Standard 2.2 Reading Promotion: Candidates use a variety of strategies to promote leisure reading and model personal enjoyment of reading in order to promote habits of creative expression and lifelong reading.
“You can’t give someone a cold if you don’t have one, and you can’t give a child the love of reading if you yourself don’t have it.” -Jim Trelease, The Read-Aloud Handbook. The best educational tool a school librarian or teacher can pass to a child is the love of reading. Staff at the elementary level should incorporate activities to promote reading for pleasure. It is critical that promotional activities be differentiated to match the developmental needs of students. The school librarian can implement strategies such as author presentations, booktalks and reading promotional activities throughout the school year to promote reading for pleasure.
Promoting authors I love is one way to expose children to new books. As part of my course work for Children’s Literature I created a PowerPoint to promote my favorite author/photographer of children’s nonfiction books, Nic Bishop. His passion for nature and science resonates in his photography. He brings small insects and creatures home to get that rare shot. I believe Bishop’s photography should be in every classroom. Nic Bishop often works in tandem with esteemed authors such as Sy Montgomery. I wanted to promote Nic Bishop’s works to students to teach the contributions he has made to children's literature.
Promoting individual books is another way to get students excited about reading. Booktalks can be used as a means to spark curiosity in recently published material and older novels that are still relevant today. I created a booktalk for Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause for high school students. I chose this book because of the hype involving vampires and werewolves in popular teen movies and literature. Vivian and her family are werewolves in hiding. Vivian’s anxiety makes her a relatable lead for high school girls. Although this book contains common young adult themes such as teen angst and star crossed lovers, it is not a predictable book, which will hook readers’ interest. Booktalks helped me realize how to make connections to popular culture in order to promote fictional literature. For the next booktalk I intend on discovering how best to promote nonfiction to students. I would incorporate the use of technology by showcasing the author's blog or website. Steve Jenkins, a respected nonfiction author of children's books, has created an interactive website which would entice young readers. Sharing video clips of how he creates in books will inspire students to investigate his other works.
Often I find nonfiction to be more difficult to promote. I wrote an essay for my Children’s Literature course that incorporated ideas for promoting nonfiction materials. One idea was for students to choose a nonfiction author of interest to study and share with their peers. Over the course of several weeks students would read a sampling of books on that author, find websites, webcasts and videos to learn more about their person of study. The presentations would be recorded by the school librarian to be shared with the other classes and grades. For example, this video would help a teacher of second grade introduce how to research nonfiction topics. Younger students will be excited and eager to watch older siblings or friends and will be inspired to check out those books.
Although reading promotions do require extra work during an already hectic school day, it is important for everyone in the school to fashion lifelong readers. Students who enjoy reading for pleasure will be more successful in higher-level education. Jim Trelease comments that the key to Oprah’s Book Club success is a viewer can see Oprah is an avid reader and her excitement over books becomes contagious. Promoting literature through author presentations and booktalks will inspire young readers leading students to that next great book.
Promoting authors I love is one way to expose children to new books. As part of my course work for Children’s Literature I created a PowerPoint to promote my favorite author/photographer of children’s nonfiction books, Nic Bishop. His passion for nature and science resonates in his photography. He brings small insects and creatures home to get that rare shot. I believe Bishop’s photography should be in every classroom. Nic Bishop often works in tandem with esteemed authors such as Sy Montgomery. I wanted to promote Nic Bishop’s works to students to teach the contributions he has made to children's literature.
Promoting individual books is another way to get students excited about reading. Booktalks can be used as a means to spark curiosity in recently published material and older novels that are still relevant today. I created a booktalk for Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause for high school students. I chose this book because of the hype involving vampires and werewolves in popular teen movies and literature. Vivian and her family are werewolves in hiding. Vivian’s anxiety makes her a relatable lead for high school girls. Although this book contains common young adult themes such as teen angst and star crossed lovers, it is not a predictable book, which will hook readers’ interest. Booktalks helped me realize how to make connections to popular culture in order to promote fictional literature. For the next booktalk I intend on discovering how best to promote nonfiction to students. I would incorporate the use of technology by showcasing the author's blog or website. Steve Jenkins, a respected nonfiction author of children's books, has created an interactive website which would entice young readers. Sharing video clips of how he creates in books will inspire students to investigate his other works.
Often I find nonfiction to be more difficult to promote. I wrote an essay for my Children’s Literature course that incorporated ideas for promoting nonfiction materials. One idea was for students to choose a nonfiction author of interest to study and share with their peers. Over the course of several weeks students would read a sampling of books on that author, find websites, webcasts and videos to learn more about their person of study. The presentations would be recorded by the school librarian to be shared with the other classes and grades. For example, this video would help a teacher of second grade introduce how to research nonfiction topics. Younger students will be excited and eager to watch older siblings or friends and will be inspired to check out those books.
Although reading promotions do require extra work during an already hectic school day, it is important for everyone in the school to fashion lifelong readers. Students who enjoy reading for pleasure will be more successful in higher-level education. Jim Trelease comments that the key to Oprah’s Book Club success is a viewer can see Oprah is an avid reader and her excitement over books becomes contagious. Promoting literature through author presentations and booktalks will inspire young readers leading students to that next great book.