JCSP Demonstration Library Project

JCSP Demonstration Library Project

Supporting Literacy and Learning in Irish Schools

JCSP Demonstration

Library Project

Engaging Reluctant Learners

Kathleen Moran

19th October 2016



What is the JCSP?

.

The JCSP is an intervention within the Junior cycle aimed at those students who are identified as being at risk of leaving school early perhaps without completing

The Junior Certificate.

All JCSP Students sit the Junior Cert examinations

A Social Inclusion Programme



JCSP - AIMS of the Programme

To retain students To bridge the gap

To build strong and positive learning

foundations

To make school relevantand accessible to

young people who find it difficult to cope with the

school system.



JCSP Library Project

Set up in 2002 under the JCSP

Literacy and Numeracy Strategy

30 high quality school libraries

All in schools in designated

disadvantaged areas

Staffed by full-time professional

librarians

JCSP Library ProjectEstablished under the Department of

Education and Skills in 2002.The brief

of the JCSP Demonstration Library

Project was to:

• Improve literacy levels

• Develop a whole school reading

culture

• Enhance the learning experience of

our students

To date the project has expanded

• into 30 schools across Ireland,

• all in designated areas of

disadvantage

• Each library is staffed by a

full-time professional

Librarian



Why?

.

Access to books and reading resources is one of the most significant predictors of reading success

High scoring countries – large school libraries

To Bridge the Literacy Gap



Studies show that middle class children

enter first grade having experienced an

average of 1,000-1,700 hours of

storybook reading in the home,

compared with 25 hours for children

from very low-income homes

(Let’s Talk About Literacy, Literacy Partners of Manitoba)



By Age 3, children from middle-class

homes:

...children from ‘disadvantaged’ homes

-Have heard 20 million more

words than, and

-Have 3 times the oral language

capacity of



Access to books is critical...

“Education and reading are circular:

the more a person has of one the better the

development of the other”

Chall 1996









Research Project

3 year research project

• The average reading age of 1st Year JCSP

students was 4 years below their

chronological age.

• Little or no access to books at home.

• Very low levels of public library use.

• Very little interest in books and reading.





Main Research Findings• Improved reading scores

• Increased book borrowing

• Evidence of better attendance

• Improved retention to Senior Cycle

• Improved levels of concentration

• Increased interest and motivation

• The school library became the hub of student-centred, positive, innovative and successful learning in the Project schools

• Library-based literacy strategies were having a direct impact on student learning



“…the findings demonstrate over and

over again, that well stocked, well

managed school libraries, with access

to books through structured library

programmes that are directed towards

the learning needs and interests of

even the most reluctant and hesitant

readers, can have impacts that are very

significant” Room for Reading, 2005, p.131



Further Research

2006/2007

‘More Than a Room for

Reading’Longitudinal study of JCSP

‘Graduates’



Main Findings• Continued regular use of school library

• Very high level of public library use

• Positive association with their 2nd level

education

• Library impacting on students’ long-

term educational aspirations

• Library impacting on students’ holistic

as well as curricular-based

development



Outreach

Our Librarians support:

• Other JCSP/DEIS schools

• Feeder primary schools

• Family literacy

• Youth support organisations

• Collaboration with public and 3rd level libraries



Reading Spaces• We advise on:

– Location

– Furniture

– Stock Selection

– Ambiance

– Access

– Display

– Suppliers

– Reading Promotion

– Developing a Reading Culture





Reading Exercise



Read the passage below

The grifty snolls cloppered raucingly along

the unchoofed trake.

They were klary, so they higgled on

sperately.

“Ah, chiwar kervay,” they squopped rehoply

“Mi psar Quaj! Quaj!” snilled one, and filted

even jucklier.



Developing a Reading Culture



Highly visible displays



Re(a)d Wall



Reading Role Models



Book Nests



Displays



Performance Poetry



Worst part of my life

I really hated watching my ma die

It makes me angry

It’s not fair, I feel like killing

I saw my ma die in front of my eyes

The room went quiet, all you could hear were the machines

When all the machines turned off all you could hear was my ma choking

Then all you could hear was people crying

When I think of her now I think of Christmas morning

Her lying asleep in the bed

Me walking in and waking her up

She was turned away in bed then she turned her head

Then us walking into the sitting room and unwrapping the presents

I will never forget her



WRaPParound Video

https://vimeo.com/143249066

https://vimeo.com/143249066



Performance as learning

Verbal arts as learning

The curriculum and the arts

Resilience



National E-Book and Audio

Book Digital Library Service





National Drop Everything and

Read



Focus on reading activities that foster

active student engagement, discussion

and creative outputs: • Students as authors

• Make-a-Book exhibition

• Web blogs

• Author visits

• Excursions – theatre, book launches, etc.

• Accelerated Reader

• Interactive book reviews

• Twitter book reviews

• Paired reading

• E-books/Audio books

• Book clubs



JCSP Libraries find ways to increase learning beyond

the school day and school year.

• Extracurricular Activities

• Access to the library after school

hours

• Summer Programmes



School Library Association

School Librarian of the Year Award

3 JCSP Librarians on Honours List

2 JCSP Librarian Winners

Hilary Cantwell Annie Brady

2013 2015



SLA School Librarian of the Year

Award 2013

Hilary Cantwell Presentation

https://youtu.be/h2sUYNQB2mQ

https://youtu.be/h2sUYNQB2mQ



Finally......



“One looks back with appreciation to the

brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to

those who touched our human feeling. The

curriculum is so much necessary raw

material but warmth is the vital element for

the growing plant and for the soul of the

child”

Carl Jung



Always remember that the child that

challengesyou the most....

Might be the child that

needs you the most





Thank You

[email protected]

@jcsplibraries

http://www.jcspliteracy.ie/

Presentations & Public Speaking

JCSP Demonstration Library Project