Promoting Staff Literacy

Gail wrote this article in 2018, however she attends the Tuscon Festival of Books every year! This year she will be presenting both days (March 12-13), 2022! If you are in the area, join her for sessions on Building the Ultimate Classroom Library and Encouraging Your Child to Read at Home.  Find out more about the festival. 

The Tucson Festival of Books is a free community literacy extravaganza celebrating humans and the words they speak and write.

When I attended last month, I was delighted to discover more than 350 authors and presenters sharing literature for children, young adults, adults, and everyone in between. Born out of the desire to improve literacy rates among children and adults in the community, the festival is a family event that has something for everyone. I loved hearing Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, speak, rediscovered the poetry of Billy Collins, and got rejuvenated hearing Donalyn Miller.

I think the thousands of participants must have left as I did, with a renewed interest in reading. What a wonderful annual event. And I am wondering how we might keep that exhilarating spirit alive all year. If we continually fuel the fire for ourselves, it will surely translate to our students, their families, and our colleagues, igniting a spark in them that leads to a lifelong love of learning and reading.

With that in mind, here are a few ways we can promote adult literacy in our schools, so the reading lives of teachers and administrators will be healthy and thriving:

• Share a lot: In the halls, at lunch, or whenever we see another adult, we can share what we are reading.
• Read aloud: Provide time for teachers to share book titles and read short passages at a staff meeting.
• If you like ________, then you should check out ________. In the staff room, post a blank piece of chart paper on which everyone is invited to declare what they are reading and recommend other titles.
• Picture this: On school picture day, have staff members hold a favorite book. Post the photos outside each classroom door.
• Book talks: During team meetings, have each teacher provide a minute-long book talk on what they are reading.
• Organize a book club: Invite everyone on the staff to join a book club focusing on professional-development texts, or host a book club for your parent community. Lori has hosted a book club for the parents in her room with Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox, as well as 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It! by Susan Zimmermann.
• Join a reading challenge: Goodreads has an annual reading challenge. If you aren’t familiar with Goodreads.com, it is a website with a mission to help people find and share books they love.
• Keep a list of the books you read and share recommendations on Goodreads.
• Mark it up: Lend a professional book to a friend and give them permission to mark it up however they wish. Then get together and compare the notes you took, the things you underlined, and the passages you highlighted, and reflect together on what each of you found most interesting.
• Share beautiful words: Write the quotes, observations, ideas, and gems from your reading in a commonplace book. Share them with other staff members. The purpose of a commonplace book is to record and then use these items in your everyday life. 

If we are rejuvenated, refreshed, excited, and supported in our reading, it is sure to flow over into all we do with children. They won’t be able to help it: they’ll want to become part of the culture of readers.