Dear Alison
Although the following takes some preparation because I doubt it would be available
commercially, I
found it very successful last year when I implemented it before I retired. I
called it Read Around
Australia but you could easily substitute America or your state and change the
scale of
participation. Mine was a whole-school challenge..
I started with a large map of Australia, and using a map that the Olympic torch
followed in 2000, I
plotted a journey that went around this country. (This was a starting point
because the original
journey took the torch to within 80-100km of populated places, and I added extra
places in when I
did the final version with a more detailed atlas beside me.) Because this was to
be a collaborative
challenge, I had a mix of long and short distances, but nothing over about 600km.
.I then got a group of students to use an Internet program that plots the distance
between towns and
we made a chart of these. Then, using a key of 1 book per 100 km (and a minimum of
one book between
places if it was less than 100kom) we plotted how many books needed to be read to
"travel" from one
town to the next. and this data was added to the chart.
Conveniently, Australia has six states and two territories and we had 8 separate
teaching units from
K-6, so each unit took on board the task of reading around their state. Each unit
was given a map
of their state's route and the main large map was kept in the library as part of a
special display
which had lots of books about as many of the places as I could get. I also used
calendar pictures
of some of the key tourist places and had another class research and write a
paragraph or two for
each of these. These were written in clue fashion and we had a sort of Where's
Waldo challenge
going with students having to identify each place. (It all added to the reading
experience and
general knowledge about our country.) There were also student-created posters
around the school
asking "Have you read for Australia yet?" and regular bulletins of the progress
posted on the notice
boards (print and electronic.) There was a lot of reading happening without even
opening a book!
For kindergarten, each book read aloud to the class counted as 100km, but for older
classes each
student volunteered to read for a particular leg and this commitment was labelled
on the unit map.
Those who were not so keen chose a one-book or two-book journey whilst the better
readers chose
longer. Every book was one of the student's personal choice. This meant that each
could have a
personal target that could be met and each contributed to the whole. When the
individual commitment
was completed, the student coloured in their part of the journey on the unit map.
Each day unit
representatives brought me the newly completed journeys and I coloured these on the
master map and
the data chart so there was a cumulative record and everyone could see how well we
were going.
There was a lot of across-school discussion and it certainly drew the kids in and
gave the school a
really cohesive hum. The first part of the journey (a short one from our school to
another part of
the ACT) was covered by the principal reading the book at the launch and when the
journey was
complete (it took about 2-3 weeks) we had a celebratory assembly. No individual
prizes or extrinsic
rewards, it was all about reading for pleasure and achieving a common goal.
Although the challenge might not have had kids individually reading dozens of books
(or should I say
skimming because that's what a lot of prize-oriented incentives do), it gave
reading and the library
a huge boost for a term as we worked through the build-up, the activity, and the
celebrations.
Sadly, I was not replaced by a qualified teacher-librarian when I retired so the
program was not
repeated but when I visit, the kids still talk to me about it.
Barbara
Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
PALMERSTON ACT 2913
AUSTRALIA
E. barbara@iimetro.com.au
"Together we learn from each other."
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