fyi : back issues
Winter 2005 - Engaging readers
The challenge of "The Challenge"
Chris Finch & six other teacher librarians
This year the Premier, Steve Bracks challenged students in Years 3 - 9 to read twelve books. Over 115,000 students registered to accept the challenge. What happens next? Chris Finch updates progress and future plans for the challenge while six teacher-librarians discuss ways in which they have implemented it in their schools.
The Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge, issued by Premier Steve Bracks on 6 February 2005, is for students in Years 3 to 9 to read twelve books by the closing date in August, with ten or more chosen from a selected list. The number of Victorian schools and students who have taken up the Challenge, and the enthusiasm with which they have done it, has been far and away beyond expectations based on the experience of Premier’s Reading Challenges already running in NSW and SA. Sheer weight of numbers has provided additional challenges for many teachers and schools in administering student records and providing access to the texts.
The Challenge web site <http://www.sofweb.vic.edu. au/vicprc> provides the main avenue of communication for more than 1600 schools, 4000 co-ordinators and 115,000 registered students, parents and public. It also links to the online application which manages all school and student data.
The web site averages well over a thousand visitors a day with increases in usage at certain peak times, such as between 3pm and 4pm. The Department’s Information Technology Division monitors the servers which support the application and have implemented upgrades for the additional load created by Reading Challenge traffic. The site is updated regularly and the application has been developed throughout the year. In Term 3 this includes the provision of additional reports to school co-ordinators and colour coding to show each student’s status and progress.
In 2006 the Challenge will again run from the beginning of the school year until some time in August. While the Premier will announce some changes in issuing the Challenge, proposed arrangements include: • extending the Challenge to students in Prep to Year 2 • updated booklists at the beginning and in the middle of the Challenge • extending the online reading record to allow students to continue to record books after completing the Challenge • the option for school co-ordinators to transfer students registered in 2005 to the 2006 Challenge.
What remains now for 2005 is for the registered students to finish their reading, meet the Challenge and receive their certificates from the Premier!
An incentive scheme to encourage children to read – excellent! But how do teacher-librarians accept the ‘challenge of the Challege’?
Initially there were quite a few teacher hours dedicated to making the listed books available to students. Which titles did we already have in our collection? How much of the budget would be allocated to purchasing additional titles?
To make the books accessible to students we added ‘VPRC - 3&4’ and ‘VPRC - 5&6’ as a subject search entry for the listed books. All the books were also given a coloured spine sticker for easy identification: fluorescent orange for 145 titles on the Year 3 and 4 list and bright blue for 167 titles on the Year 5 and 6 list.
The Challenge was promoted in library lessons, in the classroom and through the weekly newsletter. All Year 3 - 6 students made a bookmark that would double as their list of completed books.
Year 6 teachers used the booklists for students to select a text for a classroom literature assignment. That certainly got some students seeking out particular titles! Our computer specialist teacher dedicated some time to teaching the login process. The Lab has also been open for some lunchtime login sessions.
The administration aspect of the Challenge has proven to be quite time consuming for the three teachers involved in this project. With over 200 students participating, there is a lot of time involved in assisting accurate login and then doing the final verification upon completion.
Overall, the student response has been positive. Less enthusiastic readers have been motivated to borrow library books and it is excellent for dedicated readers to have a goal to work towards.
Anne Ellenby is Teacher-in-the-library, Templeton PS.
The Premier’s Reading Challenge has been enthusiastically embraced by staff and students at Echuca West Primary School. Years Prep to two have also been involved in a school-based reading and sharing picture story books challenge.
Prior to the launch, mystery signs were placed around the school for students to guess what the Challenge was all about. The launch was a big event, with every child writing the title and author of their three favourite books on a balloon and displaying them around the school. Our local Member of Parliament, Mr Noel Maughan, arrived to officially launch the Challenge with an encouraging talk about the enjoyment and knowledge gained from reading. Once registered, the task of negotiating the web site proved a challenge in itself. The online assistance and our technology technician helped overcome any difficulties.
