Monday, May 9, 2016

Decade of Data for the Forest of Reading

I have participated in the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading program for a very long time. When schools are officially registered to vote in the program, there's a form that must be completed compiling information such as the number of readers that initially joined, the number of readers that qualified to vote (by reading at least 5 of the 10 nominated titles in a particular category), and the number of votes that each nominated title received. I save and collect these numbers and I publish them in the annual report that I create for my administrator at the end of the year. I find these figures quite fascinating and this year, I had an "off-camera" discussion with my friend and fellow teacher-librarian Jessica Longthorne about our school's results for 2015-16.


As I ran around crazily that week before the voting deadline, quickly conducting last-minute chats so individuals could qualify, I was intrigued (and a little disappointed) to hear reasons why students did and did not exert effort to collect the required five signatures in their passports. The Grade 3 students in Ms. Daley's class gave a concentrated final push in the last two weeks of April because they learned that classroom teachers do not attend the Festival of Trees trip unless at least 50% of their class will be attending. (This is a fairness issue, as we do not order supply teachers to cover absences and if a teacher attends the Festival, his/her students that did not qualify are dispersed to other classrooms for the day.) Many older students told me that they had already been to the Festival of Trees last year, so they didn't care about going on the trip to Harbourfront or they felt it was too expensive an excursion to be bothered. This explanation concerned me a bit because the motivation is external. It didn't seem to matter to this group that they could vote and be a part of deciding a prominent award.

Having said that, there were individuals that set personal reading goals and were motivated by more than just the trip. A Grade 5 girl (N) was ecstatic when she qualified. She told me that this was the first year that she was able to qualify for voting in a Silver Birch program after two years of previous attempts and that she was so excited that she met her goal, was able to go on the trip, and would participate in our school's Silver Birch Quiz Bowl team. (Unfortunately, she was unable to be on Quiz Bowl this year because her family was taking a trip and wouldn't be back in time to go.) A Grade 3 boy (J) told me that he surprised himself by actually completing more than just the minimum amount of books and he was so proud of his accomplishments that he'd stop me in the halls frequently to remind me that he had read 7, yes 7, books. A Grade 4 girl (J) made it her mission to help her classmates in Mrs. Matus' Grade 4-5 class qualify to vote. She helped her classmates by locating copies of books for them to read and booking chat appointments for them!

Researchers like longitudinal data, because it's possible to detect trends and patterns. In the interest of making this sort of data accessible, here are the numbers for my particular school since I've been there. That's twelve years of statistics at your fingertips!


2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
Blue Spruce

170 participants
163 voters
(96%)
151 participants
137 voters
(91%)
142 participants
138 voters
(97%)
126 participants
105 voters
(83%)
113 participants
110 voters
(97%)
94 participants
89 voters
(95%)
Silver Birch
Fiction
117 participants
53 voters
(45%)
Non-Fiction
117 participants
61 voters
(52%)
Fiction
108 participants
36 voters
(33%)
Non-Fiction
108 participants
63 voters
(58%)
Express
99 participants
48 voters
(48%)
Fiction
71 participants
28 voters
(39%)
Non-Fiction
71 participants
43 voters
(61%)
Express
89 participants
45 voters
(51%)
Fiction
84 participants
22 voters
(26%)
Non-Fiction
89 participants
49 voters
(55%)
Express
62 participants
31 voters
(50%)
Fiction
87 participants
22 voters
(25%)
Non-Fiction
87 participants
35 voters
(40%)
Express
36 participants
21 voters (58%)
Fiction
58 participants
11 voters
(18%)
Non-Fiction
57 participants
10 voters
(18%)
Express
90 participants
63 voters
(70%)
Fiction
51 participants
22 voters
(43%)
Non-Fiction
35 participants
22 voters
(63%)
Red Maple
Fiction
33 participants
8 voters
(24%)
Non-Fiction
33 participants
3 voters
(9%)
Fiction
32 participants
12 voters
(37.5%)
Non-Fiction
Not run this year
Fiction
37 participants
6 voters
(16%)
Non-Fiction
37 participants
6 voters
(16%)
Fiction
90 participants
14 voters
(15.5%)
Non-Fiction
Not run this year
Fiction
79 participants
24 voters
(30%)
Non-Fiction
79 participants
17 voters
(21.5%)
Fiction
77 participants
21 voters
(27%)
Non-Fiction
Not run this year
Fiction
19 participants
8 voters
(42%)
Non-Fiction
13 participants
9 voters
(69%)



2011-12
2012-13
2013-14
2014-15
2015-16
Blue Spruce
120 participants
117 voters
(97.5%) +
151 participants
151 voters
(100%) +
181 participants
167 voters
(92%) -
173 participants
161 voters
(93%) +
229 participants
209 voters
(91%) -
Silver Birch
Express
60 participants
23 voters
(38%) -
Fiction
60 participants
10 voters
(16%) -
Non-Fiction
60 participants
23 voters
(38%) -
Express
62 participants
52 voters
(84%) +
Fiction
42 participants
14 voters
(33%) +
Non-Fiction
40 participants
27 voters
(67%) +
Express
59 participants
56 voters
(95%) +
Fiction
38 participants
20 voters
(52%) +
Non-Fiction
44 participants
21 voters
(47%) -
Express
76 participants
64 voters
(84%) –
Fiction
14 participants
10 voters
(71%) +
Non-Fiction
20 participants
16 voters
(80%) +
Express
142 participants
69 voters
(49%) –
Fiction
68 participants
15 voters
(22%) –
Non-Fiction
51 participants
13 voters
(25%) -
Red Maple
Fiction
12 participants
8 voters
(66%) +
Non-Fiction
No category this year

Fiction
8 participants
7 voters
(87%) +
Non-Fiction
8 participants
3 voters
(37%) -
Fiction
43 participants
25 voters
(58%) -
Non-Fiction
No category this year
Fiction
20 participants
14 voters
(70%) +
Non-Fiction
20 participants
7 voters
(35%) -
Fiction
42 participants
19 voters
(45%) –
Non-Fiction
No category this year

The + or - signs are compared to the year before it. (So, for example, my Silver Birch Express qualification rate in 2015-16 at 49% was lower than the 2014-15 season that indicated 84% of participants voted.) The one piece of information that does make me happy about the 2015-16 season was the larger number of students that tried to complete the Express program. A lot of Grade 2s and 3s attempted to read and even though this had a huge impact on the number of qualifiers (49%, the second lowest voter turnout ever at my school), there's hope that more of them will have experience with the process and do better next year.  

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