The morning was not unlike so many of the Fall Gala’s that I’ve attended in previous years.  There were plenty of fun moments – such as when Jennifer Holm ( BabyMouse ) pulled out her cell phone and called her brother Matt from the podium – just so that he could talk to one of his favorite artists, Berkley Breathed (Pete & Pickles).

And other moments when we were moved to tears – as when one of the  presenters shared the impact, on her personally, of Hope Anita Smith‘s award winning book, Keeping the Night Watch.

As wonderful as these moments were, however, the most poignant, for me, came when the Dorothy C. McKenzie Award winner was announced.  Not because the winner, Joanne Spring, is someone I know.  Nor because I was already familiar with the literacy project, Monrovia Reads, that she helped spearhead in one of our local cities.  But because it seemed to me to be exactly what I, as an educator, book-lover, and writer, hope to encourage both professionally and privately: Reading Changes Everything.

Joanne’s enthusiasm for her community’s literacy project and the strategies the city has employed to support and encourage reading are in direct contrast to a troubling letter a friend shared with me the other day regarding the way a local Southern California school district (Burbank Unified *) has chosen to encourage reading.

Can you guess?  AR – Accelerated Reader.  What’s most troubling is that the superintendent has shared a disturbing and poorly written letter with the school district’s K- 12 families encouraging them to support independent reading in their community by paying $10 to enroll in the AR program.

Can you imagine? And it gets worse!  There are prizes.  Not of the small, trinket variety.  Instead, the prizes are limo rides to special meals and/or tours in the community, board presentations of awards that will be aired on local t.v. and streamed on the internet.  And … a CAR!! Valued at over $14,500 (!).  It brings to mind a t.v. show from my childhood – “Let’s Make A Deal!”

Is this really how a school district wants to emphasize the importance of reading?  I think not.  All I can say is that I’m glad I don’t work for Burbank Unified, and while I am sure that plenty of school districts and teachers appropriately use programs such as Accelerated Reader to encourage reading, the misdirected focus of Burbank Unified is disturbing.

* follow the link and click on: “Current Events: How to Win a Car”

Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook,  has written about Accelerated Reader and offers up his thoughts here.  In a nutshell, it seems Trelease believes AR can be successfully used as one of the ways students are encouraged to read.  But implementation and understanding of the whys and hows of the program are key.

Sadly, when I read the letter from the office of Burbank Unified’s superintendent, I didn’t get the feeling the district was addressing the issue of improved independent reading levels because of a balanced understanding of the research.  I can only hope that I have entirely misunderstood the superintendant’s intent and that there are many teachers in Burbank’s district who will take it upon themselves to provide a balanced reading program in their own classrooms.

Admittedly, since we don’t have AR at my school, my experience is skewed.  I would love to hear what others think of AR.  Does it work?  How does *your* school keep the goal of encouraging independent reading in balance?

In a future post, I’ll share what *I* do to encourage independent reading in my own classroom.  But here’s a quick peek: I bought more BabyMouse books so that the students in my classroom don’t have to wait as long to read what has become one of our classroom’s favorite series.  And I go to events such as today’s CLC Fall Gala, so that I can share a few fun facts about the authors I’ve met. And if I’m able, I get a few pictures, as I did today, because my students will be thrilled to know I really *did* meet one of their favorite authors!

In the best case scenario, I keep up on all the books my students are reading.  But really?… it’s impossible!  So I do the best that I can and read as many books as I can manage.

I’m always searching for *the one book* that will hook students so seriously on reading, that the love of books will stay with them for the rest of their lives.  A tall order, to be sure…

And because I’m teaching a new grade level, I’m always on the lookout for books and series to add my collection – books that will meet the needs of the broader ability and age-range of the readers I now teach.

Not unlike most 3rd grade classrooms, I have students who are reading books anywhere between a year or two below grade level, and those who read several years above grade level.  These children are as diverse as any: some are second language learners, others are gifted, some have learning disabilities, others have average ability.

Just thinking about what I, and so many other public school teachers, do to meet the needs of such a wide range of abilities, makes me appreciate anew the enormity of the task before us.

While teaching first grade, I hadn’t needed to add much in the way of graphic-type novels to my classroom library.  It’s not that I didn’t have students who wouldn’t have enjoyed them, it’s just that I already had a huge collection of books, and didn’t really need to search for new ways to spend my hard-earned cash.

But then I changed grade levels and I wanted to build up my library to meet a new set of needs: older students, representing a wider range of ability and interest.

Here are 3 series that we’re enjoying:

Phonics Comics:  This series, published by innovativeKids, includes books at three levels: Early Readers, Developing Readers, and Confident Readers.  The books are 24 pages long, with a short list of sight and non-decodable words at the back.

I initially bought four of the Level 3 books for one of my reluctant readers,  currently working at the early 2nd grade level.  But these books have been requested by some of the higher (at and above grade level) readers, as well.

The titles hint at why these books are real winners: “Hiro Dragon Warrier,” “Meet the Sparkplugs,”  and “Spooky Sara.”

BabyMouse (by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm): Babymouse was not unfamiliar to me prior to moving up to 3rd grade.  It’s just that I’d never actually read any of the books, and didn’t have any copies in my classroom library.

But when one of the students picked up the series in the school library and the books began circulating, I, too, got hooked.  Who wouldn’t enjoy reading about an adorable mouse gallivanting across pages of pink, black, and white? I was smitten!  I’ve added 3 copies to the class library and feel like it won’t be complete until we put at least one copy of each of the books in the series on our library shelves.

Geronimo Stilton (by Geronimo Stilton, a pseudonym) is a series that’s neither graphic novel nor comic book.

Instead, it finds a happy medium smack dab in the middle of it all by combining a bit of the best of both formats within the framework of a traditional chapter book/novel.

This decidedly 3rd grade series plays with text size and font, as well as spot illustrations, maps, recipes, and more to divide up the text into manageable chunks.

I have yet to read past the first 3 pages of even one of these books, but students tell me they’re lots of fun, and judging by the large number of books in the series, these books have a large following.  Suffice it to say that I’ve already cleared another spot in our class library for *this* series.

What series/books are your students enjoying this year?