Team Mentality – Creating a Reading Culture

Don Vu in his YouTube video “Creating a Thriving Culture of Reading” states that the main issue in students reading under grade level is that, kids don’t read. He states that, identical to any skill, the more you practice, the better you get. Therefore, it is imperative that the staff teams create a Reading Culture within the school. He breaks down creating a Reading Culture into key Pillars that he considers important.

I have had the privilege of being at a school where we have a teamwork culture among the staff. This has meant that when we set our school goals, we have staff ownership, collaboration, and team implementation to reach them. Two years ago, we set a goal to get our students who were not yet reading at grade level, at grade level.

We created a staff sub-committee called the Action Plan for Learning. This special group is comprised of a representative of each department – primary teachers, intermediate teachers, admin, teacher librarian, and even someone from the Parent Advisory Council. This group, of which I am a part, has a specific budget for whatever goal we take on any given year.

We assessed students and saw that only 64 % of our students were reading at grade level. We came up with targeted interventions to combat the deficiency. It was a magical year watching every department link arms in this one goal. By the end of the school year we saw an increase to 81% of students reading at grade level! It was an amazing announcement and we felt that this had all been worth the effort.

This school-wide targeted intervention was much like the study of Gravelly Hill Middle School’s reading culture I have read about in “A culture of reading: Whole-school focus on literacy”, an article in a 2010 issue of Reading Today.  Some of the reading promotions that Gravelly Hill Middle School implemented were very similar in our school. They lined their halls with READ posters, and similarly we created a rotating literacy bulletin board in the main hallway. Both my school and GHMS printed photos of faculty and staff holding favourite books to model love of reading. 

Another strategy both GHMS and my school utilized was a literacy block of “intensive and targeted interventions that is data-driven, supports core instruction, and monitors student growth and achievement” for specific students. One of the researchers in charge of the program at GHMS noted that students will only improve in reading if they “read constantly in texts that are easy enough for them to comprehend”.

Where our two schools differ for these interventions is technology. The study at GHMS took place in 2010, so they boast about have computers accessible to students, whereas our school is outfitted with 6 ipads per class as well as two class-sets for the 12 divisions to share. We are fortunate enough to be in 2020 where there are plenty of programs and tools online to get students reading. We use Epic for all classrooms for “read-to-self” blocks. Epic allows students to choose their own books to read on an ipad. We use ReadTheory online for intermediate students. ReadTheory uses algorithms to send students just-right texts of all subjects to help them practice comprehension at their level. Some classes use RazzKids for independent reading too. Our district provides subscriptions to World Book Kids where non-fiction texts created at student reading levels provide information. Adding these resources to our school library collection means that students have access to a massive catalogue of reading materials: a key characteristic in creating a good reading program and one of Don Vu’s pillars of Reading Culture.

One of Don Vu’s other pillars to create a Reading Culture is the Celebration of books and reading. We foster that in my school through school-wide book programs for intermediate and primary students where they are rewarded for having read even one book within the program. In the Book of the Year program students are rewarded for reading one individual book; we reward the class who reads the most books within the program; and we give an ultimate prize for students who read most of the books. We promote this program through posters, book talks, and updates.

At the end of their research study about their formal intervention, Cindi Rigsbee, literacy coach and district mentor for Gravelly Hill, said that the secret to the school’s success, “As my principal says, literacy is what we do. It’s been the expectation since the doors opened… It’s the culture of the school—that’s the secret —along with an amazing staff, supportive parents, and hard-working students.”

Reflecting on our pre-Covid year of targeted intervention, the success we saw from it, and the residual Reading Culture we still hold, I would have to agree with Rigsbee. We were successful because the entire school was on-board and we were okay with pushing other things aside in order to prioritize our goal of reading.

Work Cited:

A culture of reading: Whole-school focus on literacy earns IRA's exemplary reading program award for gravelly hill middle school.(international reading association; gravelly hill middle school ) (06/01/2010). The Association.

Vu, D. (Director). (2019, July 26). Creating a Thriving Culture of Reading [Video file]. Retrieved 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F13GPtReZuY