Compiled from the CBCA-NSW National Year of Reading Think Tank at Penrith:
November 28, 2011

Me, My Shelf and I – Staff Photos in foyer of each teacher/support staff – Changed each year as a way of introducing teachers to our growing school. Photos are of teachers with their favorite book. We change photos of the staff and books each year after photo time. (Lorraine Husarek; Belinda Guymer)

Littlies in the Library – Week 5 of each term the pre-schoolers visit the school library and listen to 2-3 stories. We complete a simple craft activity. Children return to the large group to sing a song using the IWB. Local community groups provide morning tea for children and parents-great as a link to share ideas. (Lorraine Husarek)

Around the world in a book – NESB parents are invited to the library to read a text in their native language before school. Using multilingual text, the children read the fairy tale series – Global Learning Books. (Lorraine Husarek)

Photo contest – Forget planking or owling – send us a picture of you or a friend reading in some unusual setting. (Samples include in the refrigerator, on the side of a boat, floating in the ocean, scuba diving, buried in a sand mountain, in army fatigues, on a bike jump) Photos are published in the local paper. Amanda Credaro

Actively promote reading/literature during library lessons via book talks, serial reading and making time for browsing and borrowing – 15-20 minutes each 60 minute lesson. (Mike Botham)

Newsletter – regular column in school newsletter focusing on literary award winners, literary news, reading tips, etc plus cross promotion with local public library. (Mike Botham)

Know your readers – personal recommendations to students who don’t know what to borrow. (Mike Botham)

Reading as a priority – Need to make reading promotion a priority by making it the MAIN focus, and by making it a pleasant recreational experience. (Mike Botham)

Show bags – plus collaboration as a promotional tool which students create. Jenny Scheffers’ “Scan” article. (Sharon Laurence)

Book trailers (Photopeach)+ literature circles for Years 8, 9, 10. (Sharon Laurence)

Story times – (Sharon Laurence)

Book sculptures – see Ruth Buchanan’s suggestion on “Skerricks” blog. (Sharon Laurence)

Literature show bags of items that relate to stories. (Jenny Scheffers)

Digital stories – create digital stories based on favourite picture books using PhotoPeach. (Jenny Scheffers)

Staff quiz – create a quiz of matching staff members with their favorite books. Each staff member supplies a clue to their favourite book title. (Jenny Scheffers)

Blog – Set up a blog for students to chat about their favorite books. (Honor White)

You just know – Make sure the kids know you want to know what they are reading and that you will buy what they want – i.e. an “in your face” suggestion box that they can’t miss. (Bronwyn Jackson)

Thematic book displays – fiction books displayed with eye catching posters. Change fortnightly so you don’t get overburdened. Easy library displays to promote reading.” Suggest you use book by Pat Pledger – Easy library displays to promote reading. (Bronwyn Jackson)

Changes – Regular changes of new books on display. Every week a complete change of books, even sneak in some old but good ones, too. (Bronwyn Jackson)

Art workshops – where the students illustrate their favorite story (a scene or a character). (Cheryl Gay)

Reading picnic – for the past 5+ years, our school has scheduled a Reading Picnic afternoon with varied themes – spring fling, multicultural, 90 year birthday of main building, trivia. Parents arrive, picnic food optional, rugs on grass, classes and families read in small groups. It costs nothing to run. Often runs from after lunch to just before the bell with sometimes a “report back” time. (Ian McLean & Kerrie Mead)

Connected Classroom – My principal is keen for our school to link up with others via video conference in 2012.(Ian McLean)

Book raps – can highly recommend the NSW CLIC raps and book raps. (Ian McLean)

Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) – Big push for the 100% participation this year. (Ian McLean)

I read because… with a photo of child/ teacher/ parent in each week’s newsletter. (Belinda Guymer; Julie Grazotis)

Author visits – Book an author or illustrator visit through “Lateral Learning”. This year I changed the management and got the author to sign pre-purchased books to give out at Presentation Night. (Belinda Guymer)

Read aloud to the whole school three times a year. Use ALIA’s National Simultaneous Storytime in March. (Julie Grazotis)

Book an author visit – Lateral Learning. (Julie Grazotis)

Promote iBooks – iRead class sets (Benita Sneesby)

Read aloud (earphones)/ interactive apps – e.g. Bartelby Vol 1, Wonky Donkey (Benita Sneesby)

Premier’s Reading Challenge in Book Week as “the theme” – to tie in with “Champions Read”. One very big display. (Benita Sneesby)

Skype – A list of author’s who are available to Skype. (Benita Sneesby)

Quick link navigational tools for K-6 and 7-10 students to search on NYR website. More graphics e.g. About the author, book covers, list of authors to skype, week by week updates, include a QR code for fun. (Benita Sneesby)

Summer reading blog – with a summer reading challenge to share great reads and achievements over the holidays for students and parents. Could also upload book trailers, and include links to public library events. (Amy Sivanandan)

Open day in Book Week. Not sure what this looks like yet but invite the community in. Maybe something like the Connected Classroom or Dad’s BBQ author event. (Amy Sivanandan)

Book talks – lunches once a week/ term/ month in a class, by students/ teachers/ tls/ community members as a regular event. (Amy Sivanandan)

Celebrate – school wide. (Amy Sivanandan)

Reading café – once a week the library is closed to all but members (seniors allowed). Kids read, eat lunch and talk books. (Jenny Dengate & Janelle Van Capelle)

Books and films – Linking books to films. Utilise film posters. Glue colour photocopied book covers around poster to create a collage. Laminate the whole collage. (Jenny Dengate & Janelle Van Capelle)

Book trailer competition – Run trailers on screen via computer and data projector on a loop at lunchtime. (Jenny Dengate & Janelle Van Capelle)

Bright, weird fabric – to hide and drape over pre-selected books when classes come in for wide reading. HA- they have to listen for just a minute to the intro. Then “Open sesame”. Lift the fabric to reveal great books. Pre-selected books get kids at least started in finding a book to enjoy. (Jackie Hawkes)

Plan “B” called Books – huge display of photos of staff and students reading. They can hide behind, under, with a book, serious or silly. We probably had 200+ photos of readers involved as the display/collage grew as a lead up to Book Week. (Jackie Hawkes)

Bibliographies/listings of genres of fiction, PRC listings, others, thematic, series and Aussie authors etc. Kids seem to respond well to some listings to get started in deciding on great books to read. (Jackie Hawkes)

This is a draft of the fifteen ideas sheets that were handed in on the meeting day plus a few emails (not yet) that were exchanged. 38 keen readers signed into the meeting. A number of additional ideas were exchanged informally and orally. Please do add other ideas to share. Thanks to all for your input. Happy reading and ideas sharing. Basically, NYoR is such a great excuse to fine tune and put a new twist on things you have already done to keep our readers’ circles growing and connected. Then, be brave and try something you wouldn’t have thought you could do. This is a wonderful excuse to celebrate and just let ideas and enthusiasm for reading really take off.
Cheers – Jackie Hawkes