Reading Culture with Dr. Radice

Dr. Radice is our director of literacy for Long Beach Public Schools and has published the book, Leading a Culture of Reading: How to Ignite and Sustain a Love of Literacy in Your School Community. This book provides educators with tools and ideas on how to make reading a more integral part of the school curriculum. In this interview, she takes us through the aspects of her book, her inspiration, her goals when writing, and some of her favorite kinds of books to read!

Q. Could you tell us a little about your book?

A. The book is about how to build engagement in learning and each chapter is dedicated to how a group of people can help inspire kids to be interested in reading and to find their reading identity. So for example, the first chapter is about creating a reading campaign, like we have LB Reads. Media is something that you can use to help you launch and it spreads a message about the importance of reading so that all people can join in. There is also a chapter about how adults can be reading role models, about how students can be leaders of reading. So it’s really about how we bring communities together in schools to prioritize reading and celebrate it and emphasize how important it is for adults and kids to practice!

Q. How would you define Brand Reading?

A. The first chapter is called Brand Reading and that is all about how-- You know how companies create slogans, hashtags, they have symbols as visuals: like Nike with Just Do It? You can do the same thing for reading. So, #LBReads is our Just Do It. Our visual for #LBReads is a sandcastle. If you create a brand and image around reading, it is something for people to refer to and that becomes a source of energy to build a reading community around that campaign. That is part of the brand of our district: prioritizing reading.

Q. What inspired you to write this book?

A. My love for the topic. I love to work with teachers and educators, that is my passion; it’s my favorite part of my job. I really really believe in the importance of reading and I believe that all kids and all adults are different when it comes to reading. It is a priority for educators to make sure that we connect with all different types of readers in a school.

Q. Was there a key moment in your career that led you to write about this topic?

A. Yeah, I think it was during my interview for this job when Dr. Gallagher said to me: “Do you have any ideas about how we can build a culture of reading?” That was really important to her as a superintendent and that was a turning point for me because I was so happy that that was a priority for her and the district. I took my experience in the classroom as a middle school English teacher and thought about how I was a leader of kids and helped them build their reading lives in my classroom. I wanted to share that with other people and draw inspiration from my experiences, as well as learn from other teachers in our district and share what they do.

Q. If you were to describe your book in five words, what would those words be?

A. Practical, relatable, engaging, inspiring, attainable

Q. What is your favorite book or author?

A. Ooo, I love rom-coms. I love rom-com movies and books. I love Emily Henry's books. Beach Read and Happy Place, I read over the summer and The People We Meet on Vacation like I will just sail through those books. I just love her style as an author. I think she’s hilarious and I think she writes banter between characters really well. I just finished Lessons in Chemistry which was more of a development of a character and a story. It’s actually going to be on AppleTV. I love the connection between movies, TV, and books. Reading is a bit of an escape for me which is why I like romantic comedy.

Q. Which chapter of your book was the easiest to write? The hardest?

A. The hardest was the introduction, actually. So I wrote the whole book before I wrote the introduction. It was so hard for me to capture the essence of what the book was about that I called my colleague and I said to her “Can you just tell me a little about what I do?!” I could write the details of the chapters but I couldn’t tie it all together with a nice bow. I needed to know what impact the work has on other people in order for me to introduce my book in a way that ties it all together. The easiest part of the book was probably the second chapter about teachers being role models. I talk to teachers about that all the time. I taught classes about that and I have a lot of resources for that. That was probably the easiest chapter to think about. But really, the book was not very challenging because it is an account of what I do every day with teams of people in Long Beach.

We want to thank Dr. Radice for sharing her new book with us! It was amazing to hear about the process as well as learn more about the philosophy that shapes our school curriculum!