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Tag: Culture

Building a Reading Culture Part 7

Building A School Reading Culture – Part 7 Reading Culture Characteristics

Well, here we are, more than two years on from when I first started this journey investigating how to build a reading culture. I never could have imagined where this journey would take me.

I’ve looked at organisational culture research, culture change research and methodology, reading culture research, and tools for measure reading culture. I also used those tools to measure our reading culture starting point.

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Building a Reading Culture Part 6

Building A School Reading Culture – Part 6 Measuring The Starting Point

Little did I know 24 months ago when I started my exploration into culture change and building a reading culture, the journey it would take me on.

If you’ve missed parts of my series on building a reading culture you’ll find the start of this story in part 1, an exploration of organisational culture research in part 2, culture change research and methodology in part 3, and a deeper look at reading culture in part 4. In part 5, I shared some of the tools that could be used to measure reading culture.

Now the time has come to share where I am in this journey and how I think my school stacks up when measuring our reading culture.

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Building a Reading Culture Part 5

Building A School Reading Culture – Part 5 Measuring Reading Culture

Welcome back to my building a reading culture series. If you’ve missed parts 1-4, I explore the start of this journey, organisational culture research, culture change research and what a reading culture is.

In my last post, I discussed what a reading culture is and some of the key elements. I also made the discovery that this needs to be driven from outside the library. To be truly effective, I need everyone in the school on board. Before I explore that further, I need to first look at how to measure and assess the current reading culture. Does it need to change? What are the areas of weakness? Where are we falling short and where are we strong and can build upon a good foundation?

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Building a Reading Culture Part 4

Building A School Reading Culture – Part 4 What Is A Reading Culture?

In this series, which I started last year, I have been exploring building a strong reading culture in my school. It was something we had identified as a library team as a goal to work towards. You can read part one here. I then started to investigate organisational culture research and culture change research and methods. These have all given me some excellent information and starting points. It has also guided my practice for the last six months as I stepped into acting head of library and into a position to drive change.

Now it’s time to look a little more closely at reading cultures, what exactly a reading culture is and why is it something to strive towards.

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Building a Reading Culture Part 3

Building A School Reading Culture – Part 3 Culture Change Research

In my last post on Building A Reading Culture, I shared my dive into the research around organisational culture. You can read my journey into building a reading culture from the start, in this first post Building A School Reading Culture Part 1 Getting Started.

When I decided to investigate the reading culture at our school, I wanted to do it properly and I was inspired to look beyond the school library context by my mentor, Dr Kay Oddone and her fantastic post on her website LinkingLearning. So, I began my journey within the business and organisation context. Looking at the research around organisational culture helped me to understand that culture is not only the “way things are done around here” but also the underpinning beliefs, values, assumptions and thoughts around the future of the organisation.

However, this is just a starting point. The true power rests in being able to change the culture we have.

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Building a Reading Culture Part 2

Building A School Reading Culture – Part 2  Organisational Culture Research

Building a positive reading culture might seem like a pretty obvious goal for a school librarian. It makes sense, right? It’s an admirable goal and the importance of such can be supported with evidence around the benefits of reading across academic, social, and emotional domains. But when I set myself a goal of building a positive reading culture at my school, I was challenged to think more deeply about the process. What exactly is a positive reading culture? What does that look like and how can I measure that? You can read about the start of this journey in my post Building A School Reading Culture Part 1 Getting Started.

In this second part in my journey, I’ve been investigating organisational culture, outside of just the school library realm. This then led me to investigating organisation climate. Before I could unpack what a reading culture is and how to measure and improve it, I first needed to understand what culture is at an organisational level. I started by diving into the literature around organisational culture.

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Book Review: Everything Within and In Between

 

Everything Within and In Between

– Nikki Barthelmess –

HarperTeen

Published 5 October 2021

♥♥♥

 

Everything Within and In Between is a novel about finding your identity and challenging racism. While the concept is great and there are some powerful moments, but I found the pacing to be slightly off and the character growth unsatisfying.

Ri Fernandez is white passing. It’s how her grandparents raised her, determined to fulfil their American Dream after emigrating from Mexico. But when she discovers that her grandmother has been lying about her mother and has been keeping them separated, Ri decides it’s time to take control of her story. She joins Spanish class, determined to learn her mother’s language and becomes aware of how she has separated herself from the Mexican community and other Latinx kids at school. Her change of heart causes conflict between Ri and her best friend Brittany, as well as rising tension between Ri and her grandmother. As Ri tests the boundaries of her world she tries to discover who she really is.

