Summer Reading 2018

Last summer I started a summer reading program called Wren Reads. You can see the posts here, here, and here. It was a big success. After meeting with admin and English teachers we discussed participation. According to teacher feedback and an anonymous student survey, 90% read some or all of their summer book. We really wanted to increase those numbers. We thought there were two main obstacles keeping them from reading: 1. students didn't get their first choice of book  or 2. students were not able to get a copy of the book. Based on these issues, we decided to arrange the sign up a little different. Instead of having the teachers choose a book and then cutting off sign up when the group is full, I chose 18 books, booktalked them, students signed up for their preferred book and then we asked teachers to take one of those groups. This allowed us to have multiple groups for the most popular books. To address access, I'm ordering as many copies as I can for check out and I am offering them the option of ordering from me because I can get them at a discount from my vendors. To keep that process easy, I looked at the prices and chose a price that was in the middle. Most books were $7 and a few were $8 and $11, so I set the price at $8 and I'll use some of my funds to cover any overage. 
My admin thought that the program went so well with the rising Freshmen last year, that he asked me to offer it for rising Sophomores that were not in an Honors English course (those students already have assigned summer reading). I did give my teachers for the Sophomore group a little more say so in the book lists since this is their first time participating and I wanted to draw them in and make it a positive experience for them as well.

You can see the Sophomore book options here and the Freshmen book options here. I love using Elink to curate and share these lists. My library intern put these together for me this year. Many of these books are also on our state award list and some are just books that I loved and thought students would enjoy. 

For each list, I created a presentation for sharing. You can see them below. I have playlists on Youtube here and here. Some of them are not the best and I skipped and just book talked them instead.






I met with the rising Sophomores a few weeks ago and the rising Freshman last week. Our middle school is across the street so I packed up a cart and walked over.
 I grossly underestimated how bouncy the road was and had to stop every few seconds to pick up books that I was dropping like breadcrumbs across the street.

We used Google Forms to collect the student's choices. In Sheets it makes it very easy to sort by class, class period, book titles, etc for ordering and planning purposes.

I made signs for each teacher to put on their classroom or office doors. You can find those below. In addition, I created a shared folder in Drive with book discussion guides for those available and a list of general book discussion questions to help the teachers that are nervous about leading the discussion in the Fall. I'm lucky enough to have volunteers from admin, office staff, and teacher assistants, in addition to classroom teachers.




Another change this year is that I created a Remind group for both levels. I used the Schedule feature to put in links, quotes about books, book trailer links, etc. You can see all of the posts in this doc.

I'm planning a delivery day party for both groups where they'll receive their already checked out book or the book they ordered with a bow tied around it and a book mark inside with their name on it. I also made this Airhead graphic on which I'll tape a mini Airhead candy. I made those in Canva. We're going to take pics, sign up for the Remind group, play music and invite the local public librarian in to share details about their summer reading program. I'm hoping to turn this into a fun event instead of an assignment.


I'd love to hear about your summer reading plans. If you have any questions, find me on Twitter at @coxtl and I'm happy to share anything that I have.