National Library Week
If you have been a follower of this blog for any length of time, you are well aware of the importance I have placed on literacy- getting students to read, to enjoy reading and to get books in their hands. Next week will provide you as classroom teachers another great opportunity to weave literacy in your lesson plans. April 8-14 is National Library Week. It is one of the annual events sponsored by the American Library Association. (www. ala.org). With the use of the Internet and all that it has to offer, many students may believe that the library has become obsolete. There are numerous activities that you can use to demonstrate to your students the importance of the library and how valuable the librarian can be. The American Library Association has created a web site that will be helpful in the planning of activities. You can access it at www.atyourlibrary.org
There are many civic and education minded non- profits out there that have been established to aid in promoting literacy in schools and to encourage students to read. I had the opportunity have lunch with the founder and executive director of one such organization. “K is for Kids Foundation Inc.” was established in Southwest Florida by Mrs. Karen Clawson to encourage today’s readers. The organization seeks to obtain donations of books as well as funds to purchase books and give these books to school students. Clawson calls her events “fun raisers” and in a short period of time her organizations has been quite successful getting books into the hands of school children. The program has a teen advisory council and the organization has been successful in obtaining a donation of bookshelves from Target. Aside from individual donations, thousands of books have been donated by Book Warehouse. So far books have been donated to 19 schools that serve over 15,000 students.
A similar program was recently initiated in North Carolina. Book Harvest is a nonprofit organization that placed news and gently used books in places easily accessible to children. They include, school, after school programs, Head Start program, health clinic waiting rooms, etc. (you get the picture.) To date this organization has provided over 45,000 books to children in North Carolina. For more information, check out their web site at http://www.bookharvestnc.org/contact_us
The Harvest Book Company in Suburban Philadelphia is a huge buyer of second hand books. They often donate books they cannot sell to area charitable organizations. For more information you can contact them at webservice@harvestbooks.com
More tips for getting kids to love reading. It starts at home!
This site has free printable book logs and reading charts for parents to help motivate children to read.
There is also an excellent list of tips for activities to do at home. From the methodical to the zany it is crucial for everyone, parents, siblings, teachers, librarians, civic organizations and the government to encourage young people to read.
There is also an excellent list of tips for activities to do at home. From the methodical to the zany it is crucial for everyone, parents, siblings, teachers, librarians, civic organizations and the government to encourage young people to read.
Don’t forget to thank your librarian both in school and at your local public library.
READ!!!!
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