Wrapping Up Summer Reading

I detailed my summer reading plans in two blog posts: here and here. Scheduling the summer reading discussion was more difficult that I expected. We were finally able to work it into the schedule last week (third week of school). I think that the discussions went well. Luckily I saw our SRO on the way and reminded him, but everyone was present for the meetings. I have a suspicion that at least two of the teachers did not read their books, which I am baffled by. Hopefully they knew enough to keep the discussion going. Overall, I was very pleased with how everything went and hope to do this again.
Here are a few pictures from our meetings. My principal came down with the intention of taking lots of pictures, but he was drawn into the discussion for The Hate U Give.

The Freshman Academy guidance counselor discusses Ghost by Jason Reynolds.

The School Resource Officer discusses Gym Candy by Carl Deuker.

I was lucky enough to win an ARC of How to Disappear by Sharon Huss Roat and she sent extra bookmarks and swag to hand out to the group discussing Between the Notes. Awesome!

I pulled out one prize book for each group that connected to the book they were discussing so that the teacher could give that book to someone that really contributed to the meeting. I brought extra for my group, because it pays to be in the librarian's group:)

After the discussion I asked the teachers to give the students a quick survey about the program. Here are some of the highlights and information that will help me improve for next time.

• 90% reported that they read all of or part of the book for their group. The survey was anonymous so I feel that their answers are accurate. 
• 87% of surveyed students gave the book a 3, 4 or 5 rating when asked if they would recommend the book to other students. 
• Overwhelmingly, students reported that they enjoyed the format and liked getting to talk with a teacher that they didn't already know. 
• Other comments included "this format was short and sweet", "it was good because there wasn't a long, boring report", "there were lots of books to choose from", "it was fun to hear other opinions", and "good conversations".
• A few recommendations were to use a book pass instead of watching trailers so they could read a few pages and to be more diverse in book choices.

I also asked teachers to complete a survey, but only received one response. I did a few thank you emails and heard from others that it went well. I think their link was overlooked because it was in the same email as the student survey.

I shared some of the survey results with administration and asked if they would like to do this again and meet after Winter break. I'm waiting on their decision. If not, I hope to do this again next summer. Maybe with the entire school this time.

For upperclassman, I created Summer Reading BINGO cards. I wasn't here to do much advertising and it showed because I only received two completed cards. Hopefully, it will be better next summer when I am here to get the program going.