Massachusetts Children's Book Award Project Helps Build a Culture of Reading

Massachusetts Children's Book Awards Project Helps Create a Culture of Reading at Pierce School

by Joan Hamilton


A sixth grade girl, who by her own admission is a reluctant reader, stood looking over the cart of books nominated for the Massachusetts Children Book Awards and told her friend, "These are all really good books."


All fifth and sixth grade students at Pierce School are now about half-way through the Massachusetts Book Awards Reading Project. Most book awards that children learn about, such as the Newbery, the Caldecott, the Coretta Scott King, the Pure Belpre Award and various others are chosen in committees made up of teachers, librarians, book store owners, and/or children's literature professors -- in other words, adults choose the books that receive the awards. The state book awards are different. They are nominated by children and adults, but voted upon exclusively by children. In order to be eligible to vote a child must read at least five of twenty-five nominated titles. This is the sixth year that all fifth and sixth graders have participated in these awards, and as in years past, we find a constant buzz of excitement around the book cart, as students talk to one another about what they have read, and what they plan to read next.


Creating a culture of reading in school or home can be a daunting challenge. According to a Boston Globe article, a recent report by the National Endowment for the Arts entitled "To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence," presents some fairly bleak findings about reading and young people -- such as, "The average person between ages 15 and 24 spends two to two and a half hours a day watching television and only seven minutes reading." One of the most interesting findings in the report is that, "regardless of income, levels of reading for pleasure correlate closely with levels of social life, voting, and political activism, participation in culture and fine arts, volunteerism, charity work and even regular exercise." In other words the poorest readers are more community-minded and concerned about their fellow human beings that the richest non-readers.

That quote makes me realize how important it is for Pierce School to continue programs that encourage love of reading, such as the Massachusetts Children Book Awards; and for me to continue with "every child will become a life-long lover of reading" as one of my major goals. It goes beyond the correlation with academic success. Having our kids love reading is an investment in the future our country -- in how we live in community, participate in democracy and maintain healthy lifestyles. How can we not do everything in our power to promote it?

Facebook, YouTube, IM'ing... How do your kids spend their time?

Facebook, youtube, text messaging. Online personas. Friends met through friends of friends or a friend's cousin. What does this mean for us? Is the world getting smaller? Are your children inherently at more risk if they spend more time online on these social networking sites?

I tend to side with Danah Boyd, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. “We can turn our backs and say, ‘This is bad,’ or, ‘We don’t want a world like this.’ It’s not going away. So instead of saying that this is terrible, instead of saying, ‘Stop MySpace; stop Facebook; stop the Internet,’ it’s a question for us of how we teach ourselves and our children to live in a society where these properties are fundamentally a way of life. This is public life today.”

I know, it's easy for me to say... I'm obviously a proponent of technology. I also don't have a teenager at home yet. It's still pretty easy for me to limit access to online games such as pbskids.org for my four year old son.

So I'm recommending that you watch a Frontline special, Growing Up Online, on Tuesday, January 22nd on PBS at 9 pm. Hear from experts with varying opinions and from teens with different experiences. Watch this with your teen as a way to start discussing how s/he spends time online. It's a start to learning about the online world. At least it can be a conversation starter, if you haven't yet had that conversation.

Reading material that's easy

Children coming to the Pierce Library looking for books often tell me they need to get a book that's hard to read. "This looks too easy," is a common comment. Or from a first or second grader, "I only read chapter books." Parents, too, often tell teachers they want the books their children choose to be "challenging." It is natural for parents to want to push their children onto the next level up. However, current research from reading guru Richard Allingham informs us of what we now know about proficient readers. They have all read tons of stuff that's easy for them. Reading books below one's reading level builds fluency and confidence. Reading books on one's own, for a child, should be like eating popcorn. Even as adults, not many of us are toting War and Peace to the beach. So if your above average reading child comes home with a book that seems way too easy, encourage him/her to enjoy it.

Keyboarding - in context of the writing process

My last blog was about the importance of having fluent keyboarding skills. To follow up on that theme, I thought I would share some reasons why, as often as possible, we should have our students using technology during the writing process.
The first and easy answer is engagement. Some students would rather do anything using the computer. I've found this generally wears off around middle school, but in the early and intermediate grades, the use of technology for writing can be its own reward.
The better answer is that students write more, edit more willingly and frequently, and thus create better quality writing assignments when using a word processor. See the complete study at An AlphaSmart for Each Student: Does Teaching and Learning Change with Full Access to Word Processors? (Michael Russell, Damian Bebell, Jennifer Cowan, & Mary Corbelli, April 2002)
Skeptical about the study? Ask our own Cheryl Klausner. She conducted her own research with her class a few years ago; from that point forward, her students have used technology to write almost all their assignments.
Concerned with the lack of access to technology? See me. I'll help solve your problems with AlphaSmarts, time in the lab, and the iBook cart.
Don't know where to start? Again, see me. Maybe it makes sense to start with a few struggling writers. Or do just one writing assignment this year using our technology. I'll help you figure out what makes the most sense for you and your students.