Thank you so much for taking the time to share your library's SRP practices with me. I was hoping for some inspiration and, as always, you did not disappoint! The compiled responses are below: Last year we changed up our summer reading tallying for kids. Instead of minutes, we decided to leave it up to the parents and we just require that the kids have read something during the day to count the day off. I have a very reluctant reader at home and he was always discouraged by the kids who read constantly during the summer, racking up stickers and entries into our grand prize drawing. This way encourages everyone to read and those who get easily discouraged won't be able to compare themselves to the fanatic readers. Parents loved that they could set the time limits themselves too. __________________________________ A few years back we switched to reading 15 minutes a day for 30 days throughout the summer. So we're counting days rather than amount of time or number of books/pages. We're tying it into preventing the summer slide, because having kids fulfill their reading goals in the first week and then not reading for the rest of the summer really defeats the purpose. They don't have to read 30 consecutive days, just thirty days between the day they sign up (earliest registration is June 1) and the last Thursday in August. It has been a well received change. __________________________________ You could create an age appropriate 1/2 sheet "book report" form. Or, extra points go to kids who do a 1 minute video book report. (Extra points for dressing as a character!) __________________________________ One summer we counted pages read. But that was hard with so many picture books not having page numbers. __________________________________ We track sign ups and (self-reported) completion. Our gameboard instructs kids to make a daily reading goal, which can be a number of books, pages, or amount of time, whatever makes sense for that child. Parents are asked to make sure it is an appropriate and achievable goal. Completion is based on them completing their goal at least 5 days per week throughout the seven weeks of the program. I like doing it this way because it empowers kids to do a COMFORTABLE amount of reading. Voracious readers might make a goal of 90 minutes a day and reluctant readers might make it 20 minutes; younger kids might read 5 picture books per day. ALL of these kids and their families can be successful with this model. Since switching to this method we see close to 50% completion district-wide, which is considerably higher than it used to be (20-25%) when we were tracking number of books read. __________________________________ We are moving to 'minutes read' model from 'books read' this year for E and J readers. I'd love to hear what other libraries are doing and why, if you wouldn't mind sharing the compiled responses! __________________________________ Our thinking is that the length of books for E and J readers can vary so much, that 'minutes read' is a better indication of just how much time they have spent with books, rather than 'books read'. __________________________________ At Walled Lake, we tally the number of DAYS that the kids read and encourage the children and their parents to determine how many minutes of reading constitutes a day's worth of reading. This seems to: a. slow down the kids who would otherwise finish in a weekend b. allows a bit of customization -- it might be a big deal for a struggling reader to put in 20 minutes/day but a voracious reader might need to read an hour in a day to count it c. build good habits! __________________________________ We've been doing minutes read for over 10 years for kids and teens. Makes it work for audiobooks, graphic novels, novels, reading aloud to another. And we have them work with their parent to choose length of time. We recommend at least 10 minutes per little circle but some read 15, 20, or even 30. (I've attached a PDF) (We have a teen log that is formatted differently but works the same way and some teens read 1hr.) __________________________________ My library has kids keep of track of how many days they read. We don't care how much they read on any day, that's up to them and/or their parents. For us, if they read anything that day they can mark it off on their log, and we do prizes for every 12 days or so. It's possible to miss a few days and still get all the prizes, but kids who read every single day get an extra entry into the grand prize drawing. __________________________________ We have counted time for the 15 years since I have been doing this job. I like it because if a child reads consistently but only finishes 3 Harry Potter books in a summer, they still get rewarded for their hard work. __________________________________ We have a paper children's reading log with 6 lines and 10 stars per line. The preschoolers read 15 minutes for each star. We know that means someone is reading several books to them at each sitting. The elementary students read 30 minutes for each star. When they complete the line, they bring it in for a reward of their choice. Our teen/adults read 30 minutes for each star. 10 stars per line. 10 lines per page. When they complete a line, they earn a raffle entry. __________________________________ We will continue to issue paper logs to patrons who request it. We are now using Beanstack, an online reading tracker