I have put behind me, my reflections on Aleppo and other things and will now get back to my main concern: reading! This is the worry of librarians the world over and I'm sure others as well. Oh stop being so concerned, I hear you say. They are all reading on their mobile devices now! I wish that I could believe that but from anecdotal evidence at my school, that isn't the case.
A teacher said this to me this morning and I asked this question based on a case at school. If a student took out and read (I am assured by the Lower School librarian and her teacher, she did) 53 books in grade 5 and only checked out 1 in grade 6, is it likely that her parents bought her 52 books for her kindle or iPad?
The problem of the transition from grade 5 (primary) to grade 6 (secondary) at our school is more complex than the fact that students now have their own iPad and can take it home at night. The work load is higher, there are no weekly library classes and the English teachers in the secondary are no longer coming to the library with their classes to check out recreational reading. What is more, they are no longer having DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) with their classes, nor are the teachers asking students to set goals for their reading each month.
I would like to think that there was something that I could do to by-pass the English class teachers and get the students back on track. This has been my plan so far:
1. I put spinners with paperbacks of interest to middle and high school students in prominent places around the upper school. I made sure that they were all new or nearly new and of high interest. These books were not put in the library collection and I don't worry about them not coming back. Instead I have been deleting duplicate copies of books in my collection and putting them on the spinners as well as new books I have bought or had donated. I don't care if I never see them again, just that they are read!
2. I have been encouraging tutor groups (we call them advisories) to come to the library when they don't have something particularly planned for that time period. I also encourage the teachers to go away and have some time to do whatever they want to while I give a short book talk and encourage students to read.
3. I have launched Battle of the Books (the English head wasn't interested in my doing it but I have decided to ignore him) with 20 titles, fiction and non-fiction in English and two other languages. The big push takes place when we start back after half term.
That's it for now but I have kernels of ideas for March and World Book Day.
That's all for now!
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