Whitwell students turning pages #045; lots of pages
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Educators agree, the child who develops an early love of reading is more likely to also develop a lifelong love of learning.
With this in mind, Whitwell staff members have encouraged students to pick up a book and read every chance they get. And it's worked: this week, students there have completed 23,000 books since the beginning of the year. That's nearly 3,000 more than they read last year.
"I'm proud of them," principal John Maynard said. "And I think when we get (proficiency) tests back we're going to see improvement in reading."
This year, Whitwell began using the Accelerated Reading (AR) Program that has been highly touted by other schools.
Children read books based on their abilities and then take computerized tests on that book to gauge reading comprehension. Points are assessed for each book read. The school is continuing to use library slips that children fill out after they read a book, answering questions about main characters and the plot.
Third-grader
Keirann Summers has read 280 books and earned more than 140 AR points, while classmate Ashton McMackin has earned 104 AR points for reading 210 books.
Keirann said her favorite book was "Nate The Great," a detective series.
"He finds stuff people have lost," she explained. Keirann may have found her calling in life at a young age: She said she might like to be a detective some day.
Ashton said she favors the "Lemony Snickets" series but has read several biographies, too.
Two first-graders have made their mark on the school's reading effort as well.
Bailie Brownstead has read 1,050 books since the start of the school year while Baylee McClain has tallied more than 950 volumes. Bailie prefers the "Junie B. Jones" series while Baylee's favorite book is "The Hungry Caterpillar."
"He was very hungry and he ate a lot and then he turned into a butterfly," Baylee explained.
Maynard said he is proud not only of the students and teachers, who have become competitive about the book-reading contest, but also volunteer librarian Kim Summers, who has taken particular interest in the reading programs.
"She helps us stay accountable. She can tell you almost from memory how many books each child has read," Maynard said. "She is one of the best librarian's I've ever seen - and she's a volunteer!"
In honor of the 23,000 books read, the children will be treated to a magic show.