One Book, One School

We are starting our One Book, One School Family Reading tomorrow! I thought I'd give a little explanation of how we run One Book, One School!

Here are the books we have used so far:
A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole
The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone
MVP by Douglas Evans

Marianne Malone

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein

And this year we are doing Lowji Discovers America by Candace Fleming!

What is One Book, One School? These paragraphs are how I explain it to families on a bookmark I create with a schedule for reading:
It is a program designed to create a shared reading experience within a school community, while encouraging the habit of family reading. A chapter book is chosen, every family receives a copy, and they read that book at home over approximately six weeks. Activities at school promote and enrich the shared reading experience.
No rewards or assessments will be involved in the reading of the book. We hope that your family will simply enjoy reading together. Children of all ages can benefit from hearing a story read aloud. Research shows that reading aloud sharpens the imagination, creates healthy dialogue, and helps children love reading. Additionally, families reading together strengthen their emotional bonds and helps provide positive parent-child connections essential to a child’s psychological health and academic growth.*
* Taken from http://readtothem.org/why-read-aloud/overview/.

Chris Grabenstein

One of the most exciting parts of our One Book, One School program is that we choose a book that we are able to have the author come visit us. We have always arranged the author to speak to all the students after the families have had time to read the book.

I was very lucky to receive the support of my PTO. The first year I decided to do One Book, One School, I collaborated with some other schools in my district and another nearby district to share the cost of Henry Cole. I presented information about One Book, One School to my principal, staff, and PTO. I sent home book order forms and the next day the PTO voted to buy a book for every family rather than having parents choose whether to buy it or not! Ever since then, the PTO has kept it in their budget to buy books for each family.
When I presented the idea to the staff, many were excited. Some staff did have different ideas for incentives that I didn’t feel fit with my goals, so I made the final decisions (no incentives or prizes). Some were concerned about not having time to read the book themselves or to do activities in class. I do not have any expectations that teachers do anything with the book in class. For those that wanted to collaborate with me, we did something in class and/or in the library that went along with the book. For example, for A Nest for Celeste, which was our first year doing One Book, One School, we probably did the most activities to go along with the book. These were some of the extensions/learning activities we did:

Henry Cole and his creation, Celeste the Mouse

• Journaled about the book 
• 5th graders wrote a persuasive essay about John James Audubon, and whether he should be considered an important American naturalist 
• 2nd graders did research and presentations about birds 
• 3rd graders created simple Audubon biographies using Comic Life on the iPads 
• Students in PE played word relay activities and other movement games related to the book 
• Many students, including the EcoPanthers club (environmental club), tied in what we learned about caring for and observing nature to our Outdoor Learning Center 
• Compared different mice stories

Douglas Evans

I also always have a family reading night that coincides with my book fair in November. Each year, the Family Reading Night tied into the One Book, One School book. For example, for Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, we had different stations around the school that went with each Dewey Decimal hundreds category. For MVP we had a giant inflatable globe that people could go inside. Usually I started the One Book, One School reading in October so the Family Reading Night was in the middle of the book reading, but this year I decided to start in January since Candace Fleming could come in February. This year I still had a Family Reading Night that was loosely connected to Lowji (It was an "Around the World" theme with different stations for each continent, and Lowji is about a boy who just moved from India to Illinois), but I had a much lower turnout than in the past. I think not having the book already started or even the title revealed made people not as interested in coming to the Family Reading Night. I didn't realize that the families reading the book and wanting to do activities connected to the book really helped the attendance for our Family Reading Night (and consequently, our book fair profits).

I really enjoy doing One Book, One School each year. It always is a little challenging to pick one book that is appropriate for K-5, but it is also so much fun! If you have any questions about how it works for us, please contact me, I'd be happy to share anything with you!