I Love to Read month is here. During the month of February we try to raise awareness about the importance of learning to read so every person can say, "I Love to Read!". You might raise awareness by looking at the intellectual aptitude and human rights that are developed through learning to read. As you engage in schools, you might raise awareness by suggesting activities like Drop Everything and Read (DEAR). In this school activity, the official "Reading Police" come into classrooms throughout the month, blow a whistle, and everyone in the room has to drop everything and read for 15 minutes. They can only stop when the whistle is blown again. Students and teachers participate by having a book handy for responding to the whistle. This is a lot of fun. Other activities include:
-Readings of books by local "famous" authors. Sometimes students think that authors are people from from away and they are surprised by the richness of writers right in their own community.
-A public poster making contest where all students make I Love to Read posters. The best posters, judged by peers and teachers together, are awarded a book of the month.
-Use your imagination. My long-time favourite has been to bring back Shakespeare from the dead and have him read excerpts from his books to the student body in the gym. (Usually a look-alike teacher can be found to play this role).
-You might find this Canadian video very appealing in your choice of media support toward your I Love to Read campaign at school. http://youtu.be/SKVcQnyEIT8 Just look at the number of views to see how popular it is! I don't know if you will be able to embed this video on your website. There appears to be a glitch in the code for embedding. Some of the YouTube comments confirm my own experience. With only that problem, you'll find this time-lapse video very engaging. It could become an interested video project to try on your own at school.
I Love to Read month can take a blended approach, too. Most of our libraries are now loaning e-books and are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. You, too, might find that the notion of books has blended into e-books in your libraries. This might be an important topic for raising awareness of reading during I Love to Read month. Don't be shy about taking a digital approach. The format of books is an important part of understanding reading, and though much has made the digital shift we still gain our book idea metaphor from the actual book made of paper. For example, we still put the book cover on our apps and we still have a format of printed books in many of our e-books. More on this later . . .
Happy I Love to Read Month!
-Readings of books by local "famous" authors. Sometimes students think that authors are people from from away and they are surprised by the richness of writers right in their own community.
-A public poster making contest where all students make I Love to Read posters. The best posters, judged by peers and teachers together, are awarded a book of the month.
-Use your imagination. My long-time favourite has been to bring back Shakespeare from the dead and have him read excerpts from his books to the student body in the gym. (Usually a look-alike teacher can be found to play this role).
-You might find this Canadian video very appealing in your choice of media support toward your I Love to Read campaign at school. http://youtu.be/SKVcQnyEIT8 Just look at the number of views to see how popular it is! I don't know if you will be able to embed this video on your website. There appears to be a glitch in the code for embedding. Some of the YouTube comments confirm my own experience. With only that problem, you'll find this time-lapse video very engaging. It could become an interested video project to try on your own at school.
I Love to Read month can take a blended approach, too. Most of our libraries are now loaning e-books and are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. You, too, might find that the notion of books has blended into e-books in your libraries. This might be an important topic for raising awareness of reading during I Love to Read month. Don't be shy about taking a digital approach. The format of books is an important part of understanding reading, and though much has made the digital shift we still gain our book idea metaphor from the actual book made of paper. For example, we still put the book cover on our apps and we still have a format of printed books in many of our e-books. More on this later . . .
Happy I Love to Read Month!
