Feature article

Youngsters are motivated to read – a lot!

Article and pictures by Tammy Lane
March 4, 2008

  Dragons and cows and cats in hats, oh my!
  Youngsters throughout Fayette County Public Schools enjoy reading, and special events fuel their enthusiasm. So when there’s a mayor to meet or a dragon to dress, youngsters eagerly step up.
  At Clays Mill Elementary, students combined their Seuss Celebration with National Breakfast Week. Mayor Jim Newberry and district Superintendent Stu Silberman stopped by Tuesday to eat with the children and read Dr. Seuss books to third-graders in the library. The students, split into two groups, sat cross-legged on the floor and listened intently as Newberry read “Green Eggs and Ham” and Silberman shared “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”
  This Friday, Clays Mill students will dress as their favorite book characters and win prizes for Dr. Seuss trivia; lunch will include a cupcake to celebrate the author’s birthday, March 2. The latter is in conjunction with the National Education Association’s Read Across America, an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on or around Dr. Seuss’s birthday.
  Motivation apparently is not an issue at Stonewall Elementary School, where the year’s running total has surpassed 2 million pages read in the DEAR ABBY (Drop Everything And Read A Book By Yourself) program.
  “Each Friday we add from 80,000 to 100,000 pages,” librarian Rachel Robinson noted.
  In the program, the students read five nights out of every seven. Kindergarten and first-grade students read 10 minutes, second- and third-graders read 20 minutes, and fourth- and fifth-graders read 30 minutes. Each teacher notes the week’s total pages and overall tally, posting them outside the classroom door. The librarian tracks the school’s running total, which is posted in the front hallway.
  Avid readers aren’t scarce either at James Lane Allen Elementary School, where “We’re not DRAGON our feet about reading,” according to the motto in a hallway. Below is a paper dragon, whose multi-colored scales represent books the students have finished during “I Love to Read” month. In the Accelerated Reader program, students read a book and are tested for comprehension; they earn points (and dragon scales) for passing each quiz. Their goal? 3,025 scales. If they reach that mark this week, good-sport principal Greg Williams will get a pie in the face.
  In addition, James Lane Allen students hosted storyteller Mary Hamilton on a recent Literacy Night, and they dressed up last Friday as their favorite literary characters. Some were monsters from “Where the Wild Things Are,” while teacher Kathy Keinath came as a black-and-white cow from the book “Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type.”
  Theme days and special activities get the kids jazzed to check out more books and meet their goals, JLA librarian Kim Blankenship said.
  Among other schools’ efforts:
• A Ronald McDonald kickoff at Arlington Elementary, where the spring challenge is for each class to read 100 books to save 100 acres of rainforest;
• Family Fun Night at Millcreek Elementary, where parents enjoyed a book fair and literacy seminars while their children reveled in read-alouds;
• Pajama Day at Veterans Park Elementary, where students wore their PJs and brought a good book and pillow to school.

     Printer friendly view