Public Children’s Librarian for 3 years

School Librarian for 1 year

Consultant for Providence Community

Library this summer

Programs have changed little since the

1970s

Is that because they are working?

What are we trying to accomplish?

Increasing reading test scores?

Reading promotion and helping children

succeed in school

Children who read at least 6 books over the

summer perform better in school.

However, when researchers look at

children’s reading test scores at the

beginning and the end of the summer, they

do not find a greater increase among

children who participate in public library

summer reading programs.

“[S]tudents who

participated in

summer reading

programs increased

their scores by 4

Lexile points on the

Scholastic Reading

Inventory, while

students who didn’t

participate increased

their scores by 15

points.”

“However, even at

the end of the

summer, students

who participated in

summer reading

programs were still

52 Lexile points

ahead of their peers

who didn’t take

part.”

Examples of informal assessments from the

state of Florida

Informal assessments include vocabulary

lists.

Balanced Reading Website Bibliography

High Interest Publishing’s 3 Minute Reading

Assessment (basically, an elaborate version

of the five finger rule)

We’re not reading instructors.

It’s hard to measure children’s reading.

It takes more than a few weeks of reading to

change children’s performance.

Access to books does not equal a successful

reading experience.

Summer reading programs mostly reach kids

who already read a lot.

“Children who received books but no

instruction did not make greater spring-to-fall

gains in reading achievement than the

control group, even though the books were

matched to their interests and reading skills.”

Children who implemented reading

comprehension strategies with their parents

did make gains.

“We tried to assure long-term results by

focusing on immersing students in books. To

do this, students were surrounded with

literature and taught how to choose and use

it. Then, they were asked to apply their

knowledge by actually shopping for books.”

“[S]tudents' self-perceptions as readers

changed so dramatically that attitudes

toward reading improved during a several

month period after the program had ended.”

“The Garfield”

Reading Attitude Surveys and Focus Groups

At the beginning

At the end

Three months later

Demographics of the participating population

Gender

Age

Geographic area

Languages spoken

1. Reach out to non-users.

2. Provide social interactions around books.

3. Promote habitual reading.

4. Encourage children to identify as readers

and members of the library.

Working with agencies.

Involving children in marketing.

Libraries visit

agencies and sign

children up for the

summer reading

program.

Art contest based on summer reading theme

Online social networking site

Scholastic “Stacks”

Read for the Record

Educational chatting

Star Doll’s Mortal Kiss site

Quizilla

List of 10 sites from NPR

Club Penguin

Whyville

Pottermore

Simplicity of reporting

Accountability

Incentive to continue reading all summer

Children keep track of the number of days on

which they read, instead of titles or minutes.

Make record-

keeping into a

game.

Make record-keeping into a game.

Extend the

reading

experience with

activities

Help them “see themselves” in the library space.

Display space for children’s collections.

Pictures of children with their work

A map of places children visited during the

summer.

Summer Reading “headquarters” where

everything is DIY.

It’s like an office!

Paula Dugan

Babs Wells

Susan LePore

Debra Cohen

Cheryl Space