Episode 45: Summer Reading with Mark Baker

June 27th, 2024 /
Shauna Sprunger /

Sup with the Sup

00:00 / 17:21

Welcome everyone to the next episode of Provo City School District’s What’s Up With The Sup’ podcast. I am Superintendent Wendy Dau. I am excited for our podcast this week, but first let’s go over our updates.

June 3rd through July 18th, our district provides free summer meals. Children ages 1 through 18 that live in Provo can receive a free breakfast and free lunch. Visit Franklin, Provo Peaks, Spring Creek, Sunset View, Timpanogos Elementary Schools, or Independence or Provo High Schools, whichever school you live closest to, Monday through Thursday for a free meal. Visit our website for times and details.
If you are interested in hearing updates regarding the construction projects happening throughout the district, please visit the district website and click on the new construction newsletter sign up link.
Watch for the summer newsletter coming to your home in Provo the first part of July. For complete updates during the summer, visit us on our website or on social media.

Wendy Dau: I am here today with Mark Baker, our district library media specialist, to talk about resources to help get our students reading during the summer and to help prevent the summer slide. The summer slide is a term used to describe the decline in reading and other academic skills that can occur when school is not in session.

Research shows that children who do not read over the summer may score lower on standardized tests at the end of vacation than they did at the beginning. We did a podcast earlier this year with the Provo city library and the city library is a great resource for our parents and for our communities. So do you know what programs are happening there to encourage our kids to read?

Mark Baker: I do know a few of them.

Wendy Dau: Okay. Tell us about them.

Mark Baker: Well, first I’ll tell you this one. This one happened to me just last week. My granddaughter came with my wife.

Wendy Dau: You’re not old enough to have a granddaughter. That’s crazy. Well,

Mark Baker: I’ve got two granddaughters. Okay. All right. That’s all

Wendy Dau: right.

Mark Baker: She brought the granddaughter over to Provo High to say hi.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: Because mom was in the hospital delivering number two.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: And, uh, I said, yeah, let’s go on a picnic. We can run over to Lakeview Park. And we got there, get out of the car. I mean, it’s only a stone’s throw from Provo High. And as we’re walking in, there’s a big panel. And it’s the beginning of a story and you go on the walk through Lakeview Park and every so often there’s another panel that’s the next page of the story.

You walk through the whole park and you’ve read a book.

Wendy Dau: That’s amazing.

Mark Baker: Yeah. And I guess that, uh, Provo City Library, they change it out about every two weeks. They do the same thing at Kiwanis Park.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: Several books. Just kind of younger books and, uh, it was fantastic. I had a great time. I thought, wow, you know, we got to go for a walk and we got to read a book.

Wendy Dau: That’s incredible. I had no idea.

Mark Baker: That’s one thing that they do. They also, every Monday, I’m pretty sure it’s at 10 o’clock. You can look on their website. I’m pretty sure it’s 10 o’clock over here at the Rotary Park. They have story time, story time in the park, and you not only listen to books and listen to people read stories and tell stories and puppet shows and all that kind of stuff.

They have books there. Bring your library card so you can check them out and sit in the park, read, be outside, at least until it gets hot.

Wendy Dau: Right.

Mark Baker: Today would have been, today would have been a beautiful day.

Wendy Dau: Perfect day.

Mark Baker: Yeah. So they, they’ve got so many programs. They do their story time, of course, at the library and as a resource for books, it is fantastic. It’s a great library. I’ve been in probably 20 different city libraries up and down the Wasatch Front. And Provo, it’s, it is the pinnacle. It is very good. It’s just fabulous. That’s just a couple of their resources.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, those are just a few of the things that they offer.

Mark Baker: Now, another one that works well with us here in Provo City School District is Sora.

Wendy Dau: Yes,

Mark Baker: They have their books that they’ve purchased for Sora and they are all available on Sora, which is Overdrive. If you don’t have an account, jump on and get a, get an account. It’s free. All the books that are on there are free. There are audio books. There are picture books. There are regular just novels to read, electronic books.

