I have been listening to Stephen Krashen and some well-meaning librarians tell us that reading incentive programs have little effect on student reading scores. "Students read better when they have unfettered access to books and they can read what they want." HOW this happens has not been well defined, and when attempts are made, it seems the role of the librarian is insignificant. Often, we are being told to get out of the way and just fill orders as if we worked at a Literacy Home Town Buffet.

I am anxious to write an entire paper on what we have seen in our District as we rolled out Accelerated Reader Enterprise Edition; and I can't blame anyone who was caught in the reading incentive "Points for Pencils" literacy movement. I would suggest it may be because you lifted the hood and looked in the trunk instead of the engine.

As intended, AR is a reading comprehension program. When a student finds a book they want to read, they know they are being asked to work on comprehension strategies while enjoying the text. Because they are aware of the book level, they know how much they will be challenged. (This may solve some of the unfinished books talked about earlier.) Teachers are encouraged to model good comprehension strategies during read alouds and students are asked throughout the year to do their very best on each test. It is also a perfect model to help coach students to better and broader reading. In AR, we set goals just like a coach would - based on accuracy, frequency, and difficulty. This makes AR perfect for "Reaching and Teaching" every student and it is a much more significant role for the Library Teacher, than the buffet model of "keep it hot and sell alot."

This is not a time in California to operate our libraries with the "Business as Usual" model. California students do not have their school library on speed dial. We can not just open the doors and hope they will come and check out all of our wonderful titles. Just compare your in-house computer use to your book circulation if you find this hard to believe.

With Reading Practice integrated into our Reading Instruction, our District's goal is to use AR as one tool to get our schools out of Program Improvement. So far, based on the enthusiasm from our students, teachers, and administrators, and our fidelity to the program, we are well on the way.

Haven't we all had the sneaking suspicion that what we are teaching our students will eventually make us obsolete?
pre 1980's- If we teach them how to use the card catalog they won't need us to find a book. (At least they need me to make the cards)
1980s - If I show them how to use these resources on CD-ROM they won't use my cards. At least they need me to show them how to find things with these new browsers.
1990 - If I show them how to Yahoo they won't need me at all. At least they will enjoy my lessons on collaboration.
2000s - If they are using backs of my old catalog cards to write down their grades they track online, they are using their flash drives to download everything they need to take home with them, and they all have a personalized "All About Me" page, and they collaborate with their phones, PDA's and Facebook.....maybe, just maybe, I can get them to read my blog.
And when the money in California is gone for everything but essential services, what will we tell them? That will most likely be when we choose to fall on our swords and tell the administration to continue to fund all of these wonderful services we fought so hard for to help our students achieve and we return to the classroom to show them how to use them. Oh, that's right, our libraries are our classroom. There is hope if our students and teachers see our classrooms relevant to their world.