Fostering a Reading Culture - Everyone has a Role to Play

Fostering a reading culture in our school has been the number one goal since we started school a mere 23 school days ago.  This goal is in conjunction with our district’s goal of more students will achieve a minimum of one year’s growth in literacy.   

I would like to share with you just a few things we have been doing already this year to try and foster a reading culture.  We started the school year off on a professional development day brainstorming and talking about how to make literacy visible in our school.  Through the various brainstorming ideas, we plan to take them and use them throughout the year.

At the completion of this PD session we went on a staff field trip to Indigo Book Store to already begin to foster a reading culture.  Each staff member picked out 3 books to add to our school collection. We then created a bulletin board for the first day of school titled, “Guess Who is Reading?” This bulletin board allowed for students to ask teachers about the books they purchased as well as teachers shared some of their books with classes.  

This year we also became a member of the Alberta Reads Network and we are starting off with the wee reads program.  Wee reads targets students in kindergarten and grade one who would benefit from additional support through read alouds.  Community members read to two students for 30 minutes each week for 8 weeks. The Alberta Reads Network recommends 50 books students should read before the age of 8.  As a school, we purchased these books and now have them on display as soon as you walk into our school for parents, students and community members to read.

I am a strong believer in using every opportunity possible to foster a reading culture in schools. This means, if I can create an event around a book, author’s birthday, or holiday - I will.  

One of my favourite ways at the very beginning of the year to foster a reading culture is Dot Day.  For many years, I celebrated Dot Day in my own classroom and it then grew to a few more classrooms, and last year my entire school participated.  This event opens the doors to having us share books with students, share messages in books and allows for us to celebrate books. By having this event earlier in the school year, it starts us on the path of showing how we value reading. Every year, we try to celebrate Dot Day through various activities related to the book.

Another event that happens at the beginning of every October is Read In Week. This year we had over 12 community members come into our school to share their passion for reading and their favourite books.  

To be perfectly honest, I feel like I have so many ideas on how to foster a reading culture in schools that I truly do not have enough school days to implement everything I want to implement.  I would say this is my biggest challenge when it comes to fostering a reading culture. Sometimes I have so many ideas, and they often fall so close together that I have to be more selective so I am able to maximize the purpose.

Although, I have shared a few things we are already doing this year.  I would like to share a few other things I have done in the past and continue to do.

Many of you are familiar with #classroombookaday.  I have been doing more than a book a day in my classroom for many years.  Over the years we have kept track of the books in a variety of ways including Shelfari, Good Reads, and most recently Biblionasium.  Every year, we set a goal of how many books we will read aloud together. Once we read that many books aloud, we have a reading party.  I have included my wakelet of one year when our goal was 309 books. This wakelet shows how we celebrated.

Finally, I am also a strong believer in connecting students with reading by providing them opportunities to connect with authors & illustrators.  You can do this in many ways such as through Twitter, Author Visits, or even through Skype Visits. Any opportunity students have to make a connection, they are more likely to pick up another book by that author or illustrator.

The following are two fantastic resources, I have read which have guided me on my journey of fostering a reading culture in my classroom and school. I would recommend these if you are just starting on your journey.

Lead with Literacy by Mandy Ellis

Passionate Readers by Pernille Ripp

Calgary Reads. (2015). wee read trailer [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX0jLu1vuZ4

International Dot Day. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/

Readin. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.readin.ca/

wee read - Calgary Reads. (2018). Retrieved from http://calgaryreads.com/programs/wee-read/