As the sun begins to set on my first year at my current school, I can’t help but think about the new experiences and wisdom I’ve already gained. However, one particularly glimmering piece of this place shines brightest in my mind. This is a school that reads.
When I say “reads,” I don’t mean constant hammering away at the students by telling them what they must finish reading and by when. I don’t mean cramming books they couldn’t possibly understand down their throats just to brag to the community that it was done, and I don’t mean that the language arts teachers are given a Herculean task and forced to get SATs scores up through silent reading.
The challenge that any school faces today regarding literature is sad but simple. There’s just too much entertainment out there to compete with reading. Previously, I worked at a private school where the white flag was raised in this battle. The librarian was let go, and every single book was removed from the media center to make way for high-tech learning labs devoid of any suitable literary replacement. The result? The love of literacy is down to a few grains. Language arts teachers frequently reduce the amount of required class novels. One particular individual recommended doing away with all summer reading because “they don’t read anyway.” Administrators made cracks during meetings that emails were “TLDR” (too long, didn’t read.) The school climate affected me, too. I rarely read, and when I did, I found myself reading BuzzFeed and bulleted-listed pieces. My love of reading took a colossal hit.
Then I entered my new workplace, and I felt as if I was slipping back into a familiar and comfortable place. I was encouraged to join the faculty literacy committee which is made up of teachers from all subject areas who enjoy discussing upcoming book celebrations, an entire week of celebrating literacy, and the student AND teacher rewards for reading. The media specialist frequently started her turn at both faculty and literacy meetings with “we are a school that reads” and after seeing how ultra-competitive teachers were about their own reading points competition, I fully believed her.
As I near the end of this first year, I am floored by the effects of this mentality. Nearly every one of my classes asks me at some point about the current book I’m reading. They also enjoy not only asking me for book recommendations but freely offering me recommendations, too. Several of the books I’ve read this year were loaned to me by current students. Their eyes light up when I talk to them about particularly pivotal parts. Every one of my classes becomes silent for twenty minutes a week when they take out their chosen books and quietly read.
In addition, I am now one of those competitive teachers in the book point challenge, but I find myself straying to read lots of books outside of the books with tests. I’m trying new authors, talking to colleagues about books again, and finding that written words can bring people together. However, my absolute favorite gain of being a part of a “school that reads” is how it is rubbing off on my child. He is developing a love of reading from sitting each night and reading with his family. We often talk about what we’re each reading and what we like about it. Last year, he had no favorite authors because he merely read for the competition. Now he knows who Jeff Kinney and Raina Telgemeier are because he keeps asking me to help me find more books by them, and he eagerly participated in the book character parade, which he had little to no interest in last year.
This is the school where teachers from all subject areas are encouraged to join the school’s literacy committee and allow their imaginations to merge and plan a week of celebrating all books; banned, comic, non-fiction, and, of course, novels. This is the school where the media center specialist plans a different celebration of a particular kind of book each month among the rows of bookshelves and computers, keeps the media center open late twice a week for kids to have more time to find books, and arranges for carts of books to come into rooms when the media center is closed for testing. This is the school where the students understand that reading what they enjoy and expanding their personal book choices is just part of the school atmosphere. This is the school where students know the power and magic of reading because the administrators and teachers do, too.
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