How to Create a “Culture of Reading” | AASL 2013. What makes a culture of reading? How do you get tweens and teens to be interested (and stay interested) in reading? These were two of the questions that Toni Vahlsing, director of libraries at Abington Friends School outside Philadelphia, posed to the audience during “Here’s a Challenge: Get Teens and Tweens to Read for Pleasure!” A session held during the 2013 American Association of School Librarians (AASL) 16th National Conference in Hartford, CT. After a presentation where the sprightly Vahlsing covered how students choose books—peer recommendation is the number one way—and why allowing kids to select their reading is crucial, she invited members of the audience to share their tips for getting children to read. Below are some of the suggestions that Vahlsing and session attendees shared.
We encourage you to post your ideas in the comments. Ideas and Tips Newspapers, magazines, and websites are reading.Know what’s new even if you can’t buy it.Covers matter. Best Books of 2013 | Publishers Weekly. All Miles Franklin Literary Award Winners Reading List - Lists. 8 Steps To Great Digital Storytelling. Stories bring us together, encourage us to understand and empathize, and help us to communicate. Long before paper and books were common and affordable, information passed from generation to generation through this oral tradition of storytelling.
Consider Digital Storytelling as the 21st Century version of the age-old art of storytelling with a twist: digital tools now make it possible for anyone to create a story and share it with the world. WHY Digital Storytelling? Digital stories push students to become creators of content, rather than just consumers.
Movies, created over a century ago, represent the beginning of digital storytelling. 8 Steps to Great Digital Stories Great digital stories: Are personal Begin with the story/script Are concise Use readily-available source materials Include universal story elements Involve collaboration at a variety of levels In order to achieve this level of greatness, students need to work through a Digital Storytelling Process. 1. Resources 2. 3. 4. 5. Ebooks are actually not books—schools among first to realizing this fact.
This is Part 1 in a series on e-book distribution to schools. See Part 2 here. Digital books are triggering tectonic shifts in education. One of the most fundamental, yet seemingly invisible, shifts is happening in the back rooms of district offices—not in the classrooms, not among teachers and students, and definitely not in the board rooms of most big-name publishers and textbook companies. If ebooks are not actually books, what are they? This profound, significant change is happening first in school district business offices, IT departments, and cubicles among staff members who work behind the scenes to acquire materials for today’s students. What exactly is this shift? It’s the revelation of the idea that ebooks are not books at all.
That’s right, ebooks are not books. If ebooks are not books, what are they? Ebooks are actually software. Here’s the view of the situation from the district back room. Books are objects Books are objects. Ebooks are software Book graphic via Shutterstock. Beyond the Book Report: Ten Alternatives. In my last post I described 10 ways to cultivate a love of reading in kids. I want to expand on that theme by suggesting 10 alternatives to the book report.
I'm not a fan of book reports; I don't think they are an effective way for a student to demonstrate understanding of a book and I don't think they help students enjoy or appreciate reading. Let's consider some activities that allow a student to show understanding of a book and that might be enjoyable. This selection of activities is also intended to meet the needs of different kinds of learners -- or to contribute to the development of skills beyond writing. I often allowed students choice in deciding how they wanted to respond to a book -- they could choose from a list like the one below. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. This is by no means an exhaustive list of alternatives to book reports, but I hope it's spurred some thinking about how to get students to respond to books they read.