Catalyst - Keeping pupils reading after S2
Catalyst is an initiative to encourage S3 and S4 pupils in North Lanarkshire to read more and retain their links with the school library, through lunchtime book groups, newsletters and an annual book award.
Background to the project
Katie McGivern, librarian at Abronhill High School, and Catalyst chairperson, says:
'After S1 and S2, we don't tend to see the pupils again until S5 when reading becomes part of the curriculum once more. By that time, they've lost the habit of choosing books and most don't have a clue where to start. I was having a moan about this to another librarian, Susan Brownlie, and she said we should start something up.'
An email was sent out to all North Lanarkshire schools library staff, inviting them to a meeting to discuss ways of tackling the problem and mooting the possibility of bringing out some kind of virtual newsletter highlighting new books.
'There's lots of really good teen fiction being produced these days for S3 and S4 pupils' Katie points out 'especially compared to what was available when I was growing up.'
From a total of 26 secondary schools, seven librarians turned up for that first meeting in December 2003. Those seven librarians, plus one public librarian and a member of the Council's education resources service, became the core of 'Catalyst', a group dedicated to getting S3 and S4 North Lanarkshire pupils to read more books.
Katie recalls that when they were discussing names for the initiative, one of the librarians picked up a book that had the word 'catalyst' printed on it and asked: 'what about that?' She says:
'We all agreed it was particularly appropriate for what we were hoping to achieve.'
At the first meeting it was decided that each of the librarians present would go back to their schools and, in co-operation with interested teachers, set up a once-a-week lunchtime book group exclusively for S3 and S4 pupils. A newsletter featuring short, snappy reviews of teen fiction (the reviews to be written by librarians, teachers and the targeted pupils) would be produced three times a year and e-mailed to all North Lanarkshire secondary schools. Hard copies of the newsletter, in the form of a teen magazine-style leaflet, would also be distributed to schools.
The Catalyst Book Award
Mary Costello from Coatbridge High School was one of the librarians present at Catalyst's founding meeting. She had already been mulling over the idea of setting up a book award in North Lanarkshire for teenage fiction. Mary explains:
'We've 'shadowed' literary awards here - such as the Blue Peter one - where pupils read books from the short leet and see if their choices win. So I knew from experience that awards are a good way to get teenagers to read.'
The rest of the Catalyst group agreed that an annual book award would not only be the ideal focus for North Lanarkshire's reading initiative but would also help give it a higher profile.
The first Catalyst Book Award was held in September 2004 when Catalyst itself was also officially launched. Everyone involved agreed it was a huge success. The Catalyst Book Award 2005, again held in September, was even better. Katie explains:
'We now have an established format. It's held at Airdrie Town Hall with an audience of 700 people including 20 S3 and S4 pupils from each of our 26 secondary schools. Two of the authors from our shortlist of four address the audience, we have a break, the remaining two authors speak and then we present the award to the winner.' (Authors are paid £100 each plus expenses.)
'There is a lunch with the authors which two pupils from each of the Catalyst book groups are invited to so they can get a chance to meet the authors and discuss their books.'
'we printed up A4 sheets with information about the shortlist authors that pupils could get them to autograph. We also had teen fiction books on sale and the town hall was stowed out with people buying them.'
2005 award - Theresa Breslin
The 2005 winner was Theresa Breslin for her book Divided City which has a Glasgow setting and deals with the friendship between two teenage boys, one a Rangers fan, the other a Celtic supporter. Although Theresa Breslin is already a well-known, award-winning author, she was, says Katie, 'genuinely surprised and delighted to have won - because Catalyst is decided by pupils and not adults.
'We draw up a shortlist of four books and pupils vote for them on the Young Scot website. They have to have read the books to be able to choose so, even though kids are mega competitive - which is why they like awards - we were amazed that more than one thousand pupils voted the last time.'
All books considered for the Catalyst Award are recently published titles because, Katie explains, 'their authors are often already on a promotional tour which means more publicity for us. Theresa Breslin, for instance, was being interviewed on the radio to talk about Divided City and was introduced as the Catalyst Award winner! And when she was in Border's for a book signing, she had the Catalyst trophy with her. So the Catalyst Award has become established in only two years which has surprised us.'
Catalyst book groups
How the Catalyst book groups are run is largely down to the pupils who take part in them. At Coatbridge High School, for instance, the half-dozen regulars who meet in the library at lunch time on Wednesdays read an agreed book every fortnight (the current list includes Jane Eyre and Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents) in their own time.
They use the Wednesday sessions to discuss the books when they've finished them and to promote the group and the Book Award. They recently attracted enterprise funding for an inter-school competition to produce designs for bookmarks that were sold at the 2005 Catalyst Award.
Thanks to the increasing popularity of the Catalyst newsletter, Katie McGivern and a number of her Catalyst colleagues have established Catalyst sections in their libraries where pupils can more easily put their hands on the books that have been reviewed.
She says: 'Kids like seeing their names in print so more of them are submitting book reviews for the newsletter. But reviewing isn't easy and we've brought out a 'help sheet' to guide them.'
PDF file: Catalyst review form - help guide (86.6 KB)
'We also want pupils in the book groups to have a bigger part in running the Book Award and, with a view to them introducing the authors next year, one of the librarians is organising some public speaking training.'
Catalyst, it seems, has been good for the pupils and the librarians. Katie explains:
'With only one librarian to every school, we usually work in isolation. Catalyst has given us the opportunity to work as a team and to learn new skills through management of a project. We have our different strengths and complement each other; some of us are mega organised, others have the big ideas.'
'The only pitfalls of this initiative have been the financial ones because we're basically doing this within the library budget. I think that the Book Award provides a natural focus and time frame to the book club but I can't see why a school wanting to introduce a Catalyst-style reading initiative couldn't run a book club for S3/4 pupils without actually having a book award.'