[R2R-OR] Great ideas from 2015 Ready to Read Grant projects

[Katie Anderson]

You all continue to impress me by being more strategic and creative in achieving outcomes each year. Here are just a few of the amazing things some of you will be doing with your Ready to Read Grant in 2015:


*         In previous years, many parents did not sign their young children up to participate in the summer reading program because they assumed kids had to be able to read themselves to participate. To change this and increase the amount of reading parents do with their young children during the summer, we will create summer reading displays and booklists targeting families with young children. We will also provide an activity sheet to encourage parents to read aloud and do other early literacy activities with their pre-readers.



*         Working with our Early Learning Hub, the library will help provide early literacy skills training to community partners who work directly with young children. This is one area that has been identified as a desired service through our community partner survey.



*         The English Language Learners teacher at the elementary school thinks Playaway(r) and book packs will encourage additional reading practice at home. In consultation with the ELL teacher, the library will identify appropriate beginning reader titles that support students' language acquisition and reading goals to create Playaway(r) book packs that will be promoted by the library during regular classroom visits.



*         This year we purchased a few early learning games and activities. They were very well received and popular with local preschool and kindergarten teachers because the games and activities are perfect for setting up learning centers in classrooms and in the library. Games and activities focus on number and letter recognition, phonological awareness, rhyming, and writing readiness. Therefore, we plan to expand the collection next year.



*         The school administrator and Title 1 teachers have agreed to promote summer reading to their students. The Title 1 teachers will fill out a short survey on their students reading skills when they return to school in the fall.



*         Using the Collaborative Summer Library Program, we will provide improved access to low-income children who lack transportation to the library by:

o   Implementing additional activities on-site in parks where the free lunch program is provided.

o   Providing additional schedule options (Fridays, Saturdays, and evenings) when Migrant Summer School is not in session and children in childcare may be able to attend with family members.

o   Outreach to schools with more than 75% free and reduced lunch eligibility.

o   Diversify our activities to include more hands-on and activity-based programs, in addition to high-quality professional performances, with bilingual staff coordinating participation to increase accessibility for Spanish speaking participants.



*         We will utilize our strong relationship with the local elementary school to share information about children who signed up for and completed the summer reading program. Our goal is to share with the principal the names of their students who completed the SRP. Principals will be encouraged to combine this data with their data on reading assessments from last Spring to this Fall to track the impact of summer reading on participating students' reading levels or test scores. We will ask principals to report back to us aggregate data on participating students (X% of students who completed the summer reading program maintained or improved their reading level).



*         Coordinate with Head Start and public preschools to present a series of family storytimes designed to model effective reading practices and will provide mobile checkout of library materials on site at the programs.



*         We will visit a migrant worker housing facility once a week during the summer to implement the summer reading program.  We will present books and stories to the children who live there, and hire performers to visit. We will sign them up for the summer reading program and monitor their progress. At the end of summer we will have a party which will include giving them a prize book and a t-shirt for finishing the program.



*         Our library's mission is to engage, connect and inspire library users of all ages in our community. At each storytime we will encourage families to sign-up for 1000 Books Before Kindergarten. To emphasize how many books we read together in a year, we will place an apple on a decorative tree on the wall for each book read during storytime and we will celebrate milestones. Along with filling out their reading logs, children who participate in 1000 Books Before Kindergarten will work towards completing a personalized book, "My Story", that documents their journey through the 1000 Books experience.


*         Parent may mark on their adult summer reading logs if they are a "Reading Partner" with their child.



*         We will offer "double points" for families who read together. For example, if a parent reads to their child or a child reads to their parent both the child and parent can mark "double points" on their respective reading logs.



*         For projects that have a take-home component, such as crystal formation and color-changing cut flowers, invite families to comment/post photos of their completed creations to the library's FaceBook page or a bulletin board set up in the children's section.



*         Youth will be provided a list of contact names and places where they can volunteer. Volunteer time can be recorded in their reading log. To kick off this activity, the Community Connections director will visit the library and share what opportunities there are for youth involvement in the community. Other local service people will be invited to the library to share their services to the community throughout the summer.



Katie Anderson, Library Support and Development Services
* Youth Services Consultant * Oregon Center for the Book Coordinator *
Oregon State Library, 250 Winter St. NE, Salem, OR 97301
katie.anderson at state.or.us<mailto:katie.anderson at state.or.us>, 503-378-2528

[OYAN_logo_clr.JPG]<http://www.olaweb.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=289>
Learn about teen non-fiction books and common core at
OLA's Oregon Young Adult Network fall workshop<http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/pipermail/libs-or/2014-September/008266.html>
Friday, October 24, 2014 at Multnomah County's Central Library

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