World Read Aloud Day (Week!)

Each year, World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words. World Read Aloud Day, sponsored by the organization LitWorld, is celebrated by millions of people in more than 100 countries. LitWorld's mission is to encourage communities of readers to take action to show the world that literacy is essential to all people. World Read Aloud Day is an opportunity for people around the world to advocate for literacy as a human right.

We are excited to celebrate World Read Aloud Day at ASD! This week, students will be engaged in read aloud activities during their library classes and other times during the school day. We have special guest readers from all around the school visiting classes. We also have buddy reading activities planned. Some Middle and High School students will visit the library to read aloud to small groups in our Elementary Library.

Take some time this week to celebrate reading aloud to each other at home with your family! We have hundreds of wonderful picture books, information books, comics and chapter books -- all of which would be make great read aloud material. Make funny voices, take turns reading, act out the story, retell the story. However you approach read aloud, you are never too old to enjoy the magic of a story together.

Students Empowered Through Self Checkout

We want our students to be independent, empowered library users. In an effort to increase student agency and ownership, we shifted to student self-checkout over the last year. We now have six stations in the library that allow students to checkout through either their homeroom or individual name. Students can easily view the titles that they currently have checked out.

In addition to using their personal library accounts through Destiny Discover, through which they can search, renew and place holds on books, self-checkout allows students to take charge of their own library needs. 

What do students notice? They love the actual scanning or "beeping" of the books and appreciate that they don't have to wait in line to check out! Many students also feel that they are more aware of what they have checked out and can more easily mange how many books they are taking home.

What does this mean for the library staff? We can now have more important one-to-one conversations with students, we can help students find the books they are looking for, and we can make recommendations to students. We are no longer working behind a desk, but working side by side with our students. By removing a physical barrier, we are building stronger relationships with our students and building their capacity for learning.

GoodReads Choice Awards 2017: Have you read these books?