for 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten and have it set to go for Summer Reading this year too. We still have the same time goals for rewards/raffle entries and we still get our patrons into the library to pick up their rewards/raffle entries. We liked it better than Wandoo Reader. One of the big differences is that your reading statistics don't disappear after the program. Check it out. __________________________________ We do both minutes and books.. you can pick. __________________________________ We switched over to what looks like a board game, game board designed using the theme and artwork from the national program. The squares vary between learning objectives and time spent reading. So one square may say "identify a flower" or "draw an imaginary animal" and then the next square would say "read for 15 minutes." There are small prizes along the way and then when the whole board is done, one corner tears off with your name and contact number and goes in the drawing for the big prizes. __________________________________ We switched to time several years ago, measuring in 15 minute increments. I agree with Dillon that it levels the playing field for slow or struggling readers, and it encourages kids to read at their reading level instead of being tempted to just pick short books. It also makes it easier to include other kinds of reading materials, like magazines, game instructions, etc. Reading is reading! We had one clever mom who asked if she could track her kids reading her the signage about the animals at the zoo (she had a reluctant reader and used the stopwatch on her phone to measure). I told her sure! And, it still allows you to give credit when siblings read together – we give credit to the older child doing the reading and to the younger child who listens to the story. I remember that when we switched there was a little resistance (change is hard), but it didn’t take long for people to embrace it. __________________________________ You can access the 2018 SRP Report Card through the LM website: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/libraryofmichigan/2018Infographic_644002_..., where it shows 34.6% of reporting libraries in MI gaged summer reading for children using “minutes read.” That’s up from the 22.01% average of using minutes read in the 2014-2017 tracking period. Hope this helps, Cathy Lancaster __________________________________ Hi Sharon! This is only my second SRP at my library, but we have always offered patrons the choice of tracking books (10) or minutes read (six hours). I’m not sure how the numbers in particular were decided on. Our patrons overwhelmingly prefer to track by number of books rather than minutes (a little over 2:1). __________________________________ For kids, we do days read. We encourage them to read daily so it's something they're doing regularly throughout the summer. __________________________________ Until last year, our library had a reading goal of 600 pages for the summer reading pages. What constituted a "page" was up to the individual reader. As time went by, some fantastical numbers were being reported, and though they were probably true, it seemed to demoralize some kids who worked hard to reach 600 pages. Last year we experimented with giving kids the option of counting pages (600) or minutes (900) over about six weeks. This year, we are changing over to a goal of 800 minutes. It seems that most schools require 15-20 minutes of daily reading for students after school hours, so they are used to tracking minutes. It also seems a more fair measure: one child may read one page per minute, another may read ten per minute, yet the amount of effort needed is equal. Our log also used to consist of a list of book titles and number of pages read. Now our logs are printed as calendars and we ask only that the total number of minutes read be filled in for each day spent reading. We received a lot of positive feedback about this format. __________________________________ For adults, my library does book reviews submitted. For Youth, it's a points system based on number of books read and activities completed. __________________________________ We encourage them to “set their own goals” with family input, and do not do any minimum counts or time. Our mission is to make reading fun and a part of everyday life and not a contest or set up kids for failure. We are set up to make “reading journals” during our open house days for summer reading but we also have printed log sheets for those who do not want to make a journal. __________________________________ For prizes; everyone can pick a free book at each summer reading program (books are a combination of donations and from scholastic book bundles) and we also do door prize drawings at each program using the registration cards. Winners are pulled each week and once a winner then they are out of the pool drawing. We also let the kids pick their own prize; so for example if we are drawing 6 names then we will have 10-12 prizes that they can pick from. We have a small enough program that every kid will be a winner if they show up at all the sessions. Kids are super excited to “win” and we keep the prizes small and collect them all year around. -- Sharon Crotser-Toy Director *Watervliet District Library* 333 N. Main Street Watervliet, MI 49098 269-463-6382 Connects People, Inspires Ideas, Transforms Lives