When Herriman High School’s English teachers planned a reading initiative to encourage students to always have a book with them during the school day, they knew they’d be competing with cellphones.

“Over the last few years we have noticed a steep decrease in students reading recreationally and in their free time in class,” English Department Head Alexis Shurtleff said. “Phones have increasingly become the default for entertainment and ‘filler time.’”

However, when Jordan District implemented a cellphone policy in late October prohibiting cellphones in class, the reading initiative began to get traction.

“We’re already seeing more students reading in their free time,” Shurtleff said in November. “We’re really hoping this promotes higher literacy rates at our school, and more importantly, sparks more of a love for reading school-wide.”

FACS teacher Jana Pendleton said her students’ behavior has changed.

“You see the students reading books so much more often, like if you have any extra time at the end of a class,” she said. “Just the other day a student pulls out her novel and starts reading, and it was pretty great.”

School librarian Xela Culletto has been promoting reading with a variety of incentives and activities for years and has been an enthusiastic supporter of this year’s reading initiative.

“It’s been great for our circulation, obviously, since the kids are going to be checking them out even more,” Culletto said. But Culletto also provides an opportunity for students to get books they can keep. Last year, she installed a book vending machine in the main hallway which she keeps stocked with popular books. She provides tokens to purchase the books to every teacher in the school and leaves it up to them to decide what their students must do to earn them.

English teacher Erin Day gives tokens to students who read four books in one quarter. She has also awarded a token to a student for advancing in the Reflections contest and for successfully completing a behavior plan.

Day likes having the option to give meaningful rewards to students.

“This is just so much more authentic, and something that I want to give students way more than more sugar and candy they don’t need and isn’t as fun as using a cool book vending machine,” Day said.

English teacher Justin Olson uses book tokens as incentives for class competitions or as morale boosters.

“The book tokens definitely motivate students when used as a reward or incentive, and the students love picking out a book from the machine,” he said. “Xela does a good job of constantly rotating the books out for new ones, with a variety of genres and nonfiction, too, so it keeps students interested.” 

Among the books in the vending machine are books written by Olson and by Pendleton, who are both authors, for which they are both appreciative of.

 “She’s not only supportive of the English department, but she is also very supportive of writers,” Olson said. “She hosts a flash fiction writing contest for our students, and is always bringing in writers, such as Neal Schusterman and Jennifer Neilson, to talk with students.”

In addition to scheduling author visits, Culletto promotes reading with creative displays and engaging library activities. She displays a collection of books in the library according to a monthly theme, such as horror, mustaches or weightlifting. In February, she will sponsor a ‘blind date with a book’ activity, matching students with a book according to the results of a personality quiz. The library hosts Breakfast with Books one morning each quarter and book club discussions one day a week.

Some of Culletto’s recent activities include a weekend writing contest, a Kahoot about the new Brandon Sanderson book and a bookmark craft.

Pendleton said Culletto’s creative activities are effective at drawing students away from their phones.

“She’s gotten these kids really interested in being in the library and being around the books,” she said. “She’s got games and puzzles, art projects going that they all just work on, and so they’re doing things besides sitting on their phone. That’s probably the biggest thing, is trying to keep them off of their technology. Instead of just being all alone, just sitting there scrolling, they’re more social—way more social.”

Pendleton said that when kids are off their phones, the library is louder because they are socializing. Culletto and her four library assistants are not the type to shush but to encourage students to have fun. Animals are also allowed in the library. Each quarter, students are invited to read to a therapy dog from the Reading Education Assistance Dogs program.

“Students come down to the library and they read aloud to the dog,” Culletto said. “There’s a whole bunch of research that ties into reading aloud to a dog, how that helps the students feel more comfortable reading aloud.”

She said it’s especially helpful for students who are learning English.

“It helps them feel more comfortable reading out loud because it’s definitely a struggle to read in another language, but they love to come down and read with the dog.”

Culletto invites students to contribute to the look and feel of the library. One year she asked art students to design signs to identify the genres of books found in each section of the library. Another year, students created book review videos of their favorite books which she played on a loop on the library’s TV screens.  

“I’m going to do a new contest this year where students have to use AI to create a scene from their favorite book, and then we’re going to have people vote on which image is best, so I’m excited for that one,” she said.

Culletto’s creativity has greatly contributed to the success of the English department’s reading initiative, Day said.

“Xela is the world’s greatest librarian and does so much to promote and increase literacy here at Herriman High,” Day said. λ