One Book Blitz designed to create big, vivid memories

One Book Blitz designed to create big, vivid memories

Maryville Daily Times

By: Amy Beth Miller

1/30/23

 

This morning,, Jan. 30, students across the county will walk into schools transformed by decorations, some months in the making. At an assembly or other event they’ll be introduced to a book thousands of families will read together over the next month.

The children will take home a copy of the book to keep, and they’ll have the type of experience that creates “a great big, vivid memory,” in a student’s life, said Amy Vagnier, assistant director of Maryville City Schools.

The One Book Blitz began in 2017, and this year more than 8,500 children from kindergarten through fifth grade in Blount County Schools, Alcoa City Schools and MCS, as well as homeschoolers, are expected to participate.

Because the title is a surprise to students, The Daily Times does not reveal it before schools hold their launch events. As in previous years, the “reveal video’ includes comedians Bean and Bailey singing their One Book Blitz song, and this time athletes and entertainers encourage students to read and take to heart the character lessons from the story.

The packet students receive today includes a letter to parents encouraging them to read with their children for 15 minutes a day, with a calendar to keep them on track and suggested activities. There’s a bookmark with reading tips, a highlighter from Newell Brands and a gift card from Chik-fil-A.

Families will be able to order T-shirts, participate in a scavenger hunt at businesses and attend a performance by drama students at Maryville High School if they wish, in addition to activities customized by individual schools and grades.

Often teachers will connect lessons in subjects including math, science, art, music — even gym class — to the book everyone is reading. “It’s very personalized school by school and grade level by grade level,” Vagnier noted.

Families join in

Erin Chamberlain, a mother of three Alcoa students, began working on One Book Blitz decorations at home in early December. On Friday afternoon, Jan. 27, she was at Alcoa Elementary School to help decorate with her son Mason, now in third grade and a student at the intermediate school. His siblings are in first grade and kindergarten.

“We get to read this book as a family,” Erin said. “We just snuggle up on the couch,” and as educators recommend, they’ll have conversations such as guessing what might happen next.

She appreciates the shared experience and that the entire community is reinforcing the value of reading, not just a mom telling her sons they should read.

“It brings the community in all the way around,” said Erin, who remembers as an Alcoa student the Pizza Hut Book It! program, which rewards students for reading with a pizza.

Alcoa High School teacher Roman Lay and nine National Honor Society students also were on hand Friday to help decorate the elementary library, one of many ways they perform community service. The high school students will be back on the closing day of the One Book Blitz with games and other activities.

“It gives our kids a chance to interact one-on-one with the elementary kids,” Lay said.

The One Book Blitz is the type of activity that made him want to be a teacher specifically in the Alcoa district, from which he graduated, Lay said. Standing in the AES library, he recalled as a student discovering Harry Potter during a book fair in that space.

Lay, who teaches English, said he and his wife have been reading to their son Atticus, now in preschool, “since the day he was born.”

Choosing books

AES library interventionist Mia Evans noted that because the stories already are familiar to many adults through the books or movie versions, “It brings the nostalgia in for the parents.”

During the One Book Blitz the schools also offers videos of people reading each chapter, for families that may not have time to read together, “to make sure we’re not leaving anybody behind,” Evans said.

A steering committee with representatives from each of the three public school districts chooses the titles, which have tended to be classic books to connect generations. Originally, Vagnier said, they intended to have a list of six books that they could rotate through the years and not repeat during a child’s elementary grades.

While so far students in kindergarten through fifth grade have read the same book, Vagnier said in the future they may consider splitting the selection, with a different title for the youngest students.

The budget is about $4-$5 per book, according to Vagnier. Businesses as well as the districts’ foundations chip in to cover the costs of the books and other items.

The steering committee, which includes Elaine Hurst from BCS and Michelle Knight from ACS, aims to make the selection before summer break, to allow plenty of time for teachers to develop ideas around the book, which families can enjoy together on winter weekends. Committee members also do much of the leg work, from picking up supplies for the packets to distributing items to the scavenger hunt sites.

Vagnier said it’s not only the students who look forward to the One Book Blitz, but the businesses supporters too. “What a gift to the community,” she said.