Hi Junia,
If you step back from the implementation details, what your faculty/admin is
hoping for is accountability --- for student learning. I'm sure no one
would counter Renee's passionate argument for reading in all its rainbow of
formats but how will we "know" that all students would be motivated by a
particular initiative like this? That the motivation will result in better
readers? That this can change those who are extrinsically motivated by
rewards into intrinsically motivated readers? Is everyone motivated to read
in the same way? Open the discussion with faculty by framing it in terms of
the problem you're trying to solve: Is the goal to keep students reading
over the summer? To help students who don't read well become more fluent?
To develop a culture of reading? Some of these are incentive-based while
others are best targeted with interventions.
Off the top of my head, it seems you've got a few questions to discuss with
faculty:
1. Let's acknowledge that motivation is a complicated issue - how do we
each understand what motivates a student to.read/not read/read only certain
things/read only superficially etc.?
2. What are we actually looking to solve? What are the underlying
causes.and do they get addressed by this program?
3. If we go ahead, what problems might impact the program's success -
and how to do prepare for them?
Your discussion (not the program) is what's really important in helping the
school clarify what they believe in, what they hope to accomplish.
best,
debbie
Debbie Abilock
NoodleTools/NoodleTeach
Smart tools, smart research, smart teaching
Abilock, Debbie, Kristin Fontichiaro, and Violet H. Harada, eds.
<http://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A3723P> Growing
Schools: Librarians as Professional Developers. Santa Barbara: Libraries
Unlimited-ABC CLIO, 2012.
SLC Column "Friction"
From: baisl-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:baisl-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Junia Ziblay
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 11:19 AM
To: baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [baisl] Re: Reading Incentive programs and ideas
Renee, thank you very much! This is exactly the type of conversation we
should be having.
Please don't hesitate to send along further thoughts, BAISL friends! Best of
luck with wrapping up the year.
Thanks all!
From: <baisl-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:baisl-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > on
behalf of Renee Ramig <rramig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:rramig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >
Reply-To: "baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> "
<baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >
Date: Monday, May 23, 2016 at 10:32 AM
To: "baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> " <baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >
Subject: [baisl] Re: Reading Incentive programs and ideas
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>
[mailto:baisl-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Junia Ziblay
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2016 9:41 AM
To: baisl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto: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>
