Decade of Data for the Forest of Reading

I have participated in the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading program for a very long time. When schools are officially registered to vote in the program, there's a form that must be completed compiling information such as the number of readers that initially joined, the number of readers that qualified to vote (by reading at least 5 of the 10 nominated titles in a particular category), and the number of votes that each nominated title received. I save and collect these numbers and I publish them in the annual report that I create for my administrator at the end of the year. I find these figures quite fascinating and this year, I had an "off-camera" discussion with my friend and fellow teacher-librarian Jessica Longthorne about our school's results for 2015-16.

@LongthorneJess @ForestofReading @allistonunion @SCDSB_Schools It was voting day for us at @AgnesMacphailPS too! Secretly compare results?

— Diana Maliszewski (@MzMollyTL) April 29, 2016

As I ran around crazily that week before the voting deadline, quickly conducting last-minute chats so individuals could qualify, I was intrigued (and a little disappointed) to hear reasons why students did and did not exert effort to collect the required five signatures in their passports. The Grade 3 students in Ms. Daley's class gave a concentrated final push in the last two weeks of April because they learned that classroom teachers do not attend the Festival of Trees trip unless at least 50% of their class will be attending. (This is a fairness issue, as we do not order supply teachers to cover absences and if a teacher attends the Festival, his/her students that did not qualify are dispersed to other classrooms for the day.) Many older students told me that they had already been to the Festival of Trees last year, so they didn't care about going on the trip to Harbourfront or they felt it was too expensive an excursion to be bothered. This explanation concerned me a bit because the motivation is external. It didn't seem to matter to this group that they could vote and be a part of deciding a prominent award.

Having said that, there were individuals that set personal reading goals and were motivated by more than just the trip. A Grade 5 girl (N) was ecstatic when she qualified. She told me that this was the first year that she was able to qualify for voting in a Silver Birch program after two years of previous attempts and that she was so excited that she met her goal, was able to go on the trip, and would participate in our school's Silver Birch Quiz Bowl team. (Unfortunately, she was unable to be on Quiz Bowl this year because her family was taking a trip and wouldn't be back in time to go.) A Grade 3 boy (J) told me that he surprised himself by actually completing more than just the minimum amount of books and he was so proud of his accomplishments that he'd stop me in the halls frequently to remind me that he had read 7, yes 7, books. A Grade 4 girl (J) made it her mission to help her classmates in Mrs. Matus' Grade 4-5 class qualify to vote. She helped her classmates by locating copies of books for them to read and booking chat appointments for them!

Researchers like longitudinal data, because it's possible to detect trends and patterns. In the interest of making this sort of data accessible, here are the numbers for my particular school since I've been there. That's twelve years of statistics at your fingertips!

	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Blue Spruce		170 participants 163 voters (96%)	151 participants 137 voters (91%)	142 participants 138 voters (97%)	126 participants 105 voters (83%)	113 participants 110 voters (97%)	94 participants 89 voters (95%)
Silver Birch	Fiction 117 participants 53 voters (45%) Non-Fiction 117 participants 61 voters (52%)	Fiction 108 participants 36 voters (33%) Non-Fiction 108 participants 63 voters (58%)	Express 99 participants 48 voters (48%) Fiction 71 participants 28 voters (39%) Non-Fiction 71 participants 43 voters (61%)	Express 89 participants 45 voters (51%) Fiction 84 participants 22 voters (26%) Non-Fiction 89 participants 49 voters (55%)	Express 62 participants 31 voters (50%) Fiction 87 participants 22 voters (25%) Non-Fiction 87 participants 35 voters (40%)	Express 36 participants 21 voters (58%) Fiction 58 participants 11 voters (18%) Non-Fiction 57 participants 10 voters (18%)	Express 90 participants 63 voters (70%) Fiction 51 participants 22 voters (43%) Non-Fiction 35 participants 22 voters (63%)
Red Maple	Fiction 33 participants 8 voters (24%) Non-Fiction 33 participants 3 voters (9%)	Fiction 32 participants 12 voters (37.5%) Non-Fiction Not run this year	Fiction 37 participants 6 voters (16%) Non-Fiction 37 participants 6 voters (16%)	Fiction 90 participants 14 voters (15.5%) Non-Fiction Not run this year	Fiction 79 participants 24 voters (30%) Non-Fiction 79 participants 17 voters (21.5%)	Fiction 77 participants 21 voters (27%) Non-Fiction Not run this year	Fiction 19 participants 8 voters (42%) Non-Fiction 13 participants 9 voters (69%)

	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
Blue Spruce	120 participants 117 voters (97.5%) +	151 participants 151 voters (100%) +	181 participants 167 voters (92%) -	173 participants 161 voters (93%) +	229 participants 209 voters (91%) -
Silver Birch	Express 60 participants 23 voters (38%) - Fiction 60 participants 10 voters (16%) - Non-Fiction 60 participants 23 voters (38%) -	Express 62 participants 52 voters (84%) + Fiction 42 participants 14 voters (33%) + Non-Fiction 40 participants 27 voters (67%) +	Express 59 participants 56 voters (95%) + Fiction 38 participants 20 voters (52%) + Non-Fiction 44 participants 21 voters (47%) -	Express 76 participants 64 voters (84%) – Fiction 14 participants 10 voters (71%) + Non-Fiction 20 participants 16 voters (80%) +	Express 142 participants 69 voters (49%) – Fiction 68 participants 15 voters (22%) – Non-Fiction 51 participants 13 voters (25%) -
Red Maple	Fiction 12 participants 8 voters (66%) + Non-Fiction No category this year	Fiction 8 participants 7 voters (87%) + Non-Fiction 8 participants 3 voters (37%) -	Fiction 43 participants 25 voters (58%) - Non-Fiction No category this year	Fiction 20 participants 14 voters (70%) + Non-Fiction 20 participants 7 voters (35%) -	Fiction 42 participants 19 voters (45%) – Non-Fiction No category this year

The + or - signs are compared to the year before it. (So, for example, my Silver Birch Express qualification rate in 2015-16 at 49% was lower than the 2014-15 season that indicated 84% of participants voted.) The one piece of information that does make me happy about the 2015-16 season was the larger number of students that tried to complete the Express program. A lot of Grade 2s and 3s attempted to read and even though this had a huge impact on the number of qualifiers (49%, the second lowest voter turnout ever at my school), there's hope that more of them will have experience with the process and do better next year.