[Michlib-l] SRP Tracking Compilation

Tue Apr 23 13:46:58 EDT 2019

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your library's SRP practices
with me. I was hoping for some inspiration and, as always, you did not
disappoint!

The compiled responses are below:

Last year we changed up our summer reading tallying for kids.  Instead of
minutes, we decided to leave it up to the parents and we just require that
the kids have read something during the day to count the day off.  I have a
very reluctant reader at home and he was always discouraged by the kids who
read constantly during the summer, racking up stickers and entries into our
grand prize drawing.  This way encourages everyone to read and those who
get easily discouraged won't be able to compare themselves to the fanatic
readers.  Parents loved that they could set the time limits themselves
too.
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A few years back we switched to reading 15 minutes a day for 30 days
throughout the summer. So we're counting days rather than amount of time or
number of books/pages. We're tying it into preventing the summer slide,
because having kids fulfill their reading goals in the first week and then
not reading for the rest of the summer really defeats the purpose. They
don't have to read 30 consecutive days, just thirty days between the day
they sign up (earliest registration is June 1) and the last Thursday in
August.
It has been a well received change.
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You could create an age appropriate 1/2 sheet "book report" form.  Or,
extra points go to kids who do a 1 minute video book report. (Extra points
for dressing as a character!)
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One summer we counted pages read.  But that was hard with so many picture
books not having page numbers.
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We track sign ups and (self-reported) completion. Our gameboard instructs
kids to make a daily reading goal, which can be a number of books, pages,
or amount of time, whatever makes sense for that child. Parents are asked
to make sure it is an appropriate and achievable goal. Completion is based
on them completing their goal at least 5 days per week throughout the seven
weeks of the program.
I like doing it this way because it empowers kids to do a COMFORTABLE
amount of reading. Voracious readers might make a goal of 90 minutes a day
and reluctant readers might make it 20 minutes; younger kids might read 5
picture books per day. ALL of these kids and their families can be
successful with this model.
Since switching to this method we see close to 50% completion
district-wide, which is considerably higher than it used to be (20-25%)
when we were tracking number of books read.
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We are moving to 'minutes read' model from 'books read' this year for E and
J readers. I'd love to hear what other libraries are doing and why, if you
wouldn't mind sharing the compiled responses!
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Our thinking is that the length of books for E and J readers can vary so
much, that 'minutes read' is a better indication of just how much time they
have spent with books, rather than 'books read'.
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At Walled Lake, we tally the number of DAYS that the kids read and
encourage the children and their parents to determine how many minutes of
reading constitutes a day's worth of reading. This seems to:
a. slow down the kids who would otherwise finish in a weekend
b. allows a bit of customization -- it might be a big deal for a struggling
reader to put in 20 minutes/day but a voracious reader might need to read
an hour in a day to count it
c. build good habits!
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We've been doing minutes read for over 10 years for kids and teens.  Makes
it work for audiobooks, graphic novels, novels, reading aloud to another.
And we have them work with their parent to choose length of time.  We
recommend at least 10 minutes per little circle but some read 15, 20, or
even 30.  (I've attached a PDF)
(We have a teen log that is formatted differently but works the same way
and some teens read 1hr.)
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My library has kids keep of track of how many days they read. We don't care
how much they read on any day, that's up to them and/or their parents. For
us, if they read anything that day they can mark it off on their log, and
we do prizes for every 12 days or so. It's possible to miss a few days and
still get all the prizes, but kids who read every single day get an extra
entry into the grand prize drawing.
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We have counted time for the 15 years since I have been doing this job. I
like it because if a child reads consistently but only finishes 3 Harry
Potter books in a summer, they still get rewarded for their hard work.
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We have a paper children's reading log with 6 lines and 10 stars per line.
The preschoolers read 15 minutes for each star. We know that means someone
is reading several books to them at each sitting. The elementary students
read 30 minutes for each star. When they complete the line, they bring it
in for a reward of their choice.
Our teen/adults read 30 minutes for each star. 10 stars per line. 10 lines
per page. When they complete a line, they earn a raffle entry.
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We will continue to issue paper logs to patrons who request it. We are now
using Beanstack, an online  reading tracker for 1,000 Books Before
Kindergarten and have it set to go for Summer Reading this year too. We
still have the same time goals for rewards/raffle entries and we still get
our patrons into the library to pick up their rewards/raffle entries. We
liked it better than Wandoo Reader. One of the big differences is that your
reading statistics don't disappear after the program. Check it out.
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We do both minutes and books.. you can pick.
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We switched over to what looks like a board game, game board designed using
the theme and artwork from the national program. The squares vary between
learning objectives and time spent reading. So one square may say "identify
a flower" or "draw an imaginary animal" and then the next square would say
"read for 15 minutes." There are small prizes along the way and then when
the whole board is done, one corner tears off with your name and contact
number and goes in the drawing for the big prizes.
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We switched to time several years ago, measuring in 15 minute increments. I
agree with Dillon that it levels the playing field for slow or struggling
readers, and it encourages kids to read at their reading level instead of
being tempted to just pick short books. It also makes it easier to include
other kinds of reading materials, like magazines, game instructions, etc.
Reading is reading! We had one clever mom who asked if she could track her
kids reading her the signage about the animals at the zoo (she had a
reluctant reader and used the stopwatch on her phone to measure). I told
her sure! And, it still allows you to give credit when siblings read
together – we give credit to the older child doing the reading and to the
younger child who listens to the story.
I remember that when we switched there was a little resistance (change is
hard), but it didn’t take long for people to embrace it.
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You can access the 2018 SRP Report Card through the LM website:
https://www.michigan.gov/documents/libraryofmichigan/2018Infographic_644002_7.pdf,
where it shows 34.6% of reporting libraries in MI gaged summer reading for
children using “minutes read.” That’s up from the 22.01% average of using
minutes read in the 2014-2017 tracking period.
Hope this helps,
Cathy Lancaster

