LET ALA GRAPHICS BOOST YOUR READING 

by Eden Kuhlenschmidt

          River Valley Middle School   

Greater Clark County

School Board President,

Robbie Valentine         

                                            

     Are you looking for a way to boost reading in your building? Could you use some new, exciting, professional level graphics that can incorporate locally produced photographs using people your students and patrons can readily identify?  If the answer is yes, then the two disks produced by the American Library Association (ALA) may be just for you. 

   ALA’s colorful graphics include forty-three background images and twenty-four READ tiles.  In addition to the READ poster backgrounds, there are twelve bookmarks that match up with twelve of the poster backgrounds. When added up and compared to other graphic disks, it doesn’t seem as if the consumer is receiving a lot, until the file size is checked.  All of the backgrounds are designed to be printed as high resolution, crisp, clear graphics on 11” x 17” paper. All of the graphics may be resized. Depending on the printer, paper quality, and skill of the user, they may still be printed at a higher quality than is attainable with most graphics programs used in schools.

     ALA advertises the set as “A READ poster in three easy steps.”  As much as I have enjoyed the set, I must say that using it is not as easy as one, two, three.  The READ CD-rom set is not all-inclusive.  Another photo graphics program, such as Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, is required.  For those who are more comfortable with Print Shop type programs, these PS/PSE must be mastered before much use can be made of the ALA disks.  However, ALA does provide a good video tutorial download that can help narrow the learning curve needed to create the professional looking graphics.

     These twelve matched posters and bookmarks reflect various reading themes.  One of the teachers and his son posed for a poster with a cartoon theme.  A student who wants to be a teacher loved the chalkboard/classroom background used for her pose.  The sets include quilting, science fiction, a western wanted poster, techno science, and a newspaper background. One small disappointment was the fact that the graphics lacked the backgrounds used in the Celebrity Read Posters.  One of my students was looking forward to being in the spider web background of Michael J. Fox’s poster. Fortunately, he did settle happily for the fantasy dragon design set.

      To ensure greater success with the graphics, remember to read the CD tip sheets before starting. They include a list of wonderful ideas to promote reading enthusiasm in your setting.