My experiences as a high school librarian interested in engaging instruction, edtech, combating poverty, creating lifelong readers and a safe place for all students.
I was so inspired by the Texas Association of School Librarians' program called "Let's Promote Libraries". With permission, I created a version for our state association, South Carolina Association of School Librarians.
I decided to call it "Speak Up SCASL". My goals for this program is to bring more awareness about what school libraries offer our students and teachers, highlight our impact, and advocate for school libraries. I'm looking forward to implementing this program next year as part of our Legislative Committee's efforts.
I put this together for our association's Fall publication. If you go to the link, you will also find where our current SCASL president noted the AASL standards related to each of the month's topics.
I made this graphic in Canva to advertise and share the program. I'll really push this on our organization's social media accounts as the summer ends, but I wanted to share it now so that others could do something similar in their state.
This post inspired me to put together a lesson for my students. I started the lesson with a booktalk of my own. Then I shared this Scholastic Booktalk Tip Sheet and asked students to create their own 1-minute booktalk.
Here are the slides for that lesson.
I gave them this handout, so that they can plan out their booktalk, write down books they'd like to read, and set a reading goal for the summer.
After writing up their talk and pulling up the book cover on their Chromebook, we lined them up face to face on either side of some short bookshelves so they could share and rotate.
This post also had several great ideas for summer reading. I incorporated some of the ideas in my lesson by reminding them why it is important, sharing my summer check out form, helping them plan in lesson above, and sharing my social media accounts, where I plan to do some book giveaways and book talks over the summer.
I altered the lesson a bit with my upperclassmen and added a moment to share reading memories, time to explore some Best of YA lists, and asked them to create a Summer Reading Bucket List graphic on Google Slides or Google Drawing.
Summer reading is not only important for our students, but also our teachers. I've had some confess to me that they do not read so I wanted to give them a little push before the summer begins. It is so important for our teachers to have a rich reading life so that they can help our students create one.
I put together this Smore of Reading resources and shared the WHS Summer Reading Challenge with them. For the first ten teachers to commit to the challenge, I am putting together a prize pack inspired by others that I've seen on Twitter and Pinterest. The plan is either a reusable beach/summer inspired print bag or a plastic margarita style glass full of summer items like travel sunscreen, drink mix, Freeze pop popsicles, snacks, fliers for local summer reading events, public library calendar, our district summer lunch program, bookmarks, and pencils. I'll share the final product on Twitter when it is complete.
I shared this Smore on Monday and I have 9 already committed to the challenge.
I love to follow the work of Jarred Amato and his Project Lit students. One of the components of his book club that I love is his service projects. Seeing their work, lit a fire in me to organize service activities before the year ended.
I started a book club this year and while small in number, we've done some really fun things. We've Skyped with Steve Schafer and had two author visits, Corrie Wang and Nic Stone. We handed out books at our Serteen Trunk or Treat and had students attend Read Up Greenville.
During our latest meeting, we discussed service project ideas. We discussed doing a book fairy style book drop around the community, inviting community members and groups to join our discussions, planning Books and Braids with our nearby elementary schools, and collecting new pajamas and books around Christmas.
The project we decided to work on first is one inspired by this news story.
We didn't want to burden one barber or stylist so we wrote a letter to distribute to local salons, beauty parlors, and barbers. As donations come in, we plan to attach this coupon we made on Canva to a hair-themed book.
We made a wish-list on Amazon for hair-themed books at all different levels. I reached out to the Project Lit and Future Ready Librarian Facebook pages for suggestions.
We will distribute the books and coupons to our feeder area schools so that our guidance counselors can give them to those most in need for a Back to School haircut.
We just shared the letter today so we all look forward to hearing back from our community soon. If you'd like to recreate this in your area and need a copy of something I've shared, send me a tweet at @coxtl and I'll be happy to help.
When school starts back we plan to collect donations of new combs and hair ties so that we can start visiting elementary schools for Books and Braids. This was their favorite idea so I'm looking forward to getting that started next year. What service projects do you do?