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Hi Sharon! This is only my second SRP at my library, but we have always
offered patrons the choice of tracking books (10) or minutes read (six
hours). I’m not sure how the numbers in particular were decided on. Our
patrons overwhelmingly prefer to track by number of books rather than
minutes (a little over 2:1).
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For kids, we do days read. We encourage them to read daily so it's
something they're doing regularly throughout the summer.
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Until last year, our library had a reading goal of 600 pages for the summer
reading pages.  What constituted a "page" was up to the individual reader.
As time went by, some fantastical numbers were being reported, and though
they were probably true, it seemed to demoralize some kids who worked hard
to reach 600 pages.  Last year we experimented with giving kids the option
of counting pages (600) or minutes (900) over about six weeks.  This year,
we are changing over to a goal of 800 minutes.  It seems that most schools
require 15-20 minutes of daily reading for students after school hours, so
they are used to tracking minutes.  It also seems a more fair measure:  one
child may read one page per minute, another may read ten per minute, yet
the amount of effort needed is equal.
Our log also used to consist of a list of book titles and number of pages
read.  Now our logs are printed as calendars and we ask only that the total
number of minutes read be filled in for each day spent reading.  We
received a lot of positive feedback about this format.
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For adults, my library does book reviews submitted. For Youth, it's a
points system based on number of books read and activities completed.
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We encourage them to “set their own goals”  with family input, and do not
do any minimum counts or time.  Our mission is to make reading fun and a
part of everyday life and not a contest or set up kids for failure.  We are
set up to make “reading journals”  during our open house days for summer
reading but we also have printed log sheets for those who do not want to
make a journal.
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For prizes;  everyone can pick a free book at each summer reading program
(books are a combination of donations and from scholastic book bundles) and
we also do door prize drawings at each program using the registration
cards.  Winners are pulled each week and once a winner then they are out of
the pool drawing.  We also let the kids pick their own prize; so for
example if we are drawing 6 names then we will have 10-12 prizes that they
can pick from.  We have a small enough program that every kid will be a
winner if they show up at all the sessions.    Kids are super excited to
“win” and we keep the prizes small and collect them all year around.

-- 
Sharon Crotser-Toy
Director
*Watervliet District Library*
333 N. Main Street
Watervliet, MI 49098
269-463-6382

Connects People, Inspires Ideas, Transforms Lives
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