At the beginning of the month, Park students were told that teachers and staff might give them a slip of paper if they were caught reading around the building during February. They could submit these slips into boxes for them found in the Library Media Center in order to win prizes. Prizes included wired earbuds, squishies and other various entertaining things.
Alison Tsuchiya Theiler, the library media specialist at Park, said people celebrate “I Love to Read Month” in February nationwide. She said Park is choosing to observe it by bringing attention to students with their nose in a book, giving them tickets.
“February is ‘I Love to Read Month’ for the whole (nation), and so (Park is) celebrating by getting caught reading. Staff are catching students reading with those little slips,” Thieler said.
According to English teacher Lindsey Meyer, people enjoy reading more when given a social aspect to it. She said the librarians at Park do especially well at bringing that to the school and making students excited about opening a book.
“I love the idea, and I think that Mrs. Alison does a great job in the media center of creating excitement and novelty around reading culture, which I think is super important,” Meyer said. “They say that the more social you can make reading, the more people like to read.”
Sophomore Alyssandra Goray said they find the ticket system not as helpful for her, because she mostly reads online, but that she appreciates how the system works for others. She said the highlight “I Love to Read Month” brings to reading is positive and that they appreciate the concept.
“I like (“I Love to Read Month”). I think it’s good that it promotes reading,” Goray said. “Only thing for me is that I do a lot of my reading on my phone, so (the caught reading slips don’t) do much for me, but I definitely think it’s a good idea.”
Thieler said people are always reading, at every moment in a variety of ways. She said people should be practicing these skills at all points of the year, but “I Love to Read Month” allows for an exciting way to show students the importance of reading.
“We all should be reading all the time, but because it’s ‘I Love to Read Month’ we should celebrate it and recognize it,” Thieler said. ”It’s a fun way to show students that they’re reading constantly, everything.”
According to Goray, they are encouraged to read a lot for academics, like the AP Spanish exam. She said vocabulary and other tasks for the brain can be greatly helpful when practicing reading, which she said is major.
“(Reading) definitely is (important),” Goray said. “It helps increase vocabulary and the basic functions. For me, especially for my Spanish AP exam, they’re like, ‘yeah, read, that’s gonna be your main study mechanism is just reading in the language,’ so reading is really important.”
Meyer said students are able to obtain caught reading slips without difficulty if they follow the requirements. She said she likes how kids are able to put reading further up on their priorities than usual, even if only for a month.
“It’s a really easy ticket to get, but I do think students get excited about it, and it makes them go to the library (and) it makes them go talk to Mrs. Nancy and Mrs. Allison,” Meyer said. “I think it’s just positive to have them prioritize reading in the library for one month in particular.”
According to Thieler, she wants students to come out of the month feeling nice. She said she hopes students notice the reading they do every day and that they enjoy the connection between staff and students the month brings.
“I’m hoping that students have fun,” Thieler said. “There are prizes and it’s always fun to win something, and I hope they recognize that they’re reading constantly and that they feel good being recognized by a teacher or staff member.”
Goray said while the way the month works currently is fine, they wish there was better communication on the winners for each week. She said many students may not be in their connections at the exact moment when they’re being announced, so finding a different way of telling students who’s won could use some work.
“(‘I Love to Read Month’ is) set up pretty well right now,” Goray said. “Maybe a better way of announcing the winners of the “I Got Caught Reading” (could be improved on) because not everyone is in their (connections) classes.”
Meyer said creating new ideas to get students to like reading is something she wants in the future. She said “I Love to Read Month” shouldn’t be attributed only to February, and it would be nice to see it expand into other parts of the year as well.
“I like the idea of doing multiple months, I think that would be cool,” Meyer said. “Continuing to bring in new initiatives that really get kids excited about reading, those are all positive things that we could work toward.”
