 |
| SUMMIT PHOTO BY MARY LODEN
From left, Rachel Koch, Julia Oanes and Amanda Wilson, Forest City Middle School students, check out the books at the school’s first book fair. |
Book Fair promotes love of reading
By Mary Loden
Of The Summit
Getting kids to read has become a high priority at the Forest City Middle School so to promote the love of reading the school held its first book fair last week during parent-teacher-student conferences.
Catchy book covers with catchy titles in a variety of subjects and genres, all designed to catch and hold a kid's attention, were lined up and available for sale. The sale continued Friday morning and `during the Tuesday evening conferences.
There were two reasons behind the book fair. “One, we wanted to encourage reading among all our students so they keep books in their lives as they get older,” said middle school principal, Zach Dillavou. “And two, we get a percentage of the books we sell to purchase books for classrooms and the library here in the middle school.”
The middle school library, located in middle school reading and language teacher, Emily Sopko's room, came into being five years ago after former principal, Tim Kuehl, met with reading and language teachers and asked, ‘What can we do? Kids don't read,'” Sopko explained.
She said there are lots of different reasons for why middle school-age kids don't read much, such as getting their first cell phones and getting caught up with texting or being allowed to get on the computers at school. “Reading is starting to get un-cool at this age, they drift off for awhile,” she said.
But part of the problem was the only books available were in the high school IMC. Kids had to find the time to get there and after they got there finding what they were looking for - if they even knew - wasn't always easy.
“They need a place in the middle school where they can get books,” Sopko said. So, the next question became, “What can we do?”
“We had a book drive in our school and people donated lots of books and Enchanted Forest (Bookstore) really promoted it,” she said. People could buy new books for the middle school library and the bookstore would put a “donated by” sticker inside the cover.
The school also wrote and received a $1,000 grant from 3M. “There are quite a few companies out there that want to promote reading and literacy,” said Sopko, who added that she recently applied for a grant from Dollar General and will hopefully hear back soon.
Today the library has over 2,000 books and is still growing. “I'm worried as we get more books we will need more space,” she said with a smile, but that is a problem she isn't too concerned about - kids are reading.
“When I get a new book in I look up the book (reading) level and a summary,” she said. After making a card file each book gets a sticker indicating its level.
All the books are geared toward middle school students. “There is a wide variety but all are age appropriate and all are organized (on the shelves) by reading level,” she said.
Emily Putney, a senior at the high school, has been helping with the donations, labeling and shelving of books as part of her Girl Scout Gold award.
“I get a big donation (of books) at least once a month. It's great because we have less books to buy, but I really feel it is important to have new books also,” Sopko said. She said there is just something about a new book, whether a catchy cover or a popular title, that grabs a kid's attention and pulls them in.
“And it is crucial to get book series and books by favorite authors. That is one of the secrets to grabbing their interest,” Sopko said.
This is where the book fair comes in. As parents buy books for their kids Scholastic, the same corporation that sends out the monthly book order catalog, will give 40 percent of the proceeds back to the middle school, which they will use to buy more books for their library or for materials such as shelving Sopko said.
All the money the school raised through magazine sales is also being allocated for this purpose.
Student crews and parent volunteers will be running the book fair. “To make it go it takes a fair amount of man power, but the kids helping are pretty excited about it,” she said happily.
“Five years ago I told them to read. Now, my return box is overflowing every day. I constantly have kids in here,” said Sopko, who oversees the Literacy for Struggling Readers program. The few students she works with throughout the day allows her the flexibility the fledgling library needs right now.
“It's important for me to be in here to recommend books,” she said. She tries to match a student's interests to a certain author or series of books. “I haven't succeeded with all students, but I try. We definitely have kids reading more than they used to.”
Story created Oct 14, 2008 - 16:18:19 CDT.
|
