Dacula Parents,

Research shows that the number one factor that impacts performance in school is reading ability. Increased literacy dramatically impacts vocabulary which improves the ability to think and to communicate. Therefore, Dacula Cluster Schools are working hard to improve the reading abilities and habits of our students.

At the high school level, improving reading abilities and vocabulary is more effective in the context of reading for classes or for pleasure than taught in isolation. So, we really want to get the students reading as much as possible. To do so, we have been doing an initiative called Book Love where students read for the first 10 minutes of every language arts class each day. The Penny Kittle Book Love program is based on the concept that choice + frequency = complexity. Of course, the real goal is to get them hooked on the book where they will read it outside of school as well and maybe pick up the next book in the series or another book by an author they love. Becoming pleasure readers will dramatically impact their vocabulary and success in school.  However, this does not work if the student is having to borrow a book from the teacher and can't take the book home. Also, finding books that teenagers will want to read can be a challenge.  

So in addition to our media center, we have started a Book Love Library where we can take high interest donated books and get them into the hands of students. The family of one of our former teachers, Kristin Croteau generously donated over 1500 books to start this library, and Alex Kesler one of our amazing teachers has worked hard organizing and cataloging the books. We are excited that we will soon be able to check books out of the Book Love Library.  

We need two things from you as a parent:  

1.  These books are on a wide variety of topics by a wide variety of authors. They are donated books that parents and community members thought teens would enjoy reading. However, parents vary in terms of what they would like their child to read. For example, some parents are comfortable with their child reading Stephen King or Stuart Woods and others are not.  So, we encourage you to talk with your student about your expectations for the books they choose. We hope to be able to allow all students to choose books from our media center, the Book Love Library, or even the public library across from the school, but in using any of these resources, we want to respect parental authority and expectations.

If you do not want your child to check books out of the Book Love Library, please email their language arts teacher, and they will remove their ability to check out books from this resource.  

2.  If you would like to donate books to the Book Love Library, we would love to have them. The more books we can get in the hands of kids, the better. You or your student can drop off donations to the front office of the school. Inside the cover of all donated books, we put a label with the name of who donated them so please make sure to include this information if you send or bring books.  This would also be a great way to leave a legacy to future Dacula students.

As always, thank you for your partnership with Dacula High School.

Dacula High School Administration