You can add them to our account. Cause it’s available, it’s available for us in Provo school district every, every year I go through and we’ll talk about this in a minute I’m sure, Battle of the Books.

Wendy Dau: Yes.

Mark Baker: I make sure all the Battle of the Books books are available on Sora and uh, kids have an opportunity to read those. So it’s kind of,

Wendy Dau: So tell us a little bit more about how I would access that.

Mark Baker: With your Chromebook that every student gets, Sora is already loaded on. It’s ready to go. Click and you’re done.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: I know we’re moving right now with the Gmail.

Wendy Dau: Oh there’s all sorts of stuff going on with technology.

Mark Baker: I know that, it’s not, it’s not perfect right now, but it will be. Give it, give it another minute and it’ll be back up and running.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: But, Provo Public Library, their account. Of course is still up and running and you can get in there.

Wendy Dau: Okay. Is it something that we can access off of the Provo City School District website or off of a school’s website? Is there a link or anything there?

Mark Baker: Yes. You know, once you’ve got your account and it’s there, put it on your phone, put it on your computer, put it in whatever, whatever device you want to put it on. And yes, you, you can have multiple devices that access it.

Wendy Dau: Like, if I can’t get out to go to the library or get a book, I can still get one.

Mark Baker: Library can come to you.

Wendy Dau: Library can come to me. This is amazing.

Mark Baker: So it’s kind of fun.

Wendy Dau: That is really fun. What are some other ways or resources that parents can use to encourage their kids to read? What, what do you feel like works?

Mark Baker: I have four kids. Of course, my youngest is 21 now. But one thing that we always did growing up. When we were raising the kids is just read anything,

Wendy Dau: Right.

Mark Baker: And, and they get to the point so fast that they will love sitting down and reading a book.

Wendy Dau: Right.

Mark Baker: Read ’em a story and it doesn’t matter. I, I remember sitting in the living room, I picked up a copy of Seedfolks

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: If, if you’ve never read the book, you, you need to pick it up.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: Seedfolks. Every chapter is written by a different, or in a different person’s voice.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: Different demographic, different nationality, different, all kinds of, it’s just a really cool book. I read the book. It probably took an hour and a half, maybe two hours. And my kids sat there and drew pictures drew pictures the whole time because the book just kept their attention and because they were used to hearing me read hearing my wife read they loved it.

It was something that turned into an absolute wonderful experience and they even talk about it still. I said, oh, remember when we read Seedfolks and there are so many books that you can do the exact same thing with, you know, of course, one of the first big thick chapter books that we always read was Charlotte’s Web.

Wendy Dau: Yup.

Mark Baker: And it’s still, it’s a fan favorite. Everybody loves Charlotte’s Web. I never talked to anybody who says, hmm. Yeah, it’s just, it’s fun. It’s great. And once you get into a story, you know, the story, grabs you and takes you with you. That’s something that I really enjoy.

Wendy Dau: Just letting kids even have a break from playing video games or whatever their other activities are. It’s just a great way to break up their day, too.

Mark Baker: Oh yeah.

Wendy Dau: It’s awesome.

Mark Baker: Fun stuff.

Wendy Dau: So each year our district hosts a Battle of the Books. So tell us a little bit about what this is and how our schools participate and all of that good stuff.

Mark Baker: Okay. Battle of the Books. Yes, it’s a battle. And it’s a great battle.

The kids have so much fun with it. First of all, every elementary third and fourth, they make teams of five, fifth and sixth, they make teams of five, and then seventh and eighth, the middle school, um, they have same thing. And all the elementaries get together and the ones that win in their schools, they get together and we have the district Battle of the Books.

And basically we read a quote from the book. Or something about the book is the question, and then the kids write down on a whiteboard what the answer is and which book it came from.

