Promoting Reading Programs

Promoting reading and reading programs at my school seems not to be a one man job - thankfully! Most of the reading incentive programs (how I feel about those is a topic for another day) are organized by several of our reading teachers - and boy, do they do a great job! From organizing an author visit to planning Read Across America, they are fantastic. Sure, I get involved in the discussions and help out when I can, but for the most part, they take the lead. This might be a good thing because they are far more organized than me!

This leads to me write about an event I attended at the school my children attend. Tonight was the second year of Camp Read-A-Lot. This outdoor event, put on by the media specialist and the reader teacher, is a variety of things, but mostly an event to promote reading. During the hour-long event, families brought their chairs or blankets and hung out on the lawn in front of the school - some of the children even wore their pajamas. We listened to a couple of stories read by the event organizers, sang a few campfire songs, and then had some time to read with our children. Oh, did I mention there were smores? In addition, children were encouraged to bring books from home that they no longer needed and then could add them to the Book Swap table. If you brought put a book on the table, you could take another back home with you.

It's a cool event, short, productive, and positive. I saw at least four classroom teachers at the event, with their own children, not "working" - which I thought was great.

I wonder if an event like this would be successful at my school?? I guess there's only one way to find out - tell the reading teachers to do it!