Low Tech Literacy Initiative
Last May, after taking his MCAS test in the computer lab, a student started to read a book to pass the time before he was allowed to leave the exam. The book was Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I said to the student “I didn’t know Anthony Kiedis wrote a book.” “Yeah,” he answered, “it’s not very school appropriate.” When I replied, “any reading is school appropriate. ” He looked at me as if I had three heads. I have been wondering since, was he confused by the validation?
Conversations about books between students and teachers are sprouting up a lot more around the school lately. It was a simple, low tech idea that escaped suddenly from a conversation between the school librarian and the AP English teacher, who is passionate about reading. They wanted to find a way to promote reading throughout the school. They emailed the faculty and asked them to post on their classroom door the book they were reading. The emails started to fly back, as the book-o-philes came rushing out of the closet, “what a great idea!” “I’m on it”. “Will do”.
Sure enough, walking down the hallways became a new experience for those in the know, as we all started to check out each others choices. Teacher to teacher interaction increased as we spotted books on doors that we had in common. The impulse was to rush in and say “Don’t you love it.” “I loved that!” “What did you think of the ending?”
Then the students started to notice and there was something to talk to their teacher about besides schoolwork. As soon as they see a book they have read too they share a commonality with that teacher. It flattens social hierarchy immediately, both parties become readers who have shared a common journey. There is more chance for increased congeniality through shared experiences. Similar to when teachers attend sporting events or school productions and have seen students outside of their classroom.
The librarian plans to promote the next step in the process and tie in what the students are seeing on the classroom doors with a list feature in the school library online catalogue. Through our biweekly digital literacy challenge we will be asking them to notice what teachers are reading, encourage a conversation and then ask them to start to create a list online. If your library catalogue doesn’t have this feature, you could use shelfari, or library thing.
It is strange blogging about such a low tech activity, but how many doors do the students walk through each day. These doors are often a blank canvas. In a twitter conversation with @irasocol, he suggested including other types of reading matter such as blog posts, magazines and try and expand the idea of what is ok to be reading. When I said my door couldn’t hold my online reading appetite, he suggested papering the walls of the school with what we were all reading, maybe just for a week.
Other follow up activities could include an in house Bookcrossings activity. We could set our books free around the school for students to find and register, read and set free again.
Decide whether this is an activity to promote reading, or is it an activity to promote positive interactions between students and teachers. If it is the latter. Here are some ideas for other things to share on your own school classroom door project:
- latest music you bought
- last dvd you watched
- favorite website
- online charity you support
For elementary schools
- favorite book to read to the class
- your pets
- your sport or team
- vacation spot
Would love to hear what your school is doing to promote reading or to engender positive school culture.
Photo Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/97058136@N00/412032536
Photographer: MightBoyBrian
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Schools, especially most American schools, make literacy a “school-based chore” with no relevance or value to students beyond grading. But literacy is the most exciting thing we humans have, it is a social thing, a transformative thing.And we need to return it to the human storytelling roots from whence it came.
What I love about this is the simplicity. We celebrate our stories – not as a hierarchical thing, but as human-to-human. Reading is not “appropriate” or inappropriate” – instead, it is a set of stories to be discussed, embraced, challenged. As this notion expands, those NOT reading begin to stand out. And the school community embraces the communal idea of being “literate.”
So find ways to expand it – not just including web reading and comic books, but audiobooks and podcasts, poetry and short stories, everything which gets us sharing stories.
Good luck. This is a wonderful idea.