“I thought I was advancing in my reading and now I am asked to read picture books,” one student commented. Yet according to Nancy Loewen, one of the best ways to learn about how to write and draw a picture book is to read as many as you can.
As part of the grade 8 Humanities focus on the Romans they have been exploring how Roman society perpetuated their values and culture. Often it was through fables and tales for children. These tales have a moral or lesson to them and were at first part of the oral traditions of societies. Traditional tales are found in the nonfiction section of our collection. We follow Dewey classification and this system places these tales in the 300s which is for society.
Now they are written they have become part of the sweet treats for children – Esphyr Slobodkina. Reading stories is something children love. These books are not easy reads, in fact many children’s picture books have adult reading levels. The language and rhythm are rich and engaging. The pictures should tell part of the story. In every picture book the words enhance the pictures and the pictures enhance the words – they cannot be separated, they rely on each other.
Grade 8 students will be writing their own picture books to illustrate an essential value for society. It will be fun to read them when they are published.
During Celebrate Reading week we created our version of Blind Date with a Book. We wrap books and then put a clue on the wrapping. Students read the clues then select a book. Their commitment when they participate is to read the entire book. The students are risk takers when they participate because often they will read books that normally they would not choose to read. The books selected for this are taken from the Young Adult section of the library and have some aspect of international mindedness about them. We restrict participation to grades 5 and over due to the books that are available.
Two of our students this year read their books in one night – they couldn’t put them down. Which books? Galax-arena by Gillian Rubinstein and Shadow by Michael Morpurgo.
We took the week of 8 – 12 February to celebrate our reading. This is the sixth time we have had our annual Love Reading week and every year it gets better. This year the activities included:
Blind date with a book for grades 5 and over. Tempting the risk takers in our community we wrapped books and left clues on them. Students who chose the books made a commitment to read the entire book
Paper crafts in the library at lunchtime. We repurposed old books and made bookmarks, poems, boxes and flowers. This was so popular at Marmara we will hold a craft lunchtimes every Friday for the rest of the year.
Bookmark competition. Our students created bookmarks and the winning ones will be copied and given out from the library. One student entered 17 bookmarks.
PTA book swap. An annual treat – students love to swap out old books for new to them books. a great way to recycle.
Dress as your favourite book character. Asking librarians to choose a favourite book character is a little hard so here at Marmara we came as library angels.
The primary teachers on both campuses did Readers’ Theatre style book reviews for their students during assemblies. The books reviewed were “The Dot” and “The Witches”.
We launched the second annual Battle of the Books for grade 5 and 6 students.
Last year we had our first skirmish in Battle of the Books. Grade 5 and 6 made teams and together they had to answer quiz questions about the 5 titles we had chosen for the Battle. It was so successful that we are having another Battle but with seven titles this time. Students are encouraged to read as many titles as they can. It is vital that each team has all the books read so they can answer the questions.
Celebrate our reading week starts next week – 8 – 12 February and every day everyone in our school will Drop Everything and Read (DEAR)
Next week all students and staff will stop everything else and read from 8.40 – 9 every morning. We will have guest readers coming to read to our Early Years classes during the week too.
There will be communal areas available for people to read together – these areas are: the library, the main foyer (we will try to provide mats to sit on), the grade 5 and 6 commons area, the reception area, the end of the lower primary corridor.
WHY are we doing this? The PLC group Culture of Independent Reading is exploring how we can build a school wide culture of independent reading. There are many articles and books we have been reading that show the benefits of allowing students to choose what they read and give them some time in the school day to read. “Regular reading not only boosts the likelihood of an individual’s academic and economic success — facts that are not especially surprising — but it also seems to awaken a person’s social and civic sense.” National Educators Association.
So next week we will be making time in our day to DEAR
“We make time for what we value, and if we value reading we must make time for it. ” Donalyn Miller, The Book Whisperer
Watch out for our twitter hashtag #iicsreads and instagram tag iicsfamily for photos and news throughout celebrate our reading week.