Wendy Dau: Oh, wow.

Mark Baker: And then you get points for how much you get correct. And this year, oh my goodness, it was, it was so cool to watch because we had teams that were just incredible. But then we had a couple of teams that they were missing some of their, some of their teammates.

Wendy Dau: Oh no!

Mark Baker: And they struggled a little bit. And I remember at first going, Oh shoot, I hope this doesn’t go badly. But it went incredible. Those kids just, they, they just really went for it. Even though they struggled, they just gave it all they had.

And afterwards I got to talk to them and they, they felt like. Hey, this was a great success. Even though, no, we didn’t win. We had fun doing it. And we came back pretty good. We, we did all right by the end, even though we were missing three of our five people, we had fun. And it just, it’s a, it’s a fun thing to do with the students.

The list is out. There’s a link on the website. It rotates through about every four years.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: The titles.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: And there’s always, in that rotation, usually three to four new titles. Okay. So you get some of the little bit more classic type of books.

Wendy Dau: Right.

Mark Baker: As well as some of the more new.

Wendy Dau: Some newer literature.

Mark Baker: Brand new. Yes. Yeah.

Wendy Dau: That’s coming out.

Mark Baker: And um, I, I have to say this, Pioneer Book down on Center Street here in Provo, they are such a great support. for that program. They provide part of the prizes.

Wendy Dau: Oh, wow.

Mark Baker: Um, kids get $15 or $30 to spend there.

Wendy Dau: Oh, that’s incredible. That’s great.

Mark Baker: Yeah, which is great. And you know, honestly, if you’ve never spent any time at Pioneer Books, don’t go there unless you’ve got a couple hours because it’s, it’s a place that kind of sucks you in and you sit down and you start.

Wendy Dau: Get lost in the books.

Mark Baker: Yep. It’s, it’s just fun. It’s a, it’s a really fun, fun place to be. I enjoy it.

Wendy Dau: So how many books are students reading to prepare for Battle of the Books?

Mark Baker: 20 titles.

Wendy Dau: Wowza.

Mark Baker: Yeah, 20, 20 titles.

Wendy Dau: That is a lot. And so everybody across the district is reading the same 20 titles based on their grade level?

Mark Baker: Correct.

Wendy Dau: Okay, that makes sense. And we can find that list of books. Do you have a favorite that’s on that list for this coming year?

Mark Baker: Oh, gee, favorite. I can’t even think of the list right now. I can’t even think of what’s on it. There, there are,

Wendy Dau: I put you on the spot.

Mark Baker: I’m sure if I looked through it, I’d go, Oh, I read that when I was a little kid, or I read that a year ago.

Wendy Dau: Because we are mixing it up between classics as well as new titles. That’s great. So parents can get this list of books, um, from our website. Yes. Okay. Are they also published on their school’s website or just on the district website?

Mark Baker: Um, if they’re not there yet, they, they will be soon.

Wendy Dau: Okay, great.

Mark Baker: Um, the, the librarians, all the librarians are so good at promoting it and they know how much the kids enjoy it. And so it’s not very difficult to promote.

Wendy Dau: I just, I remember just a ton of social media posts that were coming out during the Battle of the Books and just how excited the kids get about participating in it.

Mark Baker: Oh yeah. There’s a lot of excitement.

Wendy Dau: So I had no idea that we were asking them like specific quotes and they had to identify like the book and my goodness, that is impressive that they’re able to do that. That’s amazing.

Mark Baker: It’s fun.

Wendy Dau: So every year our district has a Provo Reads theme. What is that and what is our theme for 2024?

Mark Baker: Okay, Provo Reads, it is another way of just promoting reading, getting students excited about fun, good, wholesome reading. This year is, it’s Out of This World and it’s kind of a space type of theme. We’ve done so many different things. This last year we had Dan Santat was, was Provo Reads. Yeah. So we’ve done everything from an author or individual book. Like we did Wonder one year. Yeah.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: Adventure was one year. Two years ago, that was any kind of an adventure book.

And then the librarians kind of have a little bit of leeway to do with that theme, what they want to promote reading.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: We have little prizes, everything from erasers and bookmarks and stickers and, and whatnot that, uh, by, by reading certain books or certain genre of books, they can earn those little prizes and they have fun with it.

They love it. It does promote reading quite a bit. Some of the librarians, they’ll make these bookmarks that they can keep track of all the books that they’ve read on it.

Wendy Dau: Oh yeah. Yup.

Mark Baker: Boy, some of those get full.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, I’ve seen kids walking around with them, like, at schools as I’ve been there, so that’s pretty impressive.

Mark Baker: Yeah, you should see what happens when they lose one.

Wendy Dau: Oh!

Mark Baker: And they can’t find it, you know, it’s like, ah, you know, see a meltdown or two,

Wendy Dau: Oh no!

Mark Baker: and it gets pretty important to them to be able to, to be able to look and say, you know, I did all of this. And that’s, that’s kind of fun to see somebody get excited. And love what they’re reading and enjoy the whole experience of reading.

Wendy Dau: That’s exciting. I can tell that you have a lot of energy and enthusiasm around reading. Maybe share with us what’s one of your favorite genres or one of your favorite books that you just go back to time and time again. You’re just like, I love this story. If you could give that as a recommendation of something maybe we need to look at this summer.

Mark Baker: Oh, dear.

Wendy Dau: Um.

Mark Baker: I am Mr. Nonfiction.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: Yeah. The last book I read, in fact, I finished it up two nights ago. It’s called, excuse me, it’s called Why We Sleep.

Just learning about sleep and all the different things that are involved in it. Yeah, that just, that gets me going. I, I really enjoyed that. Before that, I read a book, This is Your Mind on Plants. The one before that was actually a plant book as well. And I listened to a lot of them, too.

Wendy Dau: Okay.

Mark Baker: I love history.

Wendy Dau: Just learning, just learning new things and using reading as the way to do that. Yep. It’s pretty great. Yeah. Stuff that we can learn.

Mark Baker: Reading, uh, it, it, it’s so cool that it, it just opens up such a new world every time you open a book. I can remember very vividly my first real encounter with reading, me doing the actual reading.

It was in kindergarten. It was at Cascade Elementary in Orem. And my teacher, yeah, I’m Baker, her name was Cook, and so we, we got along really well. And uh, we had a little reading program and whoever read the most pages got a free book. Yeah, I still have, I Am Dan. That’s the name of the book.

Wendy Dau: There you go.

Mark Baker: And I still think it’s cool.

Wendy Dau: Right. It makes such a difference and it has such a huge impact on our, on our students overall and just their experiences, so it’s great.

Mark Baker: Well, anybody that can get, we can say addicted to reading.

Wendy Dau: Yeah.

Mark Baker: Um, they become a lifelong learner.

Wendy Dau: Yeah. Agreed.

Mark Baker: And a lifelong learner is, is a life full of happiness.

Adding something new every day and putting it in the brain and enjoying that new knowledge, that piece of knowledge that you didn’t know yesterday and now you know it today. I think that’s the secret to happiness right there.

Wendy Dau: I love that quote. A lifelong learner provides a lifetime of happiness. That really is very true. So thank you so much, Mark, for being on our show today.

Mark Baker: Oh, thank you.

Wendy Dau: This was really fun to talk about all the ways kids can get involved in reading this summer.

Mark Baker: Thank you. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Wendy Dau: Thank you everyone for joining me for this week’s episode of What’s up with the Sup’. As always, all episodes will be posted on the district website. YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcasts. If you have any topics or questions you would like us to discuss on the podcast, please email us at podcast@provo.edu. Join me next week for an all new episode.

Have a great week, everyone.