Extending the Use of the Reading Passport

And then, of course, the avid readers turned in their finished passports way ahead of the rest. To share their reading experiences to the rest of the community, I clipped the passports in a clothesline on the library bulletin board. Anyone is free to read the passports. As a rule, passports must be returned to the clothesline after reading them.

Here are more ways to share the books read and written about in the passports:

a. In a book discussion, readers can talk about their passports; its contents, answers to the questions, recommended reads and their insights on the books the have read.

b. Chose the recommended reads. Pull these books out of the shelf and display them in the library. Put these book displays near the circulation counter where students, teachers and staff can see them. Think of this strategy as on the cashier counter displays, the merchandise that people would buy on the last minute.

c. Take picture of the recommended books and post these in the school's social media account.

d. Have these recommended reads featured in the school paper as well. This way, parents and other members of the community are informed of books being read by students.

e. Compile the recommended reads into a list for use in readers' advisory, reading guidance and bibliotherapy programs and services.

I like planning and implementing activities like these. There is so much you can do with information generated from readers and the books they read. There are patterns in their use of information but there are little surprises along the way too. This makes my work a really enjoyable and meaningful job!