After five years as a school librarian and another five as an English teacher, I've created many a summer reading list and promoted several different types of summer reading programs, but this year my goal was to do something a little different. So, after a discussion with one of our English teachers and my principal and a whole lot of help from one of our gifted divas, we came up with the Clarke Middle School Community of Readers Summer Reading 10,000 Book Challenge!
Ready Set Read....
We created a summer reading information sheet and log for each student and then created a summer reading webpage on the CMS Media Center Website We set a goal for our school family (students and their families and faculty and their families) to read 10,000 books collectively. Each CMS student was asked to become a cheerleader for reading in their home. Each family will log the books they read this summer (parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, cousins, anyone that may live in your home). Any book counts: books read alone or together, story books, chapter books, novels, graphic novels, picture books, whole magazines, etc., etc., etc.
So far, I've promoted the Summer Reading Challenge to the rising 6th graders on their visit last week, to the parents via our school listserv, media center blog and Facebook page, and the English teachers are promoting the challenge to their classes. I have several students drawing and painting a five foot tall wooden owl with a stack of ten books to track our progress toward the 10,000 book goal. We will show off our owl this summer during the summer library media center hours where we will open for families to come in on select Thursday afternoons to check out books, use the computers and iPads, read, play games, talk about books, etc.
At the end of the summer each student and faculty member that turns in a log with at least 15 books their family read this summer will be able to attend a pizza party. Once we reach the 10,000 book goal there will be a HUGE school-wide surprise!
My goal for this project is to get the whole family involved with summer reading and to build a community of readers around our school family. I hope this summer reading challenge leads to many meaningful discussions about books and the habit of reading!
