The+BIG+Project

As you can see from the links on the main page. I incorporated many 21st century skills this year. I knew which services were not provided by my library and which standards were not being met, and I worked to meet those needs with new software, a better web presence, even Google Apps for the staff.

I struggled to come up with a project that "fit" the STAT21 guidelines this year. Because I'm a librarian, I really wanted to do a library project. Cate was a HUGE help and we came up with a project that was a little outside the traditional classroom teaching setup, but hopefully when the data is all in, we can show that it still worked.

==**__OVERARCHING QUESTION__: WILL CHANGES IN THE LIBRARY'S DISPLAY'S, ORGANIZATION, AND REWARDS INCREASE STUDENTS' READING FOR ENJOYMENT AND ABILITY TO LOCATE REFERENCE MATERIALS (as described in the library standards)?**==

=__The 10 Books in 10 Weeks Challenge__= =**Pre-Test, Post-Test and AR inbetween!**= In a traditional subject-area classroom South Dakota Content Standards are tested on the DSTEP test and reported on e-metric. Achievement Series also has the South Dakota Sontent Standards available with pre-made test questions available. The South Dakota School Library Standards are not available in these formats yet and many of the standards are still focused on how librarians provide equitible access to information for all students. Because I am a librarian, and not a regular classroom teacher, I wanted to do a library project, but that meant adjusting the original criterial of the STAT21 goals. Thanks Cate for helping me figure out a way that I can still get some pre-test and post-test data as well as some formative assessment information from students during the project. We didn't use Achievement Series, instead my project is using Google forms for Pre-test and Post-test and Accelerated Reader for some formative assessment as the project is ongoing.

Here is a link to the group results of the **__pre-test and post-test survey__** results broken down by book: []

These ressults weren't scientific. Of the 45 students in Miss Kjellsen's reading class, 36 took the survey as a pretest and as a post test. Interestingly, 4 students taking the pretest didn't match up with 4 students taking the post-test - meaning they were present for one test, but absent for the other. 5 students were never surveyed. The results I am reporting are based on the 32 students who took //both the pretest and post-test//.

The students indicated that they had read 129 books from the list before the challenge began. These same students indicated that they had read 156 books at the end of the challenge. A gain of 27 books - a 21% increase!

Participation in this book reading project was completely voluntary; no grade was attached to student's reading for this projects and there was no penalty if they chose not to participate.
 * __Results based on AR Testing:__**

Paricipation began at 0%. I have never tried this kind of book promotion before or tied any of my library promotions to tested outcomes.

Of the 45 students in Mrs. Kjellen's 7th grade reading classes, 17 students (37%) participated and read books for the book challenge. By the end of the challenge student's read:

5 books = 2 student 4 books = 0 students 3 books = 1 student 2 books = 4 students 1 books = 10 students

No students who participated in the challenge achieved all 10 books and we quickly realized that with all the other reading that they have to do for class, that 10 books in 10 weeks was unreasonable for a "for fun" assignment. As a group, we decided that we just wanted to see 1) how many people we could get to participate 2) who would read the most books from the list.


 * __Information from Blog:__**

10 of 19 students responded that they read a book they proably would not have normally chosen beause of the new book display and because of the book project.

With three weeks left in the book challenge, students were asked if they would consider reading just one more book for the book challenge - especially if they had chosen not to participate before. When asked if they would consider trying the challenge, 6 of the 19 still answered no they would not participate.

=Project Plan= Indicator 5: Extend the reading experience by suggesting additional titles in a series, identifying additional works within a genre or works with similar themes.**
 * Standard 1: School library programs promote and encourage reading for enjoyment, academic achievement and life-long learning.

For the first half of the school year my seventh grade students were reading fantasy books like crazy. They read every fantasy series I had - Percy Jackson, Chronicles of Vladimir Todd, Twilight, Harry Potter, Eragon, etc. Then after Christmas these books had gone stale and nothing seemed to interest them. I pulled a collection of books that typically interest seventh graders, but hadn't been checked out much this year basically because they didn't involve vampires, dragons, or have a movie out right now. Instead of fantasy books I chose different genres - action adventure, historical fiction (war stories), dog stories, sports stories, and other favorite series Alex Rider, Gallegher Girls, etc. Then I got my students involved by having a few of them make a book display right in the entryway for the books.

I challenged Ms. Kjellsen's 7th grade reading classes to read ten books off the book display over the course of ten weeks and pass the Accelerated Reader tests with at least a comprehension score of 80%. At the end of 10 weeks, they will post-test with the same survey and I will verify it against their AR data. I am hoping to see that all of the students attempted the book challenge and I'd like to see many of them complete it. I will measure each student's progress individually and the progress as a class.

Update 4/6/10: I talked with the classes today and they are a bit overwhelmed. I think 10 books may have been too many as a goal and we may need to revise it....

=Technology Infused Mini-Lesson= Since I only get student groups in the library for 20 minutes of book checkout time once a week, I need to present my technology to the students as mini-lessons. As part of the book challenge I created a blog and set up a blog station that where they could post to when they came to the library as part of their check out time. I included questions where they could tell which books were their favorite or motivate others to keep reading.

Other technology realated mini-lessons directly related to the library standards, but not specifically related to the book challenge that were taught during library time include lessons on online library resources:

Right now we are about half way through the challenge and I can sense that the kids' motivation is faltering. I need to post some mid-term results so they can see their progress. As soon as I get some results, I'll post them here, too.

We are going to celebrate at the end - any student who get to 10 books in 10 weeks will get to come up to the library for rootbeer floats!

I'll keep you posted!