Most students are motivated and it has been exciting to see an increased enthusiasm for reading. Students enter their own books online which incorporates technology skills as well as literacy. Donnette Field is Teacher-librarian at Echuca West PS.
At St Simon’s School in Rowville, 205 students in Years 3 - 6 have accepted the Premier’s Reading Challenge. Participation was optional although the added incentive of an invitation to a special lunchtime celebration for those who meet ‘The Challenge’ was enough to sway some students who were undecided! Funds from the literacy budget will provide balloons, icy-poles and other goodies to create a party atmosphere.
To provide easy access to the books we collected them from the shelves and put them aside in tubs. We placed a sticker on them to denote whether they were on the Years 3 - 4 or Years 5 - 6 booklist.
With so many students participating I was anticipating a few headaches but so far everything has been smooth sailing. Many students have already completed the Challenge and are now looking forward to the recognition they will receive in the form of certificates and seeing their names in print.
Maree Brabender is Teacher-librarian at St Simon’s School, Rowville.
Students taking the Challenge at Sunbury College were invited to lunch in the library in the last week of Term 2. Our 25 challengers feasted on party pies, pizza, cake, mandarins, lollies and lemonade. They perused listed books on display and chatted about what they’d already read. They returned their consent forms, verified their reading online and borrowed for the holidays. The lunch was an opportunity to celebrate and to reward our students. It was also an opportunity to get the online housework done, and for students from Year 7 to 9 with a love of reading it was a time to get together and talk about books.
We were fortunate to have a work experience student who designed, printed and hand delivered the invitations to students and staff. We invited our principal, assistant principals, co-ordinators and teachers to the lunch. Principal Peter Hendrickson, a keen reader himself, addressed the party, congratulating and encouraging the students. He confessed to being a reader who at school would read with his book hidden under the desk!
Our students have been engaged by the Challenge. They like the bookmarks and using the web site. They enjoy looking up titles, finding them and deciding if they’ll borrow them. We are planning to present their certificates at an assembly.
Penny Geoghegan is Resource Centre Manager at Sunbury College.
The library team at Hampton Park Secondary College have embraced the Premier’s Reading Challenge and have been working closely with the English staff and students in Years 7 - 9 to get the program underway.
We began the program with an awareness campaign for all staff, students and parents. The college staff were made aware of the Challenge via the library news-letter and morning briefing whilst the English faculty staff were briefed in their KLA meeting. Some staff immediately gave their support, and to enthuse their students they booked their classes into the Curriculum Resource Centre for a talk on the Reading Challenge by the teacher-librarians.
The library assistants took the initiative to advertise the program in the library, putting the Reading Challenge posters and the list of recommended titles in prominent positions. We further encouraged all junior students to participate by placing notices in the Student Bulletin and speaking to students individually when they came to the library. In this way, more students signed up to do the Challenge.
Library staff organised reading folders for all participating classes in Year 7 and 8. All the fiction books from the Reading Challenge list were removed from the general collection and shelved separately, closer to the loans desk, so that these books could be easily accessible to staff and students. This has really made a difference to the number of books being borrowed by the students.
Progress of the Reading Challenge is conveyed to students via the Student Bulletin and to parents through their newsletter, Newshamper. Some students have already completed their 12 books and to encourage further reading these first few students will be awarded with prizes during Book Week. Overall our statistics show that borrowing of books has increased significantly since we implemented the Reading Challenge this year. Su Shankar is Curriculum Resource Centre Manager at Hampton Park Secondary College.
Although we have had a small take up, students who have chosen to do the Challenge are doing amazing things. I have had many conversations with students who are reading and enjoying books they would never have picked up prior to the Challenge. I don’t even have to ask questions of these students to determine if they have read these books – they enthusiastically tell me all about them. It is also interesting that the majority of students with whom I have had these discussions are boys – which is a wonderful outcome for this project.
Jessica Bishop is Teacher-librarian at Portland SC.
Chris Finch is a Project Officer in the Project Development Unit, Office of Learning and Teaching, Department of Education and Training.