1. Middle School Students Read! Re-visiting the Red Maple Program
Friday February 3, Super Conference
Presented by: Cheryl Paterson, Stephanie Crechiola, Sue MacLachlan

2. Background
Pisa (2011) study indicates fewer students
are reading.
Knoester Study (2009) found that adolescent students got turned onto a book when other students were excited about a book.
Our challenge is to provide interesting and relevant reading material for the adolescent reader.
CC BY-SA 3.0

3. Background Penny Kittle, esteemed high school English teacher, stated:
Average age that students read for the love of it
10 years ago - Age 14
Currently - Age 8
In the US half of all students drop out of college during their first year.
Researchers believe that reading stamina is a factor.
Stamina must be built up over time.

4. The Red Maple Program is Born
From a discussion between a classroom teacher
and the Student Success Teacher came the idea:
Let’s create a Canada Reads Literature Circle
activity for the classroom using Google Docs.
Special Assignment Teacher Librarian suggested
using the Red Maple Forest of Reading titles.

5. Red Maple Program Goals
Engage intermediate students in the Joy of Reading.
Celebrate student growth as readers
Apply the Literacy knowledge and skills acquired over the course of the students’ elementary school career
Leverage technology to allow students from various schools to participate in the program
Express student voice in voting for Red Maple Award winner

6. Forest of Reading Reading engagement program K-12
Ontario Library Association
23rd year
HWDSB participation over 10 yrs
Red Maple category gr. 7-8
Students vote for award winner
Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading

7. 2016 Nominated Red Maple Titles

8. Participating Schools 2016
2 teachers

9. Classroom Program Literature Circles Independent Reading
Read Aloud to class
Students blog in HWDSB Forest of Reading Blog as they read
Developed persuasive paragraph using Google docs
Persuasive paragraph posted in HWDSB Forest of Reading blog

10. Teacher Experience
Teachers used Google Docs to share activities with their students.
Students used Google Docs to complete activities.
Teachers used Google Docs to share ideas,
lessons and resources.
Teachers developed follow up activities.

11. Activities from Fragile Bones
Written by Colin Smith
Task two:
Create a podcast/ talk show clip using Imovie either by yourself or with a partner (both of you must have read the book). In it discuss themes of the novel, significant points in the novel and discuss a few characters as well. Overall how would you rate this novel? Before filming you must write a loose script and the podcast must be no longer than five minutes. Use the tools that are available with the Imovie app.
Task three:
Using a comic making app- Halftone 2 or Comic maker recreate a part in the book that was memorable for you. At least two pages.
Task one:
Developmental disabilities are ones such as Autism, Asperger’s, and Down’s Syndrome. Explore how developmental disabilities are portrayed in the media, both positively and negatively.
Overall what medium does the best job at portraying developmental diversity positively? Which does the worst job?
Television Show
Movie
Book
Character
Positive
Negative

12. Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading
Additional Resources
Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading

13. HWDSB Forest of Reading Blog

14. Sample Student Blog Comments
“This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I’m not much of a reader but the whole time I was reading this book I never wanted to put it down. It was suspenseful events like when the dad pulled up at Cameron’s school and Cameron was expecting Ken that didn’t allow me to put down my book and kept me on the edge of my seat. I would definitely recommend this book to others and one other thing I would recommend is don’t read this book late at night.”

15. Teacher Reflections Students involved were very invested in the
books and the process
Students read everyday and conferenced with
each other
Students had very strong opinions about the books and felt that their opinions mattered since they were voting
Students not involved wanted to be as they listened to their classmates discuss the books

16. Teacher Reflections Before: read 0 books Before: read 2 books
After: read 6 books
Before: read 0 books
After: read 1 book
Before: read 3 books
After: read 6 books
Before: read countless books
After: read 10 books

17. Parent Involvement

18. 2017 Red Maple Nominees

19. 2017 Red Maple Program 38 Teachers 27 Schools
3 sets of the Red Maple titles have been purchased
for each classroom with an Abacus Grant from
the Hamilton Community Foundation.

20. Contact Information
Cheryl Paterson Stephanie Crechiola
Student Success Teacher Student Success Teacher
Sue MacLachlan
Special Assignment Teacher Librarian