The Under Cover Book Club

1. The Under Cover Book Club N&D Leadership Symposium Seven Springs, PA October 29, 2009

2. The Under Cover Book Club

3. The Under Cover Book Club Introductions • Chuck Heitzer, Delaware County Intermediate Unit, Title 1 Reading Specialist –cheitzer@dciu.org • Joan Lockwood, Delaware County Intermediate Unit, Lead Teacher – LockwoodJ@co.delaware.pa.us

4. The Under Cover Book Club Discussion Topics • Program Overview • Helping Students Select Books • Student Incentives • Detention Staff Involvement • The Reporting System

5. The Under Cover Book Club Discussion Topics (continued) • Choosing High Interest Books • List of Resources

6. Program Overview Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center • Located in Lima, Delaware County, PA, outside Philadelphia • Residential, locked facility • About 50-60 students per day, about 1000 student per year • Average stay is about 15 days • Both male and female students • Ages range from about 10-18 • DCIU provides the educational program

7. Program Overview • How did the library get started? • Book Donations • “Embracing the Child” • Classroom & Unit Libraries • The Under Cover Book Club

8. Program Overview The Under Cover Book Club • Started in 2005 • Over 1,300 books read • 2007 JDCAP Program of the Year • 2008 Program – 917 books read, 853 by students, 64 by Detention Staff • 2009 • Centralized Library • 1 class scheduled each day

9. Program Overview Goals of the Book Club • Encourage students to read books independently. • Provide students with a successful experience in reading and talking about books. • Give students a positive activity during free time in their living area.

10. Program Overview Step 1 Pick a Book How does it work? Step 6 Get a Reward Step 2 Sign Up Step 5 Meet with Coach Step 3 Read the Book Step 4 Do Book Review

11. Program Overview Book Report Formats • Book Review Form with rating • Book Report Form with Story Elements – characters, setting, plot, and theme

12. Program Overview Book Club Coaching • If possible, read a summary of the book. • Read the summary the student writes about the book. • Ask the students questions about their summary. • Ask the student how the book ends. • Probe why the student gave the book a certain rating.

13. Helping Students Select Books • Voluntary, self-selected independent reading program • Readability is checked • All students are given a HAMAT reading assessment upon entry into the institution – gives a grade equivalent reading score • Students referred for Title I reading are given the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) – gives a Lexile score

14. Helping Students Select Books SRI Screen Shot

15. Helping Students Select Books SRI • Computer-based assessment • Gives a Lexile score which can be used to match a student with a book • Student should be able to comprehend 75% of text with a book on the same Lexile • Can look-up Lexiles of books (lexile.com, Barnes & Noble web site, scholastic.com) • Can be correlated with grade equivalency

16. Helping Students Select Books Another way to check readability • Students may be asked to read a paragraph from the book. • There should be no more than 3 errors on the page (not including proper nouns).

17. Helping Students Select Books Library Organization • Books organized by genre • Fiction including “The Bluford Series” • Historical Fiction • Science Fiction & Fantasy • The Classics • Non-Fiction • Biographies & Autobiographies • Library organization and featured books are discussed during the opening remarks to the students.

18. Helping Students Select Books • “The Bluford Series”

19. Helping Students Select Books • Featured Books

20. 1 book – “Mole” 2 books – “Double Agent” 3 books – “Agent” 4 books – “KGB” 5 books – “MI 5” 6 books – “Special Agent” 7 books – “007” 8 books – “CIA” 9 books – “Super Spy” 10 books – “Master Spy” 11 or more books – “Commander of Special Ops” Student Incentives Under Cover Lists

21. Student Incentives • Other Hallway Displays • Count # of books read by unit • Count # of books read by boys vs girls • Count # of books read by staff

22. Student Incentives • Prize Boxes • Snacks – Candy, Pretzels, etc. • Playing Cards • Puzzle Books – Word Search, Sudoku • Notepads • Book Markers

23. Students pick from a Prize Box when books are read. The quality of the prize is determined by the number and type of books read. Student who read at least 3 books are awarded more desirable prizes. Students are encouraged to read 1 book that isn’t a “Bluford” book. Student Incentives

24. Detention Staff Involvement • Mentoring • Encourage students to select and read books • Coach students by discussing the books the students read • Participate in the program by reading books and by completing book reviews to model independent reading for students

25. Detention Staff Involvement • Staff Surveys • Gives feedback about the program from the staff and student perspective. • In May, 2009, the staff were asked to answer 4 questions with a number between 1 and 5, with 1=Never and 5=Frequently.

26. Detention Staff Involvement • Staff Surveys • Results for the 2008-2009 school year • Students are reading the books on the unit (rating = 4.8) • Staff gave a high rating for the program (rating = 4.8) • Staff believed that students would give the program a high rating (rating = 4.3) • Students sometimes discussed the program in the unit (rating = 3.1)

27. The Reporting System • Data Collection • Reports • Under Cover List • Books Read By Student • Count of the # of Books Read By Group • Count of the # Books Read By Title

28. The Reporting System Under Cover List

29. The Reporting System Books Read By Student

30. The Reporting System # Books Read by Group

31. The Reporting System # Books Read By Title

32. Choosing High Interest Books • Townsend Press (www.townsendpress.com) • “The Bluford Series” • The Classics • Carter High Series – High interest books, low readability level (www.sdlback.com) • Book Lists • Newbery Medal Winners (www.ala.org) • Books For Boys/Girls (www.booksource.com)

33. List of Resources • Booksource.com – (www.booksource.com) • Can order books at a discount • Can use the List Manager function for searching and storing the titles of selected books

34. List of Resources • Embracing the Child – (www.embracingthechild.org) • Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (International Reading Association) (www.reading.org) • “All About Adolescent Literacy” (www.adlit.org)

35. List of Resources • American Library Association – (www.ala.org) • YALSA – Young Adult Library Services Association • Best Books for Young Adults for each year • Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults • Great Graphic Novels for Teens

36. List of Resources • “Discovering Their Voices - Engaging Adolescent Girls with Young Adult Literature” by Marsha Sprague and Kara Keeling

37. The Under Cover Book Club Any Questions?

38. The Under Cover Book Club The End