Making the Shift to Summer Learning: Are We Reaching Everyone?

Authors

  • Elizabeth McChesney

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5860/cal.17.4.3

Abstract

Flashback to August 2012: the Children’s Services team at the Chicago Public Library (CPL) was running a successful summer reading program that was humming along across the Windy City. After years of a structure in which children read and reported on either twenty-five picture books or ten chapter books depending on their age and reading level, my team and I decided to conduct some focus groups of children and parents to find out if our program was still meeting needs. Frankly, I assumed we were.

Author Biography

Elizabeth McChesney

Elizabeth McChesney has served as the Director of Children’s Services and Family Engagement for Chicago Public Library System’s eighty-one locations since 2012. She has been a children’s librarian for thirty-two years and has won numerous awards including the 2014 Library Journal Movers and Shakers Award for leading the work in re-envisioning summer. She is currently Chair of the ALSC Out of School Time Summer Reading/Learning Task Force. She cowrote Summer Matters: Making all Learning Count (ALA Editions, 2017), and a follow-up, Summer Matters Greatest Hits (ALA Editions, 2020) is due out in the spring. She is now consulting through LMcC Consulting and can be reached at Lizmcchesney6712@gmail.com.

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Published

2019-12-02

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 4 (2019): Winter

Section

Features

License

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