My first thought as a tech person, is what things will be considered "reading?"
I often hear things like "kids don't read anymore", but they are actually
reading all the time - texts, webpages, text in their video games, social media
posts, etc.
A study a few years ago estimated the average American sees over 100,000 words
per day. Granted, not all of them are being read and processed, but
considering an average novel has about 70,000 words - most of us are exposed to
a novel full of words every day!
I am just not sure that incentivizing adding more words for kids to process
then they do already is ideal. Having kids go home and say "I have to get
through this book because I want to go on this field trip, or get this badge,
or get a new pencil, just seems counter-intuitive to helping kids find ways to
truly enjoy the words that they read.
What if we created more opportunities for kids to hear and interact with words?
Have read alouds - even for MS and HS - and not just once a week at library
time. Have library nights were students read "teasers" of their favorite books
to get other kids excited to read it. Have kids create arguments about why you
should read one book instead of the other. And then have another kid argue the
opposite.
Add electronic "things" that are fun to read like interesting websites and
kid-appropriate social media posts. Create your own library social media site
where kids can post great things they have read - including websites or even
historical text in a video game.
If you need to create incentives, create incentives for kids to get together to
talk and share about words - all words - that they are excited about.
I love reading, but some days there are just too many words being processed by
my brain to add more - even for fun!
Renee
From: baisl-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:baisl-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf ;
Of Junia Ziblay
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2016 9:41 AM
To: baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [baisl] Reading Incentive programs and ideas
Greetings friends,
We are considering the possibility of developing a Reading Incentive program
that is meaningful and effective. I personally believe that incentivizing
reading does not promote anything other than resentment, however we have a
culture at our school that has become reluctant when it comes to reading and
some type of intervention is necessary. So, I am reaching out to collect your
thoughts, ideas, anecdotes and wisdom. My initial thoughts are that reaching
certain reading goals could result in fun activities (such as field trips,
parties or dances, games or projects, etc...). Please share with me any
thoughts/questions/etc. I could really use your collective wisdom to begin
thinking about this!!
Thank you very kindly,
Junia
Junia Ziblay
Librarian
Marin Primary & Middle School
20 Magnolia Avenue
Larkspur, CA 94939
www.mpms.org<http://www.mpms.org/>
tel: 415.413.9086
fax: 415.924.9351
jziblay@xxxxxxxx<mailto:jziblay@xxxxxxxx>
