Promoting the PA Young Reader’s Choice Award at Middle School Carol Kennedy, Retired The Challenge: 1.Getting the teachers hooked 2.Getting the kids hooked 3.Integrating with the zillion and one other things that are going on already at school

Getting the teachers hooked, 1 If you can, offer a class that teachers can take to earn “flex credits” and Act 48 credits during the summer. I called mine “PA Young Reader’s Choice Award: Presenting the Books”. Each teacher who signed up for the class read one of the books on the list, then made a slide about it. I required that each slide should include a picture of the book and a picture of the teacher.

Getting the teachers hooked, 2 In September, I got all their slides together and made them into a Power Point. I had each teacher read his/her script into the mike attached to the Power Point slide. I did not put too many restrictions on the slides. Teachers’ slides were all different in style and format.

Getting the teachers hooked, 3 Because my school relied heavily on Accelerated Reader tests, I made sure to buy or create AR tests for all the books on the list (ready for the first day of school in September). After orientations, I showed the PP to every single English class in the school (early October). Some teachers gave extra credit to students who read from my list.

Getting the Kids Hooked I included all the books on the summer reading lists. I showed the PP to all the kids in the school (every English class) and put a link to it on the library web site. I also used Dottie Delafield’s excellent video about the books with all the classes.

Getting the Kids Hooked, 2 In Library Club, I read excerpts from each of the books while the kids listened and snacked or doodled. In Library Club we discussed the books. In Library Club, we played charades and other games based on the books on the list.

Getting the Kids Hooked, 3 The Library Club made posters promoting PAYRCA and their favorites. They posted them all over the school. The Library Club made PP slides about books. I put these together into a PP slide show, and printed out the hand-out. Those little square pictures were posted around the library on the shelves by the books. In February Library Club made posters about voting and did morning announcements.

Integrating into the zillion … I kept promoting PAYRCA throughout the school year. Some teachers gave extra incentives for the kids to read these books … extra credit, etc. The fact that my core of 15 teachers had read at least one of the books during the summer really helped!

Integrating into the zillion … 2 We kept voting open in the library for an entire week (the first week of March). We allowed students to vote in their English classes as well. We gave out trinkets to those who came into the library to vote. We announced our school’s vote, and the PA vote, in the morning announcements.

Integrating into the zillion … 3 I encouraged parent volunteers and my staff to read from the list as well. I got multiple copies of the books whenever possible. Some teachers purchased classroom copies of the books through Scholastic and other vendors.

Integrating into the zillion … 4 I worked with the youth librarian at the public library to promote PAYRCA as well. I had a quarterly “Lunch in the Library” that kids could sign up for, and often we discussed the books from the PAYRCA list. I invited the youth librarian from the public library to the “Lunch in the Library” each time.