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Several years ago she applied for a grant she titled Connecting With Kids. She recycled a rejected proposal from the three ring binder, and this time it was a winner. As a result, The Cyber Café now sits outside the school media center and is used by the entire South View community. Decorated like a ’50s soda shop with red vinyl and aluminum stools, it’s run by ninth graders, who are paid. Nelson has taught many students to make smoothies and sell muffins. The café has been running for five years. Since the initial grant, she says, “We’ve never had to ask for money. It has become a self-sustaining entity. It earns enough to pay for all the food, licenses, to try new things, and to buy furniture.”
Two years ago she requested district funds for a program she titled Take Out a Book. It started when parents asked what books they could suggest to their kids to read. She thought that if she could give parents an opportunity to buy the books it would provide money to bring authors into the school. Though she didn’t receive funding, she didn’t give up on the idea. Instead, it evolved.
She re-designed a concept that would attract middle level learners. Nelson says, “As you see what kids need, then the idea became bigger. The idea was to create a self-sustaining literacy initiative that addresses the literacy needs of accomplished and emerging readers.”
The original idea now has three parts and the title of the revamped project is Literacy Welcome and Take Out Books. This time the proposal was funded. The first piece of the project is the literacy welcome program, which provides an additional opportunity to encourage literacy development and growth among the targeted student group. Each new student who fits the parameters of the grant receives a book bag from the media specialist. Along with the book bag comes an invitation to meet with the media specialist to receive the gift of a free book every month. By connecting with the media specialist, the student establishes a relationship with a caring adult. “We hope to add to each student’s personal library and encourage their love of reading,” Nelson says.
The second piece of the program was the original proposal: making good books available for purchase. The Take Out Books project not only promotes a variety of recommended titles, but also packages them for sale in specially designed boxes
The third component was the creation of a literacy council made up of current middle school students who are avid readers. They read the latest releases, have book discussions, and have an opportunity to meet with authors. Frances Hardinge, the author of the 2006 novel Fly by Night was the first author who met with the Literacy Council. The kids all bought her book and most read it ahead of time. They even followed the author’s blog. The council also makes suggestions for the books chosen for Take Out Books. “They’re telling other kids what they’re reading and those kids are coming to the Media Center,” Nelson says.
The programs don’t happen without parent support. Nelson has had a parent volunteer program for ten years in the Media Center. “Parents keep coming back because they love it. They can connect with teachers and find books for their kids. It’s another way to get involved with what’s going on with your kids at a time when they don’t want to hang around with you.”
Last year she and the parents were talking about what they wanted to do the following year. Parents said, “Let’s read YA books.” So at the coffee Nelson holds every year to get volunteers, they talked about the parents’ book club. She did a book talk and asked parents to choose what kind of books they wanted to read. “Parents come for different reasons. Maybe they have a boy and want to know more about boy books. I chose the first book, Godless, because I thought [author] Pete [Hautman] would connect with parents, and he did. It was an on-the-edge book and I think that if kids are reading edgy books—which they want to do—then parents will have questions. Sometimes hearing what an author is thinking about is so totally different from what you’re thinking about.”
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In the early part of Nelson’s career, she worked at an independent bookstore. Years later, as a media specialist, she met Kate DiCamillo at Wild Rumpus, a children’s bookshop in Minneapolis. The new author was there to talk about her first book, Because of Winn Dixie, to a crowd of people (and their dogs) participating in a dog walk sponsored by the store. At that time, DiCamillo had never done a school visit. “I told her it would be a piece of cake,” Nelson remembers. DiCamillo was the first author Nelson brought to her school. Three months later Because of Winn Dixie won a Newbery Honor. “We take pictures of the visiting authors, so there are pictures at the school of Kate and the kids. They’re framed and sitting in the reading section.” Nelson brought four authors/illustrators to the school that year with grant money: DiCamillo, Hautman, Donna JoNapoli, and Sharon Draper. The visits were funded by another successful district grant proposal, Learning in New Ways. “Seeing an author live—some kids connect with that,” she says. “They might not be reading, then something happens and they get excited and they read.”
As Nelson talked about the grants she’s won and what they've brought to the South View media center—MP3 players, author visits, video equipment, books, the Cyber Café—she shook her head as she realized how limited her program would be without the extra funding she’s sought. What would the kids have without that money? “Not much,” she answered. There would be a library with books, but not the energy and creativity that runs through that place.
Cathy Nelson can be reached at CatNelson@edina.k12.mn.us.
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