The Tattered Pages
Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 10:15PM Amy Sieve, Middle School Media Specialist in Northfield, MN, shared this with me and kindly allowed me to share it with you. As a little librarian growing up on the prairie, I ran paperback book exchanges in my libraries, but Amy had taken this to a whole new level.
Three years ago, as part of my PLC (Professional Learning Community) I conducted a survey on the reading habits of our lowest and our highest scoring Middle School students on the reading portion of the MCA test. The data confirmed my suspicion that successful students have lots of book in their homes, they receive books as gifts, they live in homes where books are valued, and they spend their free time reading for pleasure. Likewise, the data also confirmed that less successful students don’t have the same access to books in their homes, don’t receive books as presents, and don’t place much value on books.
With this information, I put together a plan to open The Tattered Pages, a new and used bookstore in our school. Through newsletters, articles in the local newspaper, advertisements, and speaking engagements I solicited donations. I also received grants and new book donations from our local colleges and retail bookstores. Today, The Tattered Pages contains over 3,000 new and used books that students and their families can buy. What makes The Tattered Pages unique, however, is that books are “bought” using earned coupons, rather than real money. Students earn these coupons in a variety of ways, including:
Book Donations- students receive a coupon for every book they donate. This is an important component to the philosophy behind The Tattered Pages. By donating books they no longer want to own, students learn the important lessons of recycling, sharing, and contributing to the good of the whole.
Working in The Tattered Pages- the store is open all day every day, and it is completely managed by student workers. Student workers come in before school, during lunch or study hall, and after school. Their job includes pricing new donations (the coupons are in the same increments as real currency, so the books are priced much like you would see in a real bookstore), shelving, tidying up, and helping customers (we get over 100 shoppers each day).
Doing a job from the Job Jar- staff members send me jobs they need done in their classrooms, and students earn coupons when they fulfill these jobs. These jobs include sweeping classroom floors, dusting, filing, scraping gum off the school sidewalk, washing windows, etc.
Excelling in their classrooms, lunchroom, school bus, etc.- every month staff members (including custodians, bus drivers, etc) receive coupons in their mailboxes. Students who demonstrate good citizenship, or academic excellence, are given coupons by their teacher. Rather than reward students with food and candy, staff members are encouraged to reward with the gift of a coupon to buy a good book.
Selling popcorn. The Tattered Pages sells popcorn for 50 cents a bag every Friday. All proceeds go towards purchasing books and gift wrap (we gift wrap all books “purchased” by students that are to be given as a gift).
In December we held our Third Annual Holiday Shopping Extravaganza. This is a special sale that is held in the evening and runs throughout the day for one full week. It is a wonderful opportunity for students, and their families, to “purchase” gifts for everyone on their holiday list, without spending a dime. As in previous years, the event included free gift-wrapping, holiday treats, music, and movies. We wrapped over 500 books for students to give as gifts for the holidays!!!
Last month we held our Third Annual Mother’s Day Sale. This is an evening event for Mothers and their middle schoolers to come to The Tattered Pages. While the students shop for a Mother’s Day present (and have it beautifully gift wrapped!), the mom’s can listen to music and munch on donated baked pastries and yummy coffee.
Both of these events have taken on great importance, given our country’s economic situations. Many of our students have been affected by this crisis- either through a parent’s unemployment, or the loss of housing. Each of these have become very popular among students and families, but, because of all the donations, they have also brought in the community at large
Because our Middle School has a large population of Latino students, my goal this year is to find good deals on books to purchase in Spanish. Donations of money, or books in Spanish would be very useful in helping our Spanish collection grow. In this way, we could better serve our Latino families and help put more books into their hands and homes. In turn, this, I believe, will increase the academic success of these students.
The Tattered Pages has had a huge impact on our school and our community. Through speaking engagements at local churches and events I receive hundreds of book donations each month from people in the community. Because we encourage our students to give gifts (another great life lesson- demonstrating our appreciation to those who have shown us love and friendship by giving a gift), we accept donations for all ages- picture books up through adult reading materials. The community feels good about donating books and helping out our school. Parents feel good about not having to provide real money to their children for purchasing gifts for friends or family members. The students feel good about doing honest, worthwhile, work to earn coupons, which enable them to own books. It is a beautiful site when students leave The Tattered Pages with beautifully gift-wrapped presents which they bought, without spending a dime.
Our sites are set on adding more Spanish books to the collection, which will allow students who don’t speak English, or who’s families don’t speak English, to still be actively involved in The Tattered Pages.
Video can be found by going to
then select Middle School
go to the vertical menu bar and select MS Video Streaming
select Tattered Pages
Good library programs offer many services - and not all of the them involve technology!
Reader Comments (5)
Sounds like a wonderful program with many benefits. Did you ever do a followup survey to see if the numbers between the haves and have-nots changes at all?
What a fantastic program - how creative! Sure sounds more exciting than my little paperback exchange!
Doug,
At our elementary school, we take the donated books (from parents) and let our students who don't have too many books at home choose 10-15 to take. It is done very discreetly.
Rati
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing, both to Amy and Doug!
I was so inspired by this post that I sent a link to my principal because I want to give this a try at our middle school. It's a wonderful idea! I went to Amy's webpage and watched their video about the Tattered Pages Bookstore - outstanding!