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I thought this would be a good opportunity for those of us who are Reading
Counts promoters at our schools to share how we do our programs. AR is very
prevalent and RC just doesn't seem to be mentioned as much. I know they are
similar, but would like to hear from those who are doing just RC. I'll
collect the ideas and post a hit.
At my school (a Pre/K-3 school), we just cannot afford all the toy prizes,
etc...plus I do not like the idea of giving a toy to promote reading. We
really started last school year with Reading Counts in January 2000. We
primarily do the program with our 3rd grade, though 2nd grade did participate
last year. For the 2nd and 3rd grade students we had a bulletin board at the
front of the school. This was our Cardinal Club board (our school mascot is
the cardinal). We made point clubs in increments of 25. I made columns
representing point clubs from 25 to 200...with 200 being the ultimate goal to
be in the GOLDEN CARDINAL CLUB. Using a silver paint pen I wrote the numbers
25-200 on book shapes that I purchased from P&S School Supply. Each week we
would print a class report and give to the classroom teacher. One report
would list the accumulated points of each student in their room and on also
gave the total number of accumulated points for the entire class. I did not
do any prizes for the 25-175 point clubs though some teachers may have given
homework passes, etc. Any student who reached the 200 point club received a
t-shirt. We purchased khaki ones from SCHOLASTIC READING COUNTS that said
READING COUNTS AT OUR SCHOOL and gave those to students reaching 200 points.
I also had a RC cap that I gave to the student with the most points.
Prior to starting the program, I asked each teacher in 2nd & 3rd grade to
come up with a class name. We had Hughes' High Flying Readers, Scott's Star
Readers, Wilson's Wise Readers, Pinson's Power Readers, Marsh's Big
Cardinals, Walker's Reading Rangers and Cowan's Crew. Using Printshop
Deluxe, I made a list of students in the database function for each room,
found a mascot picture, pasted it in Post-It Notes and printed each student a
name tag. These name tags are what we would move up in the point club when
they advanced to another level.
For 3rd Grade we did another bulletin board near the 3rd grade hallway. Last
year the theme was READ 2000. I challenged each of the three 3rd grade
classrooms to reach an accumulated score of 2000 by the time we ended the
program in May. Each classroom that reached the score would receive an ice
cream party. I placed a small sign about 3" x 5" with the class name &
mascot picture on the left of the board. In order to have enough room to
make columns to reach 2000 points, using the book shapes as mentioned above
on the other bulletin board, I divided the columns into increments of 200.
Each week we would check on the report to see which classes had advanced to
the next level and move their mascot underneath the appropriated column. Two
of the three classes surpassed the 2000 goal by the end of the program in
May. One class only reached half way...I think primarily because the teacher
didn't seem interested and neither did the kids...
At the end of the year I printed colored certificates from Printshop for all
those who reached ANY point club. Students who had the 1st-3rd highest point
accumulation received a medal (from Scholastic RC catalog).
This year I plan to do a different theme with the 3rd grade and do the
bulletin board in a theme of "McHENRY READWAY 2000