Wide Reading - Reading boxes

This week, I made a decision to apply a strategy that worked effectively several years ago when running secondary school wid reading sessions.

While it is great to see libraries with shelves full of books, some students might find their choices to be overwhelming. This is normal behaviour for humans as sometimes making a choice between many options can be difficult.

Sometimes it needs to be narrowed down, especially if kids are reluctant readers or require direction.

Yesterday, I had a small group of students from a Year 9 English class drop in for a wide reading session. Their teacher indicated that they can only read at a stage 2 level. I am already aware that options are limited for recommending books at that level and currently ordering more items suited to those students.

But I managed to load up a small cubed trolley with a selection of books - many with illustrations, humour or short stories. I even threw in graphic novels.

I placed the books on the table and students were allowed to choose books from the table to read. A few elected to browse the shelves to broaden their choices.

I was impressed with the response to graphic novels with three students (out of nine) electing to give a graphic novel a try. Their teacher was impressed with the choice of manga that requires them to read from back to front.

Futurology Books -

I recently completed reading Never in a million years by Ivor Baddiel & Jonny Zucker. It explored failed or impossible predictions made in the past by people from various sources including newspaper and magazine reports and books.

It bought back memories of one book that I borrowed from the school library on several occasions in primary school - Future Cities: Homes & Living into the 21st Century. The book was published in 1979, but the book was still available in the 1990's. I loved it because of its predictions and even then believed that it was going to happen in time.

You can view some pages from that book by clicking here.
They predicted that the Olympic Games would be held this year on the moon. Wont be happening. Its just a battle for the United States to get man back to the moon by 2024.

It made me think - even though books like this are dated, it would be great if they could be republished. If a library still has copies of futurology titles I would try to avoid throwing them out if possible especially if they contain illustrations. There is a history behind futurology as well. Never in a million years while not a history about futurology, does dwelve into the past. People would love to know what past generations thought about how we may be living today.

I think in a school library, they would be good for two reasons:

• Recreational reading - People are curious about the future and would cater to fans of Science Fiction or may trigger an interest in Science Fiction.
• Allows students to engage with Science and Technology, especially if they are not interested in
  Science. One aspect of Science that I liked was astronomy and futurology books were connected with space.