Kidderminster College launches Six Book Challenge
Kidderminster College has just launched its Six Book Challenge in conjunction with the public library next door. Learning Resource Coordinator Jackie O'Brien has tied it into National Libraries Day and will be promoting reading throughout February. "Each week I am visiting the classes and encouraging the students to swap books, borrow new ones and review them in their little diaries," she says. "It is going down well here in College and the public library are happy as they are reaching a group of users that are normally difficult to reach."
The Six Book Challenge invites less confident readers to read six books and record their reading in a diary in order to receive incentives, a certificate and the chance to enter a national prize draw. Participating organisations such as colleges, prisons and workplaces also have the chance to enter prize draws to win a visit by a top author.
The Reading Agency launched the Six Book Challenge in 2008. Since then an estimated 39,500 people have registered for the scheme and 17,000 have completed it. The idea is to help people get into reading - in many cases for the first time - and it works!
Most participants read books to take part in the Six Book Challenge but the scheme can be used to introduce people to text in lots of different formats such as magazines, newspapers, websites and even digital games.
