Tickled Pink to be a School Librarian

 As winter break approached in 2020, I was, like many of you, tired.

I was tired of teaching in Zoom.

I was tired of not being able to get books into the hands of ALL students, and was frustrated by the fact that many students who needed access to books the most were not getting them.

I was tired of working either from my temporary home office or from what felt like a cavernous, empty school.

What I--what EVERYONE--needed, was something to keep our spirits up.  Something to unite our school community, to brighten the cold, dark days, and to make the slog to spring seem shorter.

And that's when I got an idea.  This is almost always dangerous. . .

What if I did a reading challenge?  What if it focused on stamina and FINISHING books (a problem I recognized, particularly in my 3-5th grade students)?  And what if it culminated in something that would get the entire school community talking?

After consulting with some classroom teachers and library colleagues, I landed on a "Stick With Reading" challenge designed to encourage kids to finish books.  We decided to run the challenge from January 4-March 26, asking students to finish 5,000 books collectively.  We used a bubble gum theme to tie things together.

And the reward?  If students read 5,000 books, I would dye my hair bubble gum pink.

Before offering that reward, I consulted with my hair stylist to determine that yes, it was possible, and no, it would not destroy my hair.  Once I had her approval, despite some laughter and skepticism from my spouse and children, I got to work.

Logistics:

Students in K-2 could count ANY book toward the challenge, including those they read in programs like Raz-Kids or Epic.  Because the goal was to develop stamina, students in grades 3-5 could count all formats except picture books.  Reading would be reported using a Google Form that asked some basic questions about the type of book, number of pages, and how much the student liked it.  Grades 2-5 also had some open-ended questions to answer about the book's content.

I did not spend tons of time "verifying" this information, but I did glance over it at least weekly to make sure students were entering valid information.  For the most part, students completed the form as directed and their answers indicated that they were reading and finishing books.  If there was a problem, I reached out to individual students to address it.

I also created a reading challenge website to hold all related information,  including some data charts that would automatically update as students completed the form.  Every morning on our video school news, we'd update the students about their progress.

Road Bumps:

As we transitioned into first hybrid and then 4-day learning, student homerooms shifted.  This created some challenges in terms of the data collection, since the same students may have had books recorded for 3 different homeroom teachers.  I decided just to ignore that problem and focus on the homeroom teacher where students landed after our many transitions to reward prizes.

I also found that enthusiasm for this challenge was very high in January and still pretty high in February, but dipped in March before reigniting around the deadline.  In the future, I will limit reading challenges to no more than 2 months.

It was evident from participation that classroom teacher buy-in was critical.  The next time I launch a reading challenge, I will invest more time in getting classroom teachers on board before announcing the challenge.  I will also create pathways for them to easily support the challenge with their students, like classroom posters or featuring teachers' favorite books on the news.  I do think remote learning presented a challenge in this area, because even though we are now all teaching in the building, our staff meetings are limited and take place in Zoom.

Results:

Students met the goal of 5,000 books by March 23rd, 3 days ahead of the deadline.  In the end, 287 readers (of around 460) read 5,246 books.  While we did have some "super" readers (550 books!), I am most proud of the fact that so many students, both learning in person and remotely, participated.  Many students who would not consider themselves "readers" contributed at least a few books to this challenge.  

Every student who read even 1 book received a certificate celebrating the number of books they reported.  Students in K-2 who reported at least 10 books or 3-5 who reported at least 5 books also earned a special bubble-gum scented bookmark.  The top reader in each homeroom earned a small gumball machine, and the top readers K-2 and 3-5 earned a larger gumball machine.  I also sent each class enough Double Bubble for everyone.

Most importantly, kids were excited about reading.  They felt united around a common goal (turning my hair pink), and in a year where connection could be a challenge, they truly felt connected to each other, to their school, and to the library.

And, of course, there's this:

I have no idea how I'll top this next year . . .

What's happening in YOUR school library?  We'd love to feature the fantastic things you're doing in a future blog post.  Let us know in this form!