Superhero Book Week: Using the PYP Learner Profile to Build a Reading Community

Books can be your hero, and help you to become a hero! 

Goals for a book week can vary on a school's needs and the whim of the librarian. It is that time of year when arguments in the playground and in the classroom were on the rise, just like the rising temperatures in Singapore. So for Book Week it was decided we would focus on the PYP learner profile. With three teacher librarians thinking, we named 5 different superheroes that were inspired by the Singapore 'graciousness' characters that are found on public transport. A couple of hours in Adobe Illustrator and viola - our heroes!

  

 

Our book week engaged all members of our community; with the goal of all members share the belief that words have power. As teacher librarians, we read aloud a variety of books, like the 'Wooden Camel" which highlighted not only the power of imagination but we chatted with our students to help deliver the message of empathy for a boy whose family had fallen on hard times. Whereas the book 'Feather' featured the power of determination and students discussed how they could feel empathy for a girl bullied by brothers.

Just a few of the PYP elements shared by students when prompted 'Books
can share the power of ...'

Our discussion of superhero powers truly highlighted the ocean of our students' knowledge.  Our discussion of superhero powers truly highlighted the ocean of our students' knowledge of various elements of the PYP. They shared  how change could be a power or how important the power of responsibility is in our world. This branched into chats around why we read: to escape, to be entertained and to feel comfort that someone is like us. By communicating different purposes for reading it is hoped it will trigger a student to make a different choice in book, possibly consider reading a new genre.

At the end of Book Week our students
really showed their colours.

Which superhero are you like? The students reflected upon which superhero character they felt most akin to and posted it on a collaborative bar graph.Students were encouraged to turn and talk to a friend about their choices and it was wonderful to see how some would take on their peer’s opinion of their choice and may change their thinking. Words do have power.  It's seems we have some chatty communicators and caring kids!

Collaborative posts make for
richer recommendations.

Adding to the blocks of our reading community was a goal. After our read aloud discussions with younger students they were encouraged to record and post on the walls different characters that made them heroes. Kids are still reading the literal wall posts and seeking titles with featuring the various character heroes. Our  older students posted virtually to a grade level padlet on our libguides to share what books had characters they felt were heroes and that they empathized with. 

Our superheroes had favourite
biographies to share.

Young runners eagerly recording their character heroes.

Real life heroes surround us, and are important part of our past. We thought it would be best to set up a biography display, which was a genre we had been discussing. Biography fits well with a number of units of inquiry. And it was our community's annual Terry Fox Run so we already had been highlighting his biography. Our kids eagerly shared how Terry was hero and how his actions brought about change.

To support our teachers in our community, we encouraged them to take back to class some books from our superhero learner profile bins to continue the discussion. Our teachers are a very enthusiastic crew when it comes to using picture books as a resource for many different kinds of lessons: learner profile, UOI related, action, agency, etc. We also gave the teachers a list of potential activities to use within their literacy lessons to support the concept of books as heroes. 

A face lift to our learner
profile book boxes.

Parents played an active role by sharing stories in their mother tongue, yet another aspect of building a reading community. We hosted mother tongue read alouds or 'Stories from Around the Globe' during recess time in the library. Teachers share the languages of the day and students have the option to come and listen. All children are welcome, no matter what language they speak! Our parents are wonderful and explain the story as they go in English and the language they are sharing in so all the kids can enjoy it. We also featured a mother tongue read aloud display to help kids make connections to our superheroes in our world language collection. My colleague did a wonderful job encouraging kids to build this part of book week. 

During our usual 'Library Bytes' parent session, we focused on how books can support the development of socio-emotional needs. It has been proven that reading with parents and discussing books can help a family share their beliefs and values as well as develop a strong sense of empathy. Our parents enjoyed sharing stories of which books they read to their child to help develop empathy or to support them during a time of a family challenge at home. Some of our parents were unaware that the library would support them in finding these books and sending them home. An essential part of community spirit is lending a hand when someone needs it, and if it’s getting the right book to a family then we do our best to meet that need.

A shy Colby Warford with Leila Boukarim, local author and
learning needs champion.

Sim Ee Waun sharing her
second book about her
mother's experiences in Kampong.

Singapore has a vibrant and active literacy community and we engaged the services of some amazing local authors to speak to our students. Sim Ee Waun, an esteemed journalist and author who writes historical fiction accounts based on her mother's experiences of growing up in a Kampong her in   Singapore, brought to life for our students what life was like in the past. The amazing duo of Sherlock Sam, AJ Low (aka Felicia and Adan) shared how they develop their characters and inspire our student authors to do the same.  Leila Boukarim who is passionate about wellness and students with different learning needs, shared her process as an author and her wonderful book 'Hello Goodbye Little Island' which highlights the challenges expat kids have with moving. A librarian's kid has to have some perks so she kindly signed a copy for my son.

And I didn't forget our global community so I made sure I tweeted to authors about how we think their books make kids heroes. Sometimes you luck out into a response, when I share it with the kids they think it's the most amazing thing. This form of action models for our students that social media can have a positive impact.

Our week ended with everyone's favourite 'Book Character Day'! This is a great opportunity to bring a classroom community or grade level team together. Some classes pick one book to focus on whereas others encourage kids to come with their book and as a character. Our teachers did a fantastic job of focusing on book characters and with all the activities around the learner profile we saw some amazing strong literacy connected characters!

A critical component of a school event such as a book week is the reflection. Once book week is finished we ensured we conducted a survey of our staff. We want to know if we achieved our goals of further developing our reading community and impressing upon our students that books can be their heroes. Words do have power!

CIS Super Librarians!