My teens love this time of year- not because of the weather (which in Texas can be freezing one day and 70 the next), and not because of the holiday breaks (they tend to signal more testing) but because of our annual Winter Reading Program.
Why? Because I am insane enough to have a 13 hour all-building lock-in, from 7 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday, as the grand prize. No parents, no younger siblings, just teens 13 through 18, plus vetted chaperones, plus myself and That Guy, and controlled chaos through the library, the game room, two community rooms, an aerobics room, and a gym floor for thirteen glorious hours.
The lock-ins are prizes above and beyond “completion” of a reading program. In my system, we have a system-wide reading program for all ages, and for teens the completion level was 10 hours. To earn the lock-in, teens had to read 65 hours, or a little over an hour a day during the days the summer reading program was active. My location is the only one to hold a winter reading program, and those who earn the lock-in read above and beyond the prize level to earn it.
My first winter reading program was in 2008-2009, and I had 5 teens that attended the lock-in. I say attended because there were 3 more than earned it, but for various reasons they were unable to attend. My most recent winter reading program had 12 teens attend the lock-in, plus 5 former teens attend as chaperones, and 6 more that earned it but were unable to attend. That makes 18 that earned it, plus 5 that came back just for the lock-in.
My teens earn their lock-ins through reading, and while I don’t have hard data (really impossible to track) I have empirical evidence that the teens that participate in the reading programs do better in school. In fact, all the teens that have participated in two or more of my lock-ins have graduated from high school, while I know teens that have attended library programs but not the lock-ins that failed to graduate, and have slipped into darker corners.
This year, since I’m going to be changing job positions in the middle of winter reading, I’ve made it easier on my staff, although it may be daunting to my teens who love consistency. Instead of asking them to turn in reading logs based on hours, I’m asking for two different playing cards based on a famous sing-a-long game that rhymes with a Beatles drummer. They will have to complete five squares in a linear pattern- the first card will win them a prize (BOOKS! Yea BOOKS!) and the second completed card will win them the lock-in.
This may or may not be as challenging as the hours goal (typically 35 hours for the lock-in and 15 for the prize), but they are going to be going through a lot of changes with my job switching, my location changing, and staff changing at the library they call home. “My” staff (they will still be mine in my heart) will also be going through a lot of changesas well, and this will simplify things on their end as well- are their five stamps? Check. Is the teen’s name on it and can you read it? Check. Is it pink? Give them a choice of books. Is it purple? Give them the lock-in form.
I’ve put the pdf of the rules and cards on Slideshare, so feel free to take a look!
