What Are You Doing for Your Students That They Could Be Doing for Themselves?

On empowering students with engaging tasks and texts

* Quote attributed to Diana Laufenburg

A few years ago, I overheard a 4th grader say something I haven't forgotten.

"We should purchase a couple of books on ADHD, so that I can share them with my friends and they can understand what it's like to be me."

This student wasn't responding to a teacher prompt. She wasn't completing an assignment. She was advocating for herself and for people she cared about, in a space where her voice mattered.

Shee was one of dozens of 4th and 5th graders who participated in our school library book budget project at Mineral Point Elementary. Students examined the current collection, surveyed their peers about what was missing, visited a local bookstore to learn how books get displayed, and ultimately made decisions about how to spend thousands of dollars on new titles.

What we noticed surprised us. Students who were typically disengaged as readers started coming to school early to unpack book deliveries. A student who didn't see himself as a reader was the first student to arrive for meetings, turning on computers and setting up tables. Circulation went up. How students started seeing themselves in relation to books and reading also changed for the better.

The data confirms what we observed. Students who participated scored higher on self-concept as a reader. They checked out roughly 17 more books than non-participants. Their reading growth over the school year was more than double that of students who didn't participate.

That's what the numbers showed. But the project changed something for the adults too. Most of us who work in schools are working very hard. We manage classroom libraries, curate book collections, make decisions about what students should read and when. We do this because we care. And in caring, we sometimes do for students what students could be doing for themselves.

What would change if we handed some of that over?

I'm building a small community of teachers and librarians who want to find out. Starting in fall 2026, a cohort of ten educators will run a book budget project in their own classrooms or school libraries, study what happens to their students, and learn together across the year.

If this opportunity resonates with you, I'd love to talk. I'm scheduling short discovery conversations over the next few weeks to learn about your context and share more about the project.

Sign up below. No commitment required, just a conversation.

https://calendar.app.google/CY1JbMUL8ChTo1aX6

Take care,

Matt