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School library

K

kjaerleik

kickbox
I'm in a library council, and I am trying to make the students more interested in litterature.

The ideas I have so far:

  • A suggestion box
  • Having a poster with the book of the month
  • Print a chapter and give them to the students. When they are in class they are bored anyway, and when they are bored their unconciousness automatically reads ANYTHING thats not class material.
  • Arrange book nights

Any suggestions?
 
I have a problem with the printing a chapter idea. I think that regardless of whether or not students are bored in a class, giving them something to read isn't doing them any favors-and if I were a teacher I'd confiscate anything like that. It's sort of insulting to a teacher if you provide unrelated reading material that students can turn to when they're bored. (I know this firsthand, having had books taken away from me during classes myself.)

How about a contest? The prize doesn't have to be big, people like to win contests.
 
In a school I visited they had a 'readathon' going on in the library. I am not sure what the rules (wether students had to read the same book or were able to choose, time frames, etc) were but you can make your own. As Miss Shelf said, prizes are a good idea.
 
I know of one school that, during grade 7 and 8 (the first years of high school in Australia) runs a reading class once a week. Kids go to the library to borrow books and read for an hour. Students keep a tally of all the books they read throughout the year, which are signed off by the librarians or their teachers, who ask them about the books they've read to initiate a discussion as well as 'test' them to ensure that they have actually read them. At the end of the year there's a prize giving ceremony where all the kids are given certificates based on the number of pages they have read. The kids who read the most are given trophies.
 
I don't know the age group you're dealing with, but how about a rotation shelf of books for each classroom? That way the stock for each room gets changed regularly and the student can spend time with a whole book, rather than just the first chapter.
 
abecedarian said:
I don't know the age group you're dealing with, but how about a rotation shelf of books for each classroom? That way the stock for each room gets changed regularly and the student can spend time with a whole book, rather than just the first chapter.
Click to expand...
That's what we had at our Primary school, and I know that it introduced a lot of kids into reading.

Love the snazzy new look, Kook! Very swish :D
 
You could visit classrooms and give book talks. Those are usually successful from what I've read. In case you're not sure what those are, it's when you bring one or more books to each class, which are age appropriate and should spark interest with the kids, and give a little talk designed to "sell" the book, making kids want to read it or something like it. It only takes 5 or 10 minutes away from teachers and it's a great way to promote the library. That way you can get immediate feedback from kids too.
 
I like the idea of book nights. I'd just make sure that you purchase books from here on out that would appeal to the students. There are a lot of books aimed at the teenage market(especially for girls) that you capitalize upon. Don't forget action, adventure, and racing stories for the guys.:cool:
 
It's also a great idea to capitalise on current events when choosing a book. That may draw in kids who otherwise may not be interested in 'reading' but are interested in specific issues.

You could have a vote every month to see what the book discussion for the forthcoming book should be - have nominations and then have students vote for the successful book. Similar to TBF's Book of the Month concept, I guess.
 
And maybe have a chocolate theme for one of the book talks(or any other food). You could have some chocolate for the kids to eat during the event. They won't forget you if you give them chocolate;)
 
Thank you for all the great ideas. I will give them to the rest of the council. They will surely appreciate them.

About the chocolate, though, abe. I don't know about teenagers from the rest of the world, but at the very bottom of Norway, they behave like monkeys. The books will look highly revulting afterwards, I'm sure.

They are mostly trying to get the boy part of the school to read, since the teachers 'have noticed' girls reading the most. I, on the other hand, know that they know that by calculating statistics, and the fact that this year girls read a lot, is caused by me and my friend moving here and attending this school this year.

Actually, I kind of never see anyone in the library.
 
You should see the thread about why boys don't read. Moto gave links with statistics to back up your observations.
 
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