Book Trust works because the children themselves are the changemakers.
The opportunity to 'go shopping' for books every month leverages personal choice and ownership where those opportunities are significant motivators for increased reading and academic achievement.
Long-Term Classroom Participation: Book Trust gives children consistent opportunity purchase books, develop their reading interests throughout their early education, and naturally create a community of readers within the classroom.
Self-Directed Learning: Children’s book selections are not tied to schoolwork; they are encouraged to select whatever books they want. In a nutshell: When you choose what you read, you like reading more; when you like reading more, you read more often; when you read more often, your skills improve.
Ownership: As well as pride in ownership, home libraries give children the opportunity to re-read favorite books, which is crucial to building overall fluency.
The children love it: Our most common anecdote from teachers is “they all burst into applause when the book boxes arrive!”
Entire families are enriched by this program, slowly building momentum behind one of the greatest forces capable of breaking the cycle of poverty.
As
important as it is to engage children early
with a love of reading, the aspect of choice
itself becomes significantly more important
as a child grows older. Our original research
confirmed what we suspected – if you want
older children to read, and read a lot, the
opportunities they have available to choose
their own reading materials is imperative.
And so Book Trust grows with the child.
“I have
had teachers well up with tears as they
described the joy of a Book Trust student
when their classroom book order arrived.
It’s given us all a window into
what it must have felt like for these
children each month when they were only
able to be bystanders to the excitement
of the book order arrival.”
Michele Miller, Principal, Moultonborough
Central School
