The Guys Read Club was excited to get a $1000 grant from the Foundation for Lee County Public Schools to purchase books just for boys.
After months of reading and talking about the books, several Guys Read Club members offered to record what they thought about some of the books they read this year… and recommend a few others to you. Listen by clicking the link below: (It may take couple minutes to load, and crank up the volume when the boys start talking…) Enjoy!
Tags: Foundation for Lee COunty Public Schools·grants·Guys Read·reading
What made you want to read when you were little? or not?
Maybe it was a really great teacher who sparked your interest, or a parent or sibling who read to you every night, or maybe it was just a great book that captured your attention and got you started… or maybe you didn’t have anyone to help you learn to love reading.
Our middle school Guys Read Club boys want to make sure other boys develop a love of reading, so 
they have volunteered to become mentors, also known as “reading buddies” to our second grade boys once a week for the next 5 months.
After a training session where the Guys Read members learned how to work with younger students and use several different reading strategies, the boys were matched with 2nd grade boys in six different classrooms. Their job: to mentor, encourage, read to, read with, and listen to the boys read to them. 
Every Wednesday morning they show up, share a smile and a book and encourage these younger boys to read and love it. What a pleasure it was today for me to watch them. The 2nd graders were excited about having a “buddy” and the older boys really seemed to enjoy helping them out and giving something back. Hopefully these middle school boys will help instill that lifelong love of reading in these younger boys. We’ll keep you posted.
What or who helped you learn to love reading?
The VPAA Guys Read Club recieved a $1000 grant from the Foundation for Lee County Schools last week. The grant, written by Mrs. Hanson, will provide funds to purchase books specifically for the Guys Read Club and geared toward their interests. As part of the grant, the boys will be creating digital and multimedia projects to promote books and reading at the school. Thanks to the Foundation and all the sponsors for their support of our program!
I played with some new video creation websites this week and made a quick video about Guys Read Club…. here it is…enjoy!
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Today the VPAA Guys Read Club finished the year with a challenge for the boys. Each of six teams of four participated in six stations where they had to read to solve a puzzle or get information before they could compete in a physical challenge (free throw shooting, football throwing, scooter racing, frisbee tossing, hockey playing, and soccer kicking). The teams were timed to see how fast they could complete both the reading challenge and the physical task. The beauty of this challenge was that the boys HAD to read and understand the text or puzzle before they could successfully complete the physical challenge. They were motivated!
The boys read about Super Bowl teams to answer questions prior to throwing footballs through a hoop.
The boys completed a puzzle of sentences that told them what task they had to complete at this soccer station.
After the challenge stations, each adult mentor was given a thank you card signed by the boys and each boy was presented with a certificate and a copy of the book, Guys Write for Guys Read to keep. Lots of applause and thank you’s were expressed to all who helped with the program! What a great finale to an awesome year. It was an exciting morning.
We’d love to know what you think about our Guys Read program, or if you have questions or similar stories to share, please post…
I’ve posted several times about this new program for boys at our school – the VPAA Guys Read Club. I took the boys’ “thoughts about reading” before and after the program and typed them into wordle for a nice graphic comparison:
What the guys thought about reading before Guys Read Club started:
What the guys thought about reading six months later - after Guys Read Club ended:
They say a picture’s worth thousand words… I think these words say volumes about the impact of the Guys Read Club.
We wrap up the club this week with a great challenge for the boys in the gym – we’ll share pictures later. Thanks again to all the men who volunteered their time to make this program work for the boys: Mr. White, Mr. Voltz, Mr. Coffman, Mr. Kendall, Mr. O’Connell, Mr. Edward, Mr. Ausman, and Deputy T.
You can read an entire summary of the year on author Marc Aronson’s School Library Journal blog, Non-Fiction Matters.
Marc Aronson, author of young adult non-fiction books (Race: A History Beyond Black and White – one of my favorite books of 2008!) and proponent of programs to encourage boys to read, has been advising VPAA about our Guys Read program from its very beginning.
Now, he is putting our program in the national spotlight by posting updates that I send him – or that he requests. Read his most recent posts on his School Library Journal blog called Non-Fiction Matters . Another post is here.
We appreciate all the advice Marc has given us and the support our principal, Mr. Houchin, is giving to this program. I am proud of the progress of our Guys Read program, and I know the boys are enjoying it. Our club mentors make this program work because they give extra time, thought, and energy to making it work for the boys! A huge thanks goes to them – Mr. Ausman, Mr. Edward, Officer Tyus, Mr. Kendall, Mr. O’Connell, Mr. Coffman, Mr. Voltz, Mr. White, and Mr. Peters.
Tags: boys·Guys Read·Marc Aronson·Non-Fiction Matters·reading club·School Library Journal
The VPAA’s Guys Read Club is tackling football this month with the BCS National Championship Bowl and the NFL Playoffs on the agenda. On January 8th, Coaches Ausman and Edward had the boys filling out NFL brackets and studying a pre-game analysis of the Gators – Sooners College National Championship Game. The next couple weeks the club members will take a look at some of the NFL teams, reading about their strengths and weaknesses and playing football trivia using the SMARTBoard. Mr. Kendall, Mr. O’Connell, Mr. Voltz, and Mr. Coffman have some fun in store for these boys… they’re off to a great start and we’re glad the boys are enjoying the club! The GuysRead Club meets every Thursday morning in Media 1.
Today was a great day at VPAA! We had our first Guys Read club meeting. Twenty-four middle school boys were invited to be the first members of this club, which will meet each Thursday beginning in January 2009. Today, the boys ate breakfast, listened to their adult mentors share their personal stories about reading in their lives, and brainstormed a list of topics and activities they are interested in reading, talking and learning more about.
We’re excited to have this group up and running. The Guys Read club is all about guys – talking about stuff they like, and enjoying each others’ ideas and company. It’s about reading too – reading about guy stuff – sports, cars, dirt bikes, music, movies, and more.
Mr. Ausman, Mr. Edward, Mr. Coffman, Mr. Voltz, Mr. Kendall, Mr. White, Mr. Peters, Mr. O’Connell, and Deputy T are all committed to mentoring the boys. Thanks to them and to the boys for a great first meeting! Thanks to Mrs. Duval and Mr. Hanson for helping me get everything set up for the meeting, and thanks to all the teachers who nominated the boys and encouraged them to attend the first meeting!
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