Encouraging Reading

In a school library, the collection will include a wide range of materials depending on the ages of children served in the school. How do we as (future) teacher-librarians guide students to appropriate selections? How can we encourage them to move beyond the American Girl series and try Laurie Halse Anderson? I have volunteered in both K-5 and K-8 libraries and observed some methods they used to guide students toward appropriate selection.

At a basic level, spine labels helped guide readers to books of interest. Several color coded dots indicated genre or grade level. Special stickers highlighted Newbery, Volunteer State Book and other award winning novels. The librarian also created displays of new books or books along a theme. These seemed like easy ways to highlight books for students to discover.

The Accelerated Reader program was used in both settings to encourage students to read at their own level. In the K-5 school it was a voluntary program where the librarian tracked points and gave awards and recognition. In the K-8 school, AR was incorporated into the curriculum, and students were required to earn a certain number of points for the year. While I appreciate that AR gives an incentive to read, I question whether it instills a love of reading. Rather than browsing shelves for a book they might enjoy, students would search the online AR list for the needed point level and run to grab it.

My favorite way the librarians introduced books to the kids was by just talking about them. Every few weeks the librarian would go through a few books, show the covers, describe the plot, and talk about why she liked it. The biggest week was when she highlighted the nominees for the Volunteer State Book Award and explained that the students would be able to vote for the winners. After a class with book talks, the entire stack would always be checked out. Her love of reading these books was contagious and motivated the kids to try something new. I look forward to sharing new favorites with my students.