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  Motivating teachers

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  Okay folks I need some help. I work at a large middle school grades 6-8 with about 190 faculty. I've had to revamp our student reading program this year and can't seem to find anything that will motivate my teachers to help motivate students. I am at the teachers' mercy when it comes to access to their students with the expection of brief booktalks I can videotape and show on our AM announcements.
  
  Administration says reading is important, but we all know actions speak louder than words and what my admin. does speaks volumes about how not important it is. Teachers recognize this and don't do much either. I'm at my wit's end trying to come up with something so I appeal to you, fellow media specialists and school librarians for help.

  Dlibrarian started this discussion 3 years ago. ( reply | permalink )

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  Mary M 

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  Until the administration and your teachers get behind you and your program, you're going to have a hard time. Please don't feel that you've failed. Our reading scores were poor. It wasn't until the district purchased Renaissance Place and the English teachers got the administration to agree to a 20-minute reading time every day that my circulation started to soar and students started reading. Now every fiction book we have is an A.R. book and every student is expected to earn a certain number of points per quarter, depending on their reading level. It's difficult to tell students they need to check out a book on a certain level, but we let them check out three books at a time; only one has to be on their level. It's not the best situation, but it's far, far better than when I came here. It's a great experience to go into a classroom during reading time and see every student reading. It helps that our reading scores continue to improve, so the district keeps supporting the program. I try to give book talks on my SmartBoard to every English class every two weeks. It doesn't always work out, but the kids do respond and look for the books I present. We also use Destiny Quest (a Follett product). All the students can renew their own books, put books on hold themselves, recommend books to other students and rate books (the rating then appears in our card catalog after I approve them). All of these things have helped a culture of reading to be created at our school.

  posted 3 years ago. ( permalink )

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  Hope H 

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  I would try finding ONE teacher who will let you in the door. When you are successful with one teacher, others will start wanting your help, too. It doesn't even have to be an English or reading teacher. Sometimes your social studies or science people might be approachable - you might be able to work with them about using novels in their classrooms.

  Is your school divided into teams or houses? If so, start attending one team's or house's meetings. You'd be surprised at the input and insight you can offer.

  What's your building professional development look like? Every year we do a "Walking Conference" afternoon. Teachers present for 10 minutes to each other about something they do in their classroom - either how they teach a concept, a management technique, a way to keep students organized, etc. I always take a 10-minute time slot - one year I featured my "Five-Finger Web Site Evaluation." Another year I focused on graphic novels. This year I highlighted some books I had purchased with our poor readers in mind. A few teachers recommended those books to a few students, and now I can't keep them on the shelves.

  You could try starting a book club. I personally don't care for them, but some kids really eat them up.

  The TAG teacher, an English teacher and I also set up a school on-line book club here on Shelfari. I demonstrated it to all of the 7th graders. The TAG teacher and I shared it with all of her students and I have sent out e-mail invitations to my students are always in here checking something out.

  We also had a lot of success a few years ago with "Reading Teams." Staff members - some were associates - headed up each team. Students who wanted to participate filled out an informational sheet and then were assigned to teams. Basically the students - and staff members - had to tell whether they read voraciously, a lot, some, a little. We made sure each team had one voracious reader and then the other levels were divied up as well. Teams were posted in the lunchroom and number of pages read were tallied up each week. At that time, the school budget was a little friendlier, and the principal gave the winning team (team who had read the most pages) Barnes and Noble gift cards.

  It takes a while to develop a culture of readers, but it can be done! Don't give up! Good luck.

  posted 3 years ago. ( permalink )

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  Snoddgrass II 

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  I started a book club in the library this year for students but I made sure to involve teachers/professors in it too. Let's say 80% of the teachers were excited about the idea but only 10% actually attended. The professors that did come to our meetings made a difference in our reading circles, they gave their input excitedly and it also helped students connect with them away from the classroom master-disciple context. Some of the teachers/professors joke with me and say "I feel like a student myself now but I love it". I do feel it made a great difference to involve them.

  posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )

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