Flyer for the Readbox

BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS!

 

Students of Oakland Heights,

      

       Have you ever wanted to exchange some of your older books that you don’t read anymore for a different and more exciting book? Well, very soon you will have the opportunity to do so because our school will be starting a Readbox.

      

       Now, what is a Readbox? A Readbox is a book exchange program. We will ask all of Oakland Heights to bring one old book that your parents are okay with giving away. All of these books will be put into our Readbox and you will then have the opportunity to pick a different book once the Readbox is put together.

      

       The deadline to bring your book will be November the 11^th by the end of the school day. Your book should follow these guidelines:

·         Used

·         Paperback or Hardback

·         A book that you would like to give to the school

      

       Thank you students of Oakland Heights! This Readbox is going to be so fun and exciting!

       If you have any questions about this fun opportunity for your students please contact the school at 968-2084.

LIBROS! LIBROS! LIBROS!

Estudiantes de Oakland Heights,

Han alguna vez deseado intercambiar algunos de sus libros viejos que ya no leen por algunos diferentes y mas emocionantes? Pues, muy pronto tendra la oportunidad para hacerlo porque nuestra escuela estara comensando un Readbox.

Ahora, que es un Readbox? Un Readbox es una programa de intercambio de libros. Nosotros vamos a perdirle a todos de Oakland Heights que traigan un libro viejo que sus padres esten de acuerdo con regalando. Todos estos libros seran puestos en nuestro Readbox y tendran la oportunidad de escoger uno diferente ya que Readbox este compuesto.

La fecha tope para traer su libro sera el 11 de Noviembre al finalizar el dia escolar. Su libro tendra que seguir estas directrices:

·         Usado

·         En rustica o de tapa dura

·         Un libro que le gustaria dar a la escuela

Gracias estudiantes de Oakland Heights! Este Readbox va a ser muy

divertido y emocionante!

       Si usted tiene preguntas acerca de esta oportunidad divertida para sus estudiantes por favor contacte la escuela al 968-2084.

Tory Evants

Alyson Ragsdale

Courtney Lyons

Language and Literature
SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT

Oakland Heights Elementary

The Project

For our Service Learning Project we will be putting on a book drive for Oakland Heights Elementary. The school’s principal and a few other staff members gave us the idea to create a Readbox. The Readbox is modeled after the Redbox movie rental station. The idea of the Readbox is the same as the Redbox, but instead of renting DVD’s the students will be renting books. By putting on this book drive we will hopefully be able to fill the Readbox up with as many books as possible. Along with putting on the book drive, we will be assisting with the construction of the Readbox. Our overall goal and purpose of this project is to help a local school build and create something that will make an impact on current and future students.

Objective:

Allow an opportunity for students to develop a wider range of reading and increase their level text complexity.

Standard(s):

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.10

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.2.10

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.3.10

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.4.10

Planning

The first step of our planning process was getting in touch with Susan Berry, who is a teacher at Oakland Heights. Alyson and Tory met with Mrs. Berry to discuss some interests that the school might have to help their students become more involved in literacy.

We were able to meet with her on September 3rd at 9:30 a.m. to discuss what we could do to make an impact at her school. During our visit we decided that we would have a book drive so that we could create a Readbox.

Over a period of a few weeks, after meeting with Mrs. Berry, Courtney  began to reach out to the local stores in Russellville. All of the stores we were planning on contacting included Hastings, Kroger, and Walmart. We finally made progress and were able to make contact with Walmart. The date we have set with Walmart to hold our book drive is Saturday, October 10th from Noon to 4 p.m.

After the book drive all three group members set up a meeting with Mrs. Shirley on October 23. In the meeting we discussed if we were to continue with the intent to create the Readbox or not. During the meeting Mrs. Shirley showed an expressed desire to continue with the Readbox and we then made another action plan for the flyers and for the book donations, which will be inside of the school. After meeting with Mrs. Shirley we shortly made a meeting Mrs. Taylor to discuss the dimensions and the type of bookshelf that would work best for the school.  

The Book Drive

To be held October 10th from Noon to 3:30 p.m. or 4 p.m. This book drive was not a success and we decided to take another route to collect books from the students in the school. Tory started to create a new flyer to promote the in school book drive. Within the flyer we promoted the Readbox to be an book exchange system so each student can bring a used book with the permission of their guardians. We are now hosting the book drive which will conclude on November 11. The book drive went very well. After collecting the books we counted 104 total books. We decided to keep the Readbox donation tub to allow students to be able to keep dropping off books if they still wanted to.

Building the “Readbox”

Administrators of the school shared their desires to have a fairly medium sized bookshelf that could also be portable when they decide to take it throughout the hallways to the different grade levels to use. After a series of testing of which bookshelf would work best to hold the numerous amounts of books that were collected we finally settled on a bookshelf with the addition of wheels to make it portable throughout the school hallways.

Once we screwed the wheels onto the bottom of the bookshelf we then reinforced the bookshelf to add more stability to the frame to hold the amount of books that would be placed on the bookshelf. We tested the bookshelf by wheeling it across different types of flooring to make sure that it would be stable enough to be transported around the school’s hallways.

After the series of trial and error with the bookshelf we then printed labels that had a QR code on the the bottom.  The QR code takes the user to the Oakland Heights webpage. The labels created for the Read Box are easily duplicated.  The label brand that was purchased was Avery which can be found at local stores including Walmart.  The labels can be recreated on the Avery website by typing in the product code found on the front of the package.  The website will prompt the user with steps to complete.

Avery Read Box Labels

Oakland Heights School Webpage

The administrator of the website is able to add a “Read Box” tab, where apps or games can be accessed by the parents or students.  Mrs. Shirley was emailed a link to a website students can use to practice literacy skills to extend the Read Box.  

ABCya

Reflection

The purpose of the Readbox was to excite the students to become more actively involved with reading and to increase their literacy skills through reading multiple books. The Readbox addresses all of the learning styles by allowing the students the free choice of a book they want to read, the books come from a range of levels, and there are various types of books to appeal to all types of students’ creativity or imagination. The book drive alone really excited the students to start up the Readbox by donating books to place in the bookshelf. The students took a sense of responsibility to bring books to the school to have a piece of their contribution in the bookshelf. This Readbox will create a positive impact on students’ interest on reading and to become more involved with literacy. Overall, our group learned how important it is to work with peers and seek advice from experienced educators in order to make an educational point successful. We learned from Mrs. Shirley how important it is be a sense of a cheerleader for any program you create to help students become excited about education. With the Readbox the staff of the elementary school would be allowed to continue to modify and adjust their needs of the Readbox to fit their students needs to use this program.