Wider Reading Online during Covid

In addition to the usual tasks of working in a School Library, one of my jobs as a Teacher Librarian is to facilitate the wider reading program.

So each session starts with a spiel about new books or the programs that we are supporting at the moment and then we settle into doing half an hour of reading. During this time, I scoot around the room asking each students what they are reading; encouraging them to engage in recreational reading or recommending books to them.

And then Covid19 hit .... What to do with what is normally a very interpersonal task?

In consultation with the English teachers we came up with a model to do Wider Reading Online.

[source]

Normally wider reading takes half a period, 35-40 minutes. But online things take a lot longer.

I address the class at the start of the period with a pre-prepared presentation for the fortnight on topics that would interest the students (10-15 minutes), we then break up into mini groups for a "book chat" discussion were I ask each student to talk about what they are reading at the moment. I ask them where they got their books from, do they have recommendations for other students and if they have read a book that someone else is reading. The larger the group sessions the more likelihood there is that someone else will be reading (or will have read) the book that the student is reading. I did a session with 9 students in a group and it worked well.

I take notes throughout this session, marking down what they are reading and what page they are up to and I take note of which students to follow up on. Students that might not be reading anything or they might have expressed that they are having difficulty finding a book to read. I can follow these kids up and make up a Borrow Bag for them to make sure that they have something to read.

I transcribe my notes into my google spreadsheet where I keep the wider reading data and take note of which kids are actually reading and which ones are "nursing" books. Sitting on the same book for months on end.

Sometimes students will remember what I was reading last time and comment on whether I have finished my book, sometimes they are enthusiastic to talk, other times not so.

This is what we have been doing for our lockdowns. It is lovely to talk in small groups and to share the "I've also read Anne of Green Gables" discussions that might not normally happen when I speak to the students 1:1.

What do you do for your wider reading while in lockdown?

Covid-19 Borrow Bags in the School Library

We packed another seven Borrow Bags this week for students who wanted to still borrow physical books from our collection, but who were not learning on campus. We decided not to use the term "Click and Collect" as many retailers are using this term and we wanted to emphasis "Borrowing".

There has been a great deal of discussion about Borrow Bags on the various mailing lists and Facebook groups so I thought I would document our process. I am sure that there are so many ways of doing this, but this is what worked for my team.

To start with, safety is our first priority. Not just physical safety, but mentally as well. Students and parents both wanted to know that we had taken appropriate precautions when dealing with the books.

How did we do it?

Students would reserve their books via the catalogue and also email us to say they wanted a Borrow Bag packed for them. In the email to us, students could request a mystery pack in a particular genre and also ask for books to support the Victorian Premiers Reading Challenge.

In our first lockdown in Victoria, Australia, we had one student who read through a selection of Novellas and Graphics Novels and she completed the Victorian Premiers Reading Challenge before the end of Term 2. Bravo!

We looked at using a Google Form for this, but often we would have to email back and forth with the student letting them know what was or wasn't available. A google form offered no advantage (for us) over email.

During our first lockdown, Term 2, 2020 we had lots of students interested in collecting a Borrow Bag. The interest petered off towards the end of lockdown, however the girls that were borrowing were grabbing 4-6 books each. We had two staff members come into the library on the Monday and Thursday to create and then distribute the Borrow Bags.

Each bag had a little lolly pack with a Chupa-Chump and some fruit chews in a little cute plastic bag with an "Enjoy your reading" label on them. A few students were very excited by this surprise. We also included bookmarks and some feedback/book review sheets as well.

A few button badges found their way in as well. These were received well! I have uploaded one of the button badge printables to my blog for your downloading pleasure.

Managing the Information

After creating a "group" spreadsheet of all the Borrow Bag recipients and their books while we were working from home, we printed off "receipts" that we could use to mark off whether a book was available or not.

When we came onsite, we printed off the receipts, collected the books and then folded it strategically. This was then used to label the bags. We managed to initially grab the bags from the Marketing office. They were left over from an event. But as we did more and more Borrow Bags, we finally just bought some from Officeworks, a business stationary retailer in Australia.

We constructed the bags on the Monday and then they were collected on the Thursday. Allowing three days between us handling them and the kids collecting them. The guidelines given to us by the school was to clean and then quarantine books for three days before shelving.

When students were collecting their Borrow Bags they were encouraged to return any overdue books. We suspended overdue notices during lockdown, but encouraged them to return books. 

So throughout Lockdown 1.0 this is what we did. During Lockdown 2.0 it might be a bit different as Year 11/12 students are onsite. Students will be able to pick their Borrow Bags up from the Library if they have been temperature checked a the front office. But we will still have to follow our quarantine procedure.

Please comment ...

This was the way that we did it, how did you do it?

Free Badge Printable: Reading and Books

Earlier in the year I made these badges for students who borrowed books during the lockdown period.

instagram: konstantkaos

We would throw a few into the bags with their books along with bookmarks and a few lollies.

If you have a badge maker you can download this PNG file and print it out to the desired size. My button badge maker is 1.25" in size. I have a template in Canva that I use to create these.

Publications update

Finally getting around to updating my publications list.  I've got a few articles in the "pipeline" at the moment on a variety of topics. It's been a while since I have had the energy to write, things are chaotic here in Victoria, Australia.

This was a short and sweet article, originally pitched as five things that worked for us and the editor of FYI reduced it to three things.

enjoy!