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Welcome to Participating Schools

Our guiding policies are:

  1. Include teachers, librarians, staff, students and other community in making decisions.
  2. Reduce the burden on school staff.
  3. Provide on-site visits if possible.
  4. Translate all material into Native languages when possible.
  5. Incorporate technology to aid in communication.
  6. Be attentive to cultural differences.
  7. Solicit donations of materials and supplies.
  8. Vary reading activities in order to sustain student interest.
  9. Reward supportive teachers and parents.
  10. Document impact of the project, without compromising confidentiality.
  11. Partner with other libraries, on and off the reservation.
Responsibilities of participating schools:
  1. Provide Project Team with the address for your school, the name(s) of a contact person and that person's contact information.
  2. Provide baseline statistics on your school, including grade levels served, number of children served, number of teachers and number of families served.
  3. Process donated materials so that they can circulate as soon as possible.
  4. Circulate books donated through "If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything" to library patrons.
  5. Maintain circulation statistics for donated books.
  6. Help promote the project on site.
  7. Maintain communication with the Project Team.
  8. Share your experiences and ideas!
Note:
  1. "If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything" supports the Library Bill of Rights and other intellectual freedom documents.
  2. While we are interested in supporting the needs of teachers in schools serving Native American children, "If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything" aims to provide children with interesting material to read through the school media center. We do not have the resources to donate books directly to the children or to teachers to support classroom collections.
Duration and Schedule:
The program is modeled on successful public library summer reading programs. It is designed to run during a school calendar year, beginning shortly after labor day and closing during the first week of May. In order to sustain interest in the program and vary activities, the program is divided into four themes, with each cycle lasting approximately the length of a grading period. Librarian advisors suggested the following four broad themes: (1) Animals and Rodeo, (2) Native Americans, (3) Sports, and (4) Thrills and Chills (Science, Science Fiction and Horror).Activities associated with each thematic cycle:
You may want to celebrate each theme with a special event day. At the minimum, you'll want to organize two events: a Kick-Off and a Closing Event.
Kick-Off! Start of Theme 1: Animals and Rodeo
Items and Activities for Students: Begin your Literacy Project with a Kick-Off day. Students may receive a membership card and a reading log on which to record time spent reading (or being read to) and/or titles read. Students may also receive a small incentive such as plastic book bags, stickers, posters and book marks. During the Kick-Off day members of the Project Team may be able to travel to the site to visit classrooms, explain the project, read with students and provide book talks.
Items and Activities for Adult Caregivers and Teachers: Adults will recieve a letter describing the program. They may recieve a reading log or contract for reading.
Themes 2, 3 and 4
These themes will follow a similar cycle of providing new logs, an incentive and a special event.
Closing Ceremony
Closing incentives will be distributed, to include certificates for students who submitted reading logs, certificates for older siblings who have read to younger ones and certificates for supportive teachers and parents. Budget
The If I Can Read project team will strive to support your project through advice and maintaining the website. We will help to funnel donations of books to your site. We ask that you cover the cost of mailing donations to your school. You will want to seek additional financial support for the incentives and necessary supplies.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs may be able to match some of your funding. Contact William Mehojah, Director, BIA, Office of Indian Education Programs and request funding from the Director's Contingency Fund.Estimating Your Budget*
Printing:
  1. Membership cards: (10 cards/sheet; $0.05 per sheet)
  2. Closing certificates for students (1/sheet; $0.05 per sheet)
  3. Closing Color Certificates for Special Recognition (1/sheet; $0.05 per sheet)
  4. Reading Logs for students (1/sheet; $0.05 per sheet)
  5. Other: letters for parents, etc. (1/sheet; $0.05 per sheet)
Other General Costs:
  1. Postage
  2. Phone
  3. Supplies
Thematic Cycles: Promotional Material and Incentives:
  1. Thematic Cycle 1: Kick-Off! Rodeo and Animals:
    Book Bags (1 per student; $0.40 each)
    Any other incentives: book marks, posters, postcards (1 per student; $0.50 each)
  2. Thematic Cycle 2: Native Americans
    Incentives (1 per students; $0.50 each)
  3. Thematic Cycle 3: Sports
    Incentives (1 per students; $0.50 each)
  4. Thematic Cycle 4: Chills and Thrills
    Incentives (1 per students; $0.50 each)
*Exclusive of costs for books. If possible, budget some funds to purchase books requested by students at the school.

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Please send questions and comments about this site to ifican@ischool.utexas.edu