“To kindle a passion for learning and a love for literature through a warm and inviting environment that promotes literacy for all”; that’s my objective for every day in the school library. My mission statement is similar. That is because the highest priority I have as a media coordinator is to help students discover who they are as readers and develop a love for it by exposing them to things they never knew existed in books.

 

     Every lesson I have planned during the program promotes reading for learning and personal growth. It isn’t hard to find a lesson that doesn’t do this. The LIS 654 maker space lesson and the Collaborative lesson all have components that require the student to read for information and then create something out of that information. The LIS 635 flipped instruction lesson also requires the students to read through the information in the curation and decide what is important and they should include in their infographic. All of these assignments are important in that students need to know how to read for information, but more importantly, they need to know to read for themselves and for fun.

 

     During my LIS 693 practicum, I chose to implement a strategy called YOur Next 5, which is essentially a survey or reference interview with the students to find out what they are reading for fun and help them identify what their next read should be. Because of this, I have been very intentional about having conversations with the students and trying to learn more about what interests them and what they are reading. I have also created Donors Choose projects based off of their suggestions in the suggestion box. Books that the students want to read are now being consciously added to the collection.

 

      Other assignments that promote a love of reading were the book talk assignment and the illustrator study assignment form LIS 617. For some students, all it takes to be interested in a book is a simple snippet from a book tasting or an overview given by a teacher or librarian doing a book talk. Just say “farting robots” and Jarrett Learner’s Enginerds is an instant hit! Likewise learning about an author or illustrator on a personal level invest the students in their work and the students can’t help but be interested. I have found that the books written by authors my students have met via author Skypes are highly sought after commodities in the library. I have also seen similar trends with books showcased in book tastings, read aloud by me, or recommended by me.

 

     If students know that you love to read and are interested in what they want to read, it is a recipe for reading success. Sprinkle in a little natural curiosity and reading for information is a nice side dish!  If the school librarian can master these things he/ she will have the most loyal of patrons and will reap the rewards of hearing the phrase “you’re my favorite librarian”.