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.

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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?