"Just Read" at Queenwood

I thought I'd share two articles relating to a wide reading program - "Just Read" by Sydney independent school - Queenwood. It is an initaitve that is working effectively in developing a whole school wide reading culture. Every staff member is also required to participate.

• Queenwood News Weekly - Article from 21 February 2020
• 'Sense of urgency': One school's bold plan to get teenagers reading - The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 2020

At the end of April, I attended a presentation by Gabrielle Mace (author of the article from Queenwood News Weekly) and was very encouraged by the results of "Just Read" to date particularly embedding the wide reading time in the school timetable but also the motivation it gave the students to read for enjoyment. I was also impressed by allocating the time on Friday to sharing book reviews within their groups as well. I think student recommendations go a long way to encouraging one to read. 

The Laureate & The Literacy Leader - SLANSW Summit

Last Saturday (March 13), the School Library Association of NSW (SLANSW) presented its first blended summit where attendees could either attend in person or online. Instead of the State Library of NSW, it was hosted by The Kings School. 

For those who enjoy attending face to face, it was the first time in one year that we could gather in person for a summit or conference. Last year, SLANSW were fortuante to have one face to face summit prior to COVID-19 Restrictions and presented an online speaker series instead of a second face to face summit.

Providing it online enabled those in regional areas to participate or for those in the city, participate from the comfort of their own home. 

Karen Yager was fantastic in explaining how we can use Australian literature to encourage students to improve their writing by focusing on landscapes then collaborating actively on creating lists of resources to share with English Teachers.

Ursula Dubosarsky (Author & Australian Children's Laureate 2020-2021) shared her insights in the role of libraries in engaging children with reading and how we can support them. I asked her a question based on experiences where schools do not have a wide reading program and students have presented statements such as "I don't like reading" and "I don't read" and what we could do. She admitted that she could not answer the question, but she had her concerns about schools that have not encouraged a positive reading culture. I for one have concerns for schools that do not have a wide reading program or encourage reading for pleasure. Ursula and I have common ground on this.

Also we had an opportunity to discuss different wide reading intiatives and programs applied by different schools and I was encouraged by the opportunity to share within a small group some of my successes to date with wide reading programs and the interest attendees within that group had.

I hope to comment further once resources are finalised but found the day to be well engaging. 

I am a currently a Metropolitan Representative on the Management Committee of SLANSW. If you wish to join, please feel free to contact me at fabian.amuso@syd.catholic.edu.au

What I Like Reading (Handout)

Last year, I created a resource for Teacher Librarians that could have two uses:

What I Like Reading

It can be used for either (or both):

1. Finding out reading preferences of students.
2. Genrefication of library fiction collections

I ended up using the handout for both reasons. 

Firstly, I needed to know what they enjoyed reading so I could help each student select suitable books to read given that the students I worked with had experienced difficulty locating books that they enjoyed reading. It helped me make more informed recommendations to students during their wide reading sessions. This provides a diagnostic assessment of student reading preferences. I scanned student responses and emailed each English Teacher a copy for their records. As we start the year, this will be a good resource to use in wide reading sessions. 

Secondly it helped me to plan and advise the school on how the fiction collection could be genreified. I tallied the results for each wide reading/English class and provided me with a broader indication of what the student body at the school enjoyed reading. You may notice that I mostly used genre labels from RAECO in the handout as I was proposing to utilise their labels when genreifying the collection. However, labels (custom made or accquired from any supplier) can be used. 

There was an additional benefit in that it better informed me on resources to be accquired for the library. For instance a number of students indicated that they enjoyed reading sports fiction and the library had very few books catering for their interest in this genre. In response, I had to order additional books encompassing sport. I also needed to expand our collection of humour novels/stories as it was identified as one of the most popular genres by the student body and some series e.g. Diary of a Wimpy Kid was in very high demand. 

If you would like a word.doc of this resource, please email me at either fabian.amuso@syd.catholic.edu.au or famuso.teachlib@gmail.com.