the planning department: School-Wide Literacy Events

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Welcome back! Here we are embarking on a new school year. While you and your staff are busy making organizational decisions, why not save some room on your calendar for a few school-wide literacy events? Whether these events are simple or complex in nature, working collaboratively across the grades is an effective way to build a sense of community within your school.

Getting Started

First of all, don’t work alone. A literacy committee consisting of a few enthusiastic teachers and an administrator can easily take care of the logistical details for the projects that you are planning. A little research will uncover some local and national literacy celebrations that you might want to tie in with your school plans. The Canadian Children’s Book centre is a great source of this kind of information (www.bookcentre.ca).

Dates to Note for 2006/07
TD Canadian Children’s Book Week: Nov. 18 – 25
ABC CANADA Family Literacy Day: Jan. 27
International Literacy Day: Sept. 8

Here are a few events that we have tried at our school over the last few years. Perhaps some of them might adapt to your school situation.

Rock-a-thon

The Rock-a-thon was one of our most popular literacy events of the last school year. Originally planned for BC’s Family Literacy Week in January, we extended it into a second week so that some of the classes could have an extra turn!

Here’s how it worked. Two rocking chairs were placed in front of a cardboard fireplace in the school lobby. We drew up a schedule and each class was allotted enough time to allow each student 10 – 15 minutes of rocking.

The first pair of children started early on Monday morning. They brought along a favourite book to read or chose one from a bin of books at the site. Ten minutes later a new pair of students showed up. Several older students were scheduled in to help keep the student rotation on track. They accompanied the readers back and forth to their classroom, read with the youngest students and occupied the chairs during recess and lunch breaks. In this way, our school rocked continuously for the entire week.

Poster Contest

Last year we celebrated Canadian Children’s Book Week with a K – 7 poster contest. Each child chose a favourite book to illustrate and then completed the caption below the picture: “Reading is ...” The posters were displayed in the school hallways. Each participating student received a bookmark (available from the Book Centre) and the contest winners were awarded a book prize at the month end assembly.

Reading Olympics – Go for the Gold!

This home reading program was planned to begin with the opening of the 2006 Winter Olympics. It could be adapted to fit the Provincial Winter Games or some other sporting event.

We began by sending a letter of explanation home to the parents along with two Reading Log forms. We had decided that the percentage of returned forms would determine whether our school achieved a Bronze, Silver or Gold reading medal.

The students kept track of their daily home reading time (20 minutes per day) for two weeks. At the end of each week, the logs were signed by a parent and returned to school. The returned Reading Logs were tallied and then graphed on a bulletin board in the school lobby (an opportunity for a Math activity for a class). At the end of the two weeks the level of achievement was determined, the appropriate medal was hung proudly in the foyer, and all the returned forms were placed in a draw for book prizes that were awarded at the month end assembly.

School-Wide Read

Once a week, at a scheduled time, everyone at our school (including the office staff) reads for 20 minutes. This event is simple, but a really effective way to promote literacy school-wide.

To extend this activity, a few minutes before everyone begins reading, you could talk about one strategy that good readers use (this could be done school-wide on the radio broadcast). The students could then be asked to try this strategy and make a short written response after the reading session.

Example: good readers learn to ask thoughtful questions about the material they are reading. Can you think of an interesting question about what you have read today? The responses could be drawn for a prize, or one or two could be read on a future broadcast.

Family Literacy Nights

Family Literacy Nights for the primary students have become a tradition at our school. There are various ways to organize this type of event, but the main idea is to draw families to the school to enjoy an evening of stories and fun. Some suggestions for planning:

Themes: A theme helps to unify the sequence of events and to choose the books to be read, as well as to create a focus of interest for the evening. Three of our most successful themes have been pajama nights and birthday celebrations for Peter Rabbit’s and Dr. Seuss’s 100th birthdays.

Readers: Many community members are happy to volunteer an hour of their time to read to a small group of children. Some people to ask are student teachers, fire fighters, retired teachers, local business people, your school police liaison officer, school board members, and your local hockey team (think of all the great picture books about hockey—another theme idea!).

Snacks: We usually provide a snack for the children that in some way fits with our theme. For pajama night we had hot chocolate and cookies. We celebrated Peter Rabbit’s birthday with carrots and apple slices.

Reading Sessions: We have six guest readers located in classrooms around the school. To ensure that the audience groups are approximately equal in size, the rooms are labeled 1, 2, 3 and A, B, C. We prepare slips of paper that indicate different reading session sequences (123, 231, 312, ABC, BCA, CAB) and give one slip to each family.
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Recipe for a Successful Family Literacy Night

6:15 The doors to the gym are opened. Each family is greeted and given a raffle ticket and a slip of paper with their reading session sequence printed on it.

6:30 Official Opening: The families are seated and welcomed by the host for the evening. The opening event takes place (a sing-along, skit or story drama).

6:45 The families move to the first reading session.

7:00 The families move to the second reading session.

7:15 The families move to the last reading session.

7:30 Snack Time: The parents go to the gym for coffee and a brief presentation by a guest speaker. The children meet in the multi-purpose room for a snack.

7:45 Closure: As the children finish their snacks, they pass through the library on their way to the gym. They each choose a book from a selection of new books on the tables. The book is theirs to take home and keep. (Money for book purchases comes from the parent group and fundraising.) After the families are reunited in the gym, the raffle takes place. Prizes we have used include frozen turkeys, books, field trips to a local book store (a teacher takes the winning children to a book store and the children choose books to take home—this is sometimes the first time a child has been inside a book store!).

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Brenda is the Literacy Resource Teacher at her school. This .2 position allows her to plan fun literacy events when she isn’t busy in her own classroom.