Given initiative, students read and reap prizes
By: Stacey Gorski
Teachers and administrators at Constable School are providing students with every excuse they can excuses to read.
In four separate programs at the school, students are being encouraged to read as much as possible outside the regular curriculum. Readers are given rewards that range from a pencil or candy bar to a free ticket for Six Flags Great Adventure.
"We have a Junior Grade Books group that meets in the library," said Barbara DeVictor, the school’s resource teacher.
"We also do an Accelerated Reader program and Read-to-Succeed program."
The fourth program is kindergarten and first-grade students and called "Parents Are Wonderful Supporters of Reading." The program, known by its acronym PAWS, runs from January through June.
"We get the parents involved in helping as support to the reading program," said Kristine Kaufman, a kindergarten teacher. "The program has been going on for about five years."
Each kindergarten and first-grade class has four to seven parent volunteers who each have a specific day to come to the school and work with individual students.
"Each child goes out of the room with a parent, usually once a week," Ms. Kaufman said. "We keep track of what books the child has read, and the parents help advance the child’s reading skills."
"The students can work at their own levels this way," Ms. Kaufman said.
Another yearlong program is the Junior Grade Book program run by the school’s librarian, Patty Carter.
"This particular group of (fourth-grade) students meet with me once a week," Ms. Carter explained. "They do additional reading outside the language arts programs, and we discuss that reading."
Junior Grade Books is a nationally recognized program designed to help students "think outside the box" when approaching literature. The program is designed for small groups of eight to 15 students.
The children are visibly excited about the program.
"I like it because you get to say what you think in your own words," said Jenna Hudak.
"Yeah, but she always makes us give proof," said Melissa Dardani about her teacher.
The discussions are designed to create debates among the students. Very few factual questions are asked.
"This way the students have to think for themselves," Ms. Carter said.
The discussion often ends because the class period is over, not because the children are done debating their ideas. Ms. Carter ends class by encouraging the children to keep discussing the stories during their free time.
The concept of using "free time" to read and discuss literature has spread to Constable’s other reading initiatives: the Accelerated Reader program and Read-to-Succeed.
"Accelerated Reader is a computer program we use for second- and third-graders," Ms. Carter said. "The children choose their book, read it on their own and then take a quiz on the computer."
The students choose their books, each with its own point value. They accrue points by correctly answering quiz questions on the computer.
"Students get 100 percent of the points if they get all the quiz questions correct," Ms. Carter said.
When students get between 60 percent and 99 percent correct, they get the corresponding percentage of the book’s total point value. So, if they get five of eight questions right for a book worth five points, they get 3.12 points.
The computer program keeps track of students’ work, and the children are rewarded with prizes ranging from a sticker (worth one point) up to a 50 point T-shirt.
The highest point value for a book is 10 points for works like a Harry Potter book, which are often more than 200 pages long. The first student to earn a T-shirt was Tara Fisher.
The final program which encourages students to read as much as Tara is the Read-To-Succeed program which is sponsored by Six Flags. Students in all grades are eligible, and the goal is to read for 600 minutes in a little over a month. They read in school and at home.
"The program works for everyone," Ms. DeVictor said. "Even the little kids can get credit when people read to them."
Ms. DeVictor and the school’s new principal, Shirley Bergin, read to some of the lower grade classes and then give them certificates for 10 minutes, or however long it took to read the story. The students bring the certificates home, and parents add the time to records of the child’s total recreational reading time.
"There are already 14 students who have completed the goal, and we are only one week into the program," Ms. DeVictor said. With initiatives and payoffs, students at Constable are reading at a furious pace.
"I can’t keep the most recent Harry Potter book on the shelves," said Ms. Carter. "And that is the thickest one. It’s great to see."