Teaching and Learning student Rosie Garza wants to change the world through reading. When Garza was developing her Action Research Plan, she knew she wanted to encourage reading in the classroom and at home. Knowing that implementing a lifestyle change is a big undertaking, Garza formulated a three step plan.

In order to get her students to read more frequently, she worked with her cooperating teacher to include 15 minutes of reading time in class every other day. But just reading in class wasn’t going to be enough to institute permanent change. Garza created a reward system where students could earn a ticket each time they talked about the books they had read, and they could then turn in those tickets for treats or more books.

All of this built into her Community Outreach Project. “I felt there was no better way to talk about a book than with its author,” says Garza. “Which is how I was inspired to create a field trip for my students to Tweens Read on October 22.” With the help of her cooperating teacher and the staff of Memorial Middle School Library and administration, Garza was able to take her students to the festival so they could see their favorite authors on panels, meet those authors at book signings, and learn about new authors and their books.

Garza is already seeing results from her project. At the beginning of the year, she polled her students and 30% of the students said they did not like reading at all. A week ago she polled her students again and that number is down to 4%.

After graduation, Garza plans to teach either middle or high school students in Houston, with the intention of one day becoming a reading intervention teacher and to become more involved with local reading and author events.

To stay up to date with Garza’s Community Outreach Project, go to elainspire.weebly.com.