During this year’s Read Aloud to a Child Week observance (October 20-26), Read to Them proudly celebrated 20 years of offering family literacy programs. When we first launched One School, One Book in our hometown of Richmond, Virginia, we never could have anticipated that 3,300 other schools across the country (and counting!) would join our community of readers. We are proud to have directly added over four million books to home libraries – and are so, so looking forward to all the stories, the community events, and the moments of togetherness to come in the twenty years ahead.
To celebrate this feat, we are looking back on Tips From the Field shared by One School, One Book participants throughout the last decade. We cannot thank these folks enough for their wisdom, and hope you’ll find their words to be as valuable as we do. Dive in below:
Lorraine Williams, Principal at Perry Hill School in Shelton, CT
“The community of readers – both at home and in school – that is created by this project is amazing. The conversations between students and all the staff members of our school while we are doing our One School, One Book are captivating. Feedback from parents has been nothing but positive with most parents commenting how great it is to read a book with their family together.
To keep everyone on the same page, we create a brochure, which also serves as a bookmark, that goes home with each book. The dates and pages to be read for those dates are listed. We also give parents some tips for reading aloud to their children. Each morning we ask a daily trivia question from the reading the night before and have fun prizes for the winners. We also kick-off the project and end it with school-wide assemblies – the enthusiasm and excitement are contagious!”
Karen Vallier, Title I Teacher at Chanute Elementary School in Chantute, KS
“We have found that the more teacher buy-in we have, the more successful the program. Having some kind of contest between classrooms has worked quite well. For example, when we were reading The One and Only Ivan (by Katherine Applegate), we had a billboard contest – like the billboard that was an integral part of the story. Each of our 35 classrooms in the building decorated their door in some way that went along with the book. It was fabulous and the students were all involved.
We also have a “Wall of Readers” where families send in their “selfies” of the family reading together. This has proven to be quite popular and the students love seeing themselves and their friends’ pictures displayed.”
Rae Anne Locke, Teacher and Librarian at Saugatuck Elementary School in Westport, CT
“One of the most important keys for a positive experience I believe is an enthusiastic committee with representatives of the stakeholders (staff, administrators, and parents). The committee members research possible book selections and read and make recommendations. Planning (begin early and in detail) is essential. Have committee meetings on the calendar throughout the process.”
Kimberly Pinto, Library Media Specialist at John J. Daily Elementary in Port Washington, NY
“Find creative ways to bring the book to life. RTT provides wonderful suggestions. If you can, get a school pet to tie in with a story. We got our very own hamster in the library that the students named ‘Mr Cuddles’ to go with our The World According to Humphrey program and the excitement that this generated was amazing. One of our self-contained classes got so involved that they started a STEM challenge to create a maze for Mr. Cuddles. For The Enormous Egg, we started with a large ostrich egg placed inside a glass tank to generate curiosity. Then we swapped it out with a gigantic baby triceratops (Preskool electronic toy) that the children loved, and which now resides in the library.”
Denise Miller, Assistant Principal at Weirton Elementary School in Weirton, WV
“This is not a one-person program. You must have a team of staff with the same passion to pull this off. This is a great program to find out the different strengths and talents you have on your team. I found out so many unique things from my staff – talents I didn’t even know they had. Several teachers were such wonderful artists and helped draw all the props for the play at kickoff. We had teachers come up with the words to our theme songs. Teachers made displays outside their classrooms that were so creative and unique.”
Carol Nenni, Principal at Murwood Elementary in Walnut Creek, CA
“Create that sense of excitement around the book and commit to having everyone participate. I buy books for every family, in multiple languages if it is available, and I make sure that every staff member, volunteer, and even our board members receive a copy. We commit to a shared reading schedule and have different grade levels share their thoughts on community bulletin boards while we are reading the book.”
Karen Brack, Director of Curriculum and Instruction & Assessment at Spring Hill USD, Spring Hill, KS
“We really try to involve our community. Businesses are given books and pins to wear, indicating they are reading right along with our students. It’s fun to see kids interacting about the book with adults at the grocery store, bank, etc. This is our fourth year doing this, and our parents and community members love it.”
Rebecca Giesecke, Teacher at Poplar Grove Elementary in Poplar Grove, IL
“The key is trying to pick a great book that spans the grade levels. Having a great book with activities to get the students interested makes for a great One School, One Book. Sometimes the simplest things can be the most engaging. This year, we are making our own thinking goggles and designing dragons. The year we read The Cricket in Times Square, the whole building had Lorna Doone shortbread. I am a big fan of books in a series because it always creates more interest. Kids are excited to read more of the series. Parents love when we do a series, too.”
Thank you again to all the educators who took the time to lend their voices to this post. We cannot do what we do without your continued support. Here’s to the next 20 years – happy reading!
Have you participated in a Read to Them program before and have a tip you’d like to share? Drop it in the comments below.
