“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” – Margaret Fuller
Whether you’re onboard a pirate ship sailing across the Caribbean, flying over the treetops of England, or discovering a love of poetry, books can be mirrors, windows, or sliding glass doors. We see ourselves in their pages, and they give us a glimpse into the lives of others.
“I might never be assigned to read anything about windsurfing, but windsurfing might be my thing and it would be great if there were books about windsurfing, or maybe my favorite soccer player, or my favorite animal, or Dinosaurs,” says Canyons District Library Media Specialist, Gretchen, Zaitzeff. “To have that opportunity to explore those kinds of topics, but also read books that reflect an experience that might be different than my own and represent people who look, think, and act differently than I’m used to.”
In this spirit, the Utah Educational Library Media Association and Utah Library Association have dubbed Oct. 1-7, 2023 as FREADom to Read Week.
“FREADom to read speaks to a citizen’s constitutional and first amendment rights to free speech and expression,” Zaitzeff says, “It celebrates the rights of young learners and their families to locate and access age-appropriate titles that are the right fit for them. Librarians and their libraries are partners with parents and their children in providing opportunities for learning and imagination.”
FREADom to Read Week is just one of the ways the District works to encourage reading through CSD Reads. We believe reading is the most important academic skill a student can acquire and the love of reading is essential to a love of learning.
A study by PEW Research in 2020 found four-in-10 (42 percent) of 9-year-olds read almost every day. That number is down from 53 percent in 2012. In comparison, when 17-year-olds were asked the same question in 2012, only 19 percent said they read for fun with 27 percent saying they never or hardly ever read for fun.
Those numbers are a little different here in the Canyons District as we’ve expanded our resources for students.
“The District has generously provided $1.5 million dollars which we are using to update and improve accessibility in our elementary libraries,” says Zaitzeff.
Heather Erickson is the Librarian at East Midvale Elementary School and has seen first-hand the growing number of students checking out books, especially those students for whom English is a second language.
“We have 20 languages spoken in our homes,” Erickson says, “and one of them is English. We have books in nearly every language so that our kids can feel a part of the library.”
The District’s library system is already extensive and continues to grow, even bringing in popular books in different languages in just one day.
“I think that literacy starts in the language a student is loved in,” says Zaitzeff, “and making books available in student’s home languages supports both their literacy in that language and their emerging literacy in English.”
Zaitzeff says the idea kids don’t read anymore is false in the Canyons District.
“Last year, we circulated different materials 433,883 times,” says Zaitzeff. “That means a student walked up to a counter and presented a book and took it home with them that many times.” Those numbers don’t include the ebooks and audiobooks available to students.
Erickson has seen the number of books checked out in other languages continue to grow.“Last year we circulated 361 Spanish books off of three shelves,” Erickson says. “This year so far, we’ve circulated 127 Spanish books. We have seven shelves now, so we’ve added more. That’s 35 percent of the entire circulation for last year in just one month. It is so great.”
One way parents are encouraged to get involved with their child’s reading, is to access the District’s catalogs online.
“They could access the catalog together and choose books that are available through their school library,” Zaitzeff says. “Then the student can actually put those books on hold, or they can look for them the next time they have library lessons or have access to the library.”
This week and every day we encourage our students to continue to grow their love of reading by choosing books that interest and inspire them.
“Our students exercise choice every time they go to the library, which is a great way for them to take ownership of their learning,” says Zaitzeff. “I think the understanding that that choice should be celebrated. People in different areas and in different time periods had fewer choices. Just the act of being able to self-select I think should be celebrated.”
On this week’s episode of Connect Canyons, we sit down with Zaitzeff, Board of Education Vice President Amanda Oaks, and Superintendent Dr. Rick Robins to hear about the forms of reading that inspired them and how they keep reading long after their childhoods.
