Valentine’s Day Provides Unique Opportunities to Promote Literacy in Our Schools

Hearts and love abound in mid-February as children, teens and adults alike celebrate Valentine’s Day, but sneaking in a love for literacy takes a little extra craftiness from educators if one wants to use the holiday to promote a love for reading.  This is something the Belleville schools have learned to do well over the years and emphasized recently with two special events during Valentine’s Day week.

Multilingual students at the elementary school, guided by Katie Worple, prepared for the holiday by busily writing messages of kindness in English and Spanish for the Belleville community in partnership with the local coffee house, the Lingonberry Llama.  Local coffee lovers were able to receive these words of kindness last week when they picked up a cup of joe, and were offered a hand-decorated coffee sleeve to boot!  It was such a beautiful community engagement piece in the name of literacy and how love transcends languages and cultures.

Belleville Elementary Principal Kelsey Schmit highlights, “Katie Worple is an amazing educator who works to incorporate multiple languages into our school and community.  The students were so excited to highlight their multilingual skills and surprise customers with their kind messages.  We hope all the Llama visitors enjoyed it!”

At the middle and high school level, the weeks before (and during) Valentine’s Day have become a little more stressful for the school library over the last four years, but so worth it as a special program called “Blind Date with a Book” has been established.  At the beginning of February, school librarian Marie Perry sends out a questionnaire for grades 7th-12th (as well as school staff) to help pair a “good read” with those who choose to participate.

This year saw the most growth as orders for surprise books grew from about 50 last year to 86 this year.  The books are then each personally selected for readers by Library Media Specialist Marie Perry using clues – like what a student’s favorite movie is, favorite genre, or past read.  Books are then carefully wrapped with clues written on the outside of the packages as a way of intriguing the receiver into discovering what title has been chosen for them.  Finally, books are delivered by Belleville’s Middle School Student Council members on February 14th.

Marie Perry says, “This year I realized many don’t ‘get’ what I’m doing in the library by wrapping all of these books that are ultimately only being borrowed, but I’m literally setting my students up to fall in love with reading by having them answer survey questions about things they like and then by using my knowledge of our library collection, I try my best to match a book with each reader.  Why, you might ask?  There is psychology around receiving a wrapped present, and even though these books are lent, knowing it is a selection made and personally wrapped and given on Valentine’s Day for them; it helps students think more about cracking the covers of these works more so than if they wandered the shelves of my school library on their own.”

There is science-based research that supports how one positively reacts to receiving a wrapped gift, as it activates memories of happiness for the receiver as noted in the article, The Psychology Behind Wrapping Paper:  https://www.theguardian.com/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2010/dec/20/1.

Plugging into this joy helps hook a reader for librarians who choose to put on their own versions of “Blind Date with a Book.”  One might not win over every reader who signs up for this Valentine’s Day event, but for those that fall in love with an unexpected title, it’s so worth the effort.

District Administrator Nate Perry notes, “Marie started the ‘Blind Date with a Book’ program as a pilot in her first year as the Library Media Specialist at the middle and high schools, and it has taken off from there.  She puts so much care into the book selection and the presentation and packaging.  It entices potentially reluctant readers to unwrap the book, open it up, and give it a try.  Once Marie forms that relationship with them, the opportunity is there for students to come in and check out other books in their interest areas.”

Reading can become a joy for even reluctant readers if one goes about it the right way.  School librarians know their collections and their learning community; so, an event like “Blind Date with a Book” is just one more way we can offer literacy to all readers at all levels and hopefully help students develop a love for reading!  In the end, approaching literacy in unique ways helps everyone find a way to celebrate literacy in any language and it’s important to keep finding creative ways to build literacy skills for our students in Belleville.