “school library learning commons” (SLLC), which means the methods, tools, and strategies for fostering reading culture in the school may also be shifting. Among the five Standards, the one that stands out to me in this context is “Fostering literacies to empower life-long learners”, and more specifically “Engaging Readers”.

I think it’s important to first assess where we are as a school, and then come up with strategies for moving forward along the continuum. Based on the growth indicators for the Engaging Readers section, I would place my school around the Emerging or Evolving categories. As a school team, we would discuss and come up with a plan to progress forward in building a school reading culture. The Leading Learning document also includes useful resources such as Recommendation to Support Continued Growth (p. 25), Discussion Starters for Learning Leadership Teams (p. 30), and Action Planning Templates (p. 31-33).

Seven Pillars of Creating a Thriving Reading Culture  

This video helped me to better understand the important of taking a more holistic and multi-faceted approach to creating a better reading culture in school. The authour outlines Seven Pillars to Creating a Thriving Reading Culture and provides research evidence of his findings.

 

The Pearson International Schools blog site outlines Ten Ways to Create a Reading Culture in your School. I like this list because it provides simple, straightforward suggestions (to implement right away or gradually) for helping students discover their love of reading. I have used some of these strategies in my classroom already, but I would love to bring this post up to my school team, and try to plan ways that we can implement more of these strategies on a school level.

1. Introduce “Drop Everything and Read”.

2. Be a reading role model.

3. Read books in different subject areas.

4. Explore a variety of genres.

5. Create individual classroom libraries.

6. Create reading nooks across the school

7. Engage with authours.

8. Set reading challenges with prizes.

9. Celebrate book-themed day.

10. Get your students to recommend books to one another.

There is so much to explore and try out in the world of reading in schools. I appreciate this assignment helped me to dig a little deeper and find simple strategies to implement in my teaching practice, and I look forward to exploring even more so I can bring strategies to our school planning.

References

Canadian Library Association (CLA). 2014. Leading Learning:  Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. Retrieved from http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/llsop.pdf

Wilson, C. (2020). Ten way to create a reading culture in your school. Pearson International Schools. Retrieved from https://blog.pearsoninternationalschools.com/ten-ways-to-create-a-reading-culture-in-your-school/.

Vu, D. (2019). Creating a thriving culture of reading. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F13GPtReZuY.