Why should students play games in the media center? I had School Library Journal to thank for the idea. Over a period of three years, I have been reading about more schools, specifically middle schools, offering this activity to their students. Purpose varied from parent engagement activities to reading rewards. Ours was a data-driven decision.
As a member of our school's Literacy Data Team and Leadership Committee, I am immersed in discussions of data-driven planning. I wanted to see how our numbers could help drive student interaction. Our circulation data in December showed that our sixth graders were checking out an abundance of books (they will have their day soon, don't worry!), but our 8th grade was seriously lagging with an appalling 81 books for the entire grade level!
Consulting with the Language Arts teachers, I talked about ways we could boost reading interest in these students. Mrs. Senseney was excited about engaging her students, so we jumped right in to begin planning together. We drafted and implemented a Google docs student survey to target specific reasons students may not be choosing reading as an activity. Based on that data, we talked about ways to introduce students to books they may want to read.
I created a high-interest book pass with teen themes. On another visit, they learned about the Michael J. Printz award books we have in our collection. Ms. Senseney extended this reading encouragement in the classroom with discussions and reading logs.
April data showed that those particular students jumped 30% in their circulation! I was so proud of them, I honestly teared up! Mrs. Senseney and I were so excited for them, that we decided we had to do something to celebrate their efforts.
With the help of the invaluable Mrs. Stevens, our Media Assistant, we all got together to bring in our gaming systems and arrange for snacks. I put together a booktalk of all our books related to games and gaming. We kept it under wraps until the students were bursting with curiosity on the big day!
We had such great fun that the day went quickly. We had four classes of students beaming with happiness and pride in their efforts, and a school full of students asking how they can have this opportunity too. I am thrilled that it was such a success and hope to continue this tradition next year.
