We are within ten days of the end of our SLP. We'll figure out final numbers and the upshot in August.
For now, we can say that we have stayed busy and lots of return-adventurers have come back to help us build our robot with their stickers. The excitement of the gamecard design and stickers seems great for the kids and we have YET to hear kids or parents bemoan no weekly doo-dads. While we also included a charity component (our Friends will donate money to the Human Society, Eco Park and Children's Museum based on the kids reading), this has not seemed as motivational as the very visual robot slowly building.
We dreamed the robot like this in this first mini-model. Staff had a little trepidation on how it would all work. We used quarter sheets of paper that kids could sticker as they went along. This is how our robot has been growing:
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| Early June |
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| Early July |
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| Late July |
Kids have loved watching the robot get bigger and bigger. Staff has loved NOT dealing with weekly doo-dads. Has the fact that we aren't offering weekly prizes but only the book at the end affected overall return visits to the library? We may be surprised (unpleasantly or pleasantly). Stay tuned for final results next month when we shake out the numbers from our database!
To read about our journey, please stop
here,
here and
here! And for the final results of our SLP,
stop HERE!!!!
What is your minimum requirements for your SLP completion? For the most part we have to remind kids to read and to finish the minimum requirements for our SRC. :p I hate feeling pushy about reading.
ReplyDeleteHeidi, we make "completion" free choice. We have 9 gamecards - one for each week of our SLP. Kids can do as many or as few as they want (we only make one available per week). If they complete 4 cards they get to choose a free "forever" book during our book give-away. We set up tables in our program room for 2 weeks in August and cover them with books. Kids can come in anytime to pick up their book!
DeleteIn talking with my staff over the past week or so I realized that no one has fielded ANY complaints about the prizes this summer (when we took away grand prize drawings and plastic toys). In past years, I have ALWAYS had at least one complaint about the prizes. I had prepped my staff pretty extensively on dealing with parents and kids who were upset that we weren't giving away Legos and Princess stuff and etc. etc. etc. Who knew that everyone would be on board with prizes that, to our minds, are so much better for our kids?!
ReplyDeleteIt's like waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never did! Glad you are having the same experience. It's freeing!
DeleteLOVE IT! I hope you put all this into some sort of conference seminar (would be great for ALA or ALSC!). No more weekly do-dads is something I could get behind. Even with our library's weekly-do-dads Summer Reading challenge, what parents have liked the most is the reading and the little activities they do for the program like book reports--so what do we need the do-dads for?
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for administration and staff to sometimes let the extrinsic prizes go. I know we just tried it but it just feels great - for the kids and us!
ReplyDeleteI'm exciting about taking another step towards prizeless next summer! I've been shrinking a little every year and maybe in another summer or two....
ReplyDelete