The Boys Book Club of Guys Read at Bennett is a project that was established and run during the first three sessions or our afterschool activities. I began this project with many different goals in mind. The first and foremost was to re-instill the love of books for many of the boys I have contact with on a regular basis as an AIS Reading Teacher. The program has progressed from volunteer adult male role model readers, reading to the boys to broaden their interests in topics to read about, to the students taking an active part in reading books to form the BBT (Boys Book Club) Guys Read Library. They are reading and writing about the books and giving the books their stamp of approval to be considered read worthy for other boys who follow in their footsteps.
My inspiration for beginning this group came from noted children’s author Jon Scieszka who created a nonprofit literacy organization and website called Guys Read to promote boys’ reading. I learned of this web site from our ELA Coordinator, Linda Szamary. The program objectives were the following:
• Books can be fun.
• Many men enjoy reading, and boys can too!
• Libraries can be fun places to visit.
As an educator and member of the Onteora Teachers Association, I am proud to wear my own BBT of Guys read shirt! Here are the boys all proud of their shirts when they received them. They all say thank you to the OTA for supplying the funding for these
~ Michelle Martin