Literary Honor Cords

Image created in Canva for use on our Instagram!

One of the topics I am asked about the most is our Literary Honor Cord program. After moving to the high school from the middle school level, I was looking for a way to both recognize and encourage student readers.  High School years are so busy!  Sports practices, band rehearsals, Key Club service projects---and many of our kids have jobs outside of school---and then, of course, there's the homework. It is just a super busy time.  I was busy back in the 80's when I was in high school, too---and I remember my pleasure reading suffered for it.  I wasn't even battling the ease of slipping into a Netflix binge or spending hours scrolling through social media, and it was more difficult to make the time for reading.

So, while I realize that reading is its own reward, I want to be real in my acknowledgement that it can be difficult for our teens (and adults) to be intentional about creating that "white space"in their day to read.  If we can get them to do it---they, like countless generations before them, can get hooked on a great story and want more.

And so, I began to ponder what would get my kids excited about becoming INTENTIONAL readers.  Before moving up to the high school I honestly had zero idea how important earning honor cords were to our kids.  I graduated in a time where they weren't a thing. I quickly learned that kids are motivated by the cords.

They love all the colors!  (ours are emerald, silver, and royal blue---a combo of Slytherin and Ravenclaw colors, as it requires characteristics of both to achieve it.  Also, I'm #slyther4lyfe, so ther's that.)
They are SO excited to tell you what each and every cord they earned means.
They work HARD so that they can walk that stage with as many cords as possible.
Literary Honor Cords became the goal.

I worked to develop something doable and reasonable while still being a stretch for most of my students. I want this to be something that is meaningful, and honors reading choice as well as counting the assigned reading they must do.

Since we rolled it out spring of 2018, I required the first group of seniors to complete:
*reading 10 books
*one approved project based upon 1 or more of the books
* one book conversation with me about all the books.

Each class after the first one adds those requirements per year.
So, last year's Juniors had to complete double those, last year's Sophomores triple, etc. until we are all required to do 40 in their high school career.


The Books:

• Summer reading counts.  Books from home count. Books from the public library or Barnes and Noble or from wherever count. 
• There is no set page count.  The Great Gatsby is small but mighty, and the number of books required is still low enough to allow kids to fit a War and Peace or an It in there if they choose to without "punishing" them for wanting to read a longer novel. 
• Non-fiction counts if it's novel-ish sized.
• Graphic novels count, but they can't ALL be graphic novels
• Picture books are great for all ages, but also don't count toward the cord requirements.

We've partnered with our amazing local public library to use their online system for tracking books. The hope is that is reminds our kids of the public libraries offerings, too! The brilliant librarians at our public library have created a section of their system just for our kids to track the reading for their honor cord.  For kids who prefer to keep a paper list, that works, too.  They just turn in a copy of every 10 books and I add it to their official folder. For the online trackers, I print their list out and put it in the folder.

The Projects:

This is fairly wide open.  I give suggestions, but love it when they come up with something creative.  I've seen everything from mobiles to paintings to super creative  book displays, to writing great book reviews.  We've had kids make book trailers and give book talks to their ELAR classes, too.

The Conversation:

It isn't a quiz show, and it isn't a faux AR test. We just sit down and talk about the books they've read.  The idea isn't to grill them, it's to have a pleasant conversation about amazing reads. You know, like adult readers love to do when you've read something fantastic.  Life skills.

Much of this is honor system, and I'm totally cool with that.  Much of life is on the honor system.

This year, 3 of our Top 10 graduates walked with their Literary Honor cord.
One of my awesome students who happens to be a teen single mom beating every stereotype walked with her Literary Honor cord.
Anime Club kids earned it.
Sporty kids earned it.
Drill team kids earned it.
Kids who are don't necessarily love school, but love to read earned it.
I had kids tell me it was the most meaningful-to-them cord they earned.  Not gonna lie, this made me get a bit weepy.

Like everything we try to promote in the library, this cord is not elitist.  Nothing would make me happier than having every single kid who walks that stage wearing one---because reading matters, and because they KNOW it is awesome. Truly, kids from every walk of life earned this cord and it is beautiful.

Here are some things that I hope are helpful for you if you'd like to get started with Literary Honor Cords at your school.  I'd love to hear from you and am happy to answer any questions you may have.

1. Be sure to begin by writing a proposal to your principal or other powers-that-be to get permission to give a cord. I wrote an official proposal, and had multiple meetings with English teacher folk and admin to get the requirements settled and approved.
2. Be sure to check with whomever keeps up with cord colors, etc. for your campus, too.
3. I order my awesome cords from Trim and Tassels and they are super great to deal with. Order your cords early to get the best prices.
4. Publicize your cords.  I post on Facebook, Instagram Twitter, have physical signs around the library and the school, and even created bookmarks to advertise them. I use Canva for virtually everything.
5. I keep a folder for each student working on their cord, and I color code the tabs of them by graduation year, in addition to having their name listed. Yes, you can keep a digital file, but we still lose Internet too often for me to feel comfortable with not having a paper back up.
6.  Here is my Requirement Sheet.  I will be tweaking it for the upcoming year as our public library has moved to a new system.
7. Here is the form I keep in each folder.
8. A color-your-own bookmark created in Canva.  Front  Back

Feel free to make copies and tweak anything for your own use. :)

Happy Reading!
Sonja