It’s always more fun to share a good book with your friends.
That’s one of the main ideas behind the One School, One Book program at St. Mary’s School in Okotoks.
For the second year, the school wrapped up the literacy project on Jan. 25 after two weeks of reading, discussion, trivia and community service.
“The kids are always quite excited about it,” said St. Mary’s School principal Brandon Bailey. “It builds that community within the school too, because you have kids that are in Grade 1 sharing in the same reading experience as someone in Grade 6.”
One School, One Book launched with a school-wide assembly to announce the title of the book and build enthusiasm among students.
This year students from Grades 1 to 6 read John Reynolds Gardiner’s acclaimed 1980 novel, Stone Fox.
The novel tells the story of 10-year-old Willy who, in an effort to help his grandfather, enters himself in a dogsled race with his faithful dog, Searchlight, against world-renowned dogsled racers like the legendary Stone Fox.
Students from all grade levels met in small clusters of 15 to 20 children with Grade 5 and 6 students taking a leadership role to discuss the themes of the book.
“We meet in those vertical groups to talk about what we read, how we feel about what we read, so it kind of brings the school together than way,” said Bailey.
Older children in each family group have the opportunity to connect with younger students and learn leadership skills as they work with them, he said.
“It’s also neat to see them thinking about things a little differently, from an empathetic point of view,” said Bailey. “The older kids were saying, ‘I feel really badly how the Grade 1s are going to respond to this book because of the ending.’”
Tragedy strikes at the end of the book, he said, which instigated discussion among students.
“And that happens in good literature, we’re always challenged emotionally,” said Bailey. “But it’s great to see those older kids taking ownership of having to talk about it in a certain way with the young kids to help them handle it.”
Teachers and parents knew, entering into the program, that Stone Fox had a sad ending and were prepared to have those conversations with students, he said.
Bailey said one of the goals of the literacy project is to get the students talking about what they read and have families and children engaged in the book on an emotional level.
“That what we want to do with the kids, is evoke those feelings with them and have those authentic conversations,” he said. “We want them to share about their experiences with reading.”
He said the book provided teachers and parents a platform to discuss how difficult life situations can be handled.
It also allowed the literacy program to extend into the religious teachings of the school, he said.
“We’re able to use the faith piece to say, ‘This is a tough time and we all deal with these things, but let’s talk to God about that, let’s say a prayer,’” said Bailey.
Part of the engagement within the school included a “general store,” which was set up near the front office to collect food donations.
Last year, the general store was a lemonade stand to fit the theme of the school-wide book, The Lemonade Wars. Students were able to purchase lemonade there throughout the program, he said.
“Knowing the current economic situation in the town, we thought rather than sell things we’d fill the store,” said Bailey. “So we started with just an empty store, bare bones, and it was the kids’ job to fill the store.”
Donations of display items like old tins, skates, photos and a sled from the Okotoks Museum and Archives added to the old-fashioned feel, he said.
Students brought food to the front office and stacked it on shelves that made up the store, and the food was weighed by Grade 4 students after two weeks, he said.
“I think they felt a part of it, because they were actually able to build the store up and add items to it,” said Bailey. “We collected over 800 pounds of food that went to the Okotoks Food Bank by the end.”
Though the One School, One Book program ended on Jan. 25, the story continued for another week.
Bailey said students were invited to create an extended ending to the novel in a school-wide writing contest.
“The idea of it is Stone Fox has that sad ending, and it just kind of ends there,” said Bailey. “So many of the conversations we were having were that it would be nice to have a bit of an extension to that, like what happens, how does the family grow after that, because life goes on.
“So what happens there?”
One student submission will be recognized from each grade level and all students who write an extended ending will have their version displayed in the school library, he said, where students can read their peers’ work.
Bailey said most of the ideas involve creating lasting memories and making life continue, which is indicative of successful conversations about the book’s themes.
He called the program a success and said if they can find the right book, the school will do the One School, One Book project for a third time.
“There’s always different challenges with picking books, from the reading level that has to be appropriate for all grades to some of the different themes that come up,” said Bailey. “There’s a lot of positives that go along with it, but I think the ultimate idea is that at St. Mary’s we’re a literacy school, a reading school, so for us it’s that time we can say, ‘This is how we can all connect and do this together.’”