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Building a Reading Culture Part 1

Building A School Reading Culture – Part 1 Getting Started

When I first started at my new school and new school library this year, something that the library team shared with me quite a few times was their disappointment with the culture towards reading at the school. They felt that the school had a poor reading culture. They couldn’t quite determine why or what was the cause. Leadership was generally supportive, the school library well staffed but with reduced funding compared to previous years. So why did it seem like the students didn’t enjoy reading? Continue reading

Book Review: Three Quick Non Fiction Reviews

North and South: A Tale of Two Hemispheres – Sandra Morris – Walker Books Australia – Published 17 February 2021

♥♥♥♥♥

 

Synopsis

In the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, animals deal with changing seasons in various ways. Whichever hemisphere they live in, they need to be able to read the sign of the changing seasons to survive. This beautiful nonfiction picture book tells the tale of life for some of the planets most-loved animals and what they’re up to throughout the year. Each spread contrasts, month-by-month, some of the world’s most-loved Northern and Southern Hemisphere animals. North and South marks a beautiful and engaging introduction to the natural world and conservation for young readers, with in-depth facts throughout and a full index and glossary adding interest for older readers.

My thoughts

Beautifully illustrated, North & South introduces the concept of hemispheres and how this dictates our seasons. The book then displays a page for every month, one side for the Northern Hemisphere season and the other side of the page for the Southern Hemisphere. Each month features two animals, again one for the Northern Hemisphere and the other for the Southern Hemisphere. The book shares the similarities and the differences between the two animals that live across the world from each other. Conservation status, maps that show their locations and beautiful illustrations and endpapers bring these facts to life for young readers as they learn about the amazing creatures of the world.

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Book Review: Dating Makes Perfect

Dating Makes Perfect – Pintip Dunn – Entangled:Teen – Published 18 August 2020

♥♥♥♥

 

Synopsis

The Tech sisters don’t date in high school. Not because they’re not asked. Not because they’re not interested. Not even because no one can pronounce their long, Thai last name—hence the shortened, awkward moniker. But simply because they’re not allowed. Until now.

In a move that other Asian American girls know all too well, six months after the older Tech twins got to college, their parents asked, “Why aren’t you engaged yet?” The sisters retaliated by vowing that they won’t marry for ten (maybe even twenty!) years, not until they’ve had lots of the dating practice that they didn’t get in high school.

In a shocking war on the status quo, her parents now insist that their youngest daughter, Orrawin (aka “Winnie”), must practice fake dating in high school. Under their watchful eyes, of course—and organized based on their favorite rom-coms. ’Cause that won’t end in disaster.

The first candidate? The son of their longtime friends, Mat Songsomboon—arrogant, infuriating, and way too good-looking. Winnie’s known him since they were toddlers throwing sticky rice balls at each other. And her parents love him.

If only he weren’t her sworn enemy.

My thoughts

What would you do if the only way your parents would let you date in high school was to date your sworn enemy/ex-best friend. That’s what happens to Winnie in this fun and flirty YA romance. Alongside an awesome sister relationship, a series of dates that have come straight from the movies (literally) and two cute love interests, Dating Makes Perfect is #OwnVoices and lots of fun, perfect if you are in the mood for something lighthearted.

Winnie doesn’t have any intentions of dating during high school, no partner for the prom. It’s a family rule that the Tech sisters are not allowed to date in high school. But when her mother asks Winnie’s older sisters why they haven’t found partners yet now they are in college, the girls turn the tables on their parents and convince them that Winnie should be allowed to date in high school. But their parents have one condition: they will choose who Winnie dates and where they go. Winnie is horrified that, despite a perfectly handsome new boy in town, her parents decide she is to date her sworn enemy Mat Songsomboon.

I know Winnie and Mat are meant to be sworn enemies, but it’s easy to see their feelings underneath their hilarious ‘fighting’. Their insults and arguing is more like banter and flirting. But there is some hurt buried after their friendship broke down and I loved that they are able to finally talk about this and offer each other an explanation. This book is more best friends to lovers than enemies to lovers romance, simply because it’s hard not to imagine Mat and Winnie together. The other love interest just provides some motivation, shall we say.

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