Building a Culture of Literacy at the Secondary Level – Share a Story, Shape a Future 2012

I have an obsession with reading.  Some might say that is an unhealthy obsession (my husband is reminding me that our house is a fire hazard), but I disagree.  I can’t imagine my life without reading, so I make it my mission to share that love with the students at my high school.

This year I’ve been working with one of my colleagues, the wonderful Michelle, to build a culture of literacy at our STEM-based schools.  While we are blessed to teach such gifted students, they can sometimes look at reading as a waste of time because they are drawn to math and science instead.  Together, we’ve been working to draw them back to reading and we are definitely seeing results! So what are we doing to build a culture of literacy among high school students?

• Surround the students with books!

You can never, ever, ever have too many books.  And surrounding students with books will show them that you value books and literacy.  Eventually, they will wander over to the shelves and pick up a few books.  They will page through them.  They will start to read.  And they will find a book they enjoy.

One corner of my classroom library, back in September, before it became messy.

My school does not have a school library.  We are located on a college campus so we have access to their library, which is outstanding, but it’s outside of our building so I often miss the “easy access” of a school library.  I know a lot of teachers are in a similar situation because budgets being slashed so often equals losing the school librarian.  But you can still surround students with books!  Scholastic, library book sales, used book stores, and of course, #ARCsFloatOn can all help teachers build up a classroom library.

And remember, classroom libraries aren’t the only way to surround students with books.  Michelle recently started a book nook at her school, with parents donating books to a set of shelves in a busy area of the hallway.  This way, any student can borrow a book or browse the titles.  I love it and can’t wait to steal her idea!

• Booktalks

Talk to your students about books and they will start reading.  Booktalks can be almost any advertisement for a book that you can come up with.  The most common booktalk is just standing in front of the students and telling them about a book, like a movie trailer but orally.  You can also show book trailers in class.  I like to post book trailers on our class Facebook page and in the past I have posted them on our Edmodo page, too.  You can also booktalk using posters, flyers in the bathroom, tweets, or any other method of communication.  The important part is sharing books in and out of the classroom!

• Be a YA evangelist!

Yup, I am telling you to shout about YA from the rooftops!  I certainly do!  I’ve handed YA books to plenty of my colleagues.  Why?  Because it’s important for my students to see other teachers reading.  It’s one thing for them to see their English teacher reading- they expect that.  But it’s a whole different experience for them to see the Biology teacher reading a book they have also enjoyed.  Seeing their content area teachers reading YA has started a lot of conversations between students and teachers at my school.  How do I do it?  Easy!  My colleagues know that I read a lot so they started asking me for recommendations.  Soon I was handing out books like The Book Thief, Bumped, The Fault in Our Stars, and Revolution.

• Book clubs

Earlier this year, Michelle and I were watching from the sidelines as our students grew more and more excited about the Hunger Games movie. We realized we wanted to capitalize on that excitement and use to grow a love of reading at our schools.  We decided to start a Hunger Games (re)Read Book Club.  The students were invited to re-read each book of the series, focusing on a single book each month, leading up to the movie.  We publicized the book club and started a discussion on our district Goodreads group.  So far, it’s been a huge success!  The students are reading and rereading the books, coming together to talk about them online and once per month in person.  Michelle and I recently co-wrote an article about our experiment for NJCTE’s journal and I will be sure to link to it when it is available.  But you can start a book club for any book!  Choose something popular and gather a group of students.  We meet at lunch once a month and we also carry on conversations online.  You could use Goodreads, Facebook, Edmodo, Moodle, or any other discussion board/software.  Mold the book club to fit you and your students!

• Social reading

Kids love to talk.  For that matter, so do adults.  What better way to encourage reading than to let them talk about books?  Take some class time to allow your students to talk to each about the books they are reading.  Or if you don’t have the class time to spare, use online spaces and social media to talk about books.  Every Friday I post #fridayreads on my class Facebook page and a few students respond each week.  Even students who don’t respond get a taste of what their classmates are reading as the post pops up in their newsfeed.  You can do the same on Edmodo.

Look at the amazing Paul Hankins and his RAWINK Online!  His students are talking about reading and writing and interacting with YA authors.  Paul is my literacy hero, so be sure to check out his kids and his page.

There are so many ways to talk about reading with your students.  Give it a try and watch the books walk out of your room!

These are just a few of the ways that I try to build a culture of literacy among my high school students.  So far, I am seeing results.  More students are carrying around books, they are discussing them with each other, and they are making recommendations to their peers.  And all of these ideas can easily be implemented in any high school, middle school, or even college!  But I’d love to hear your ideas….what are you doing to build a culture of literacy at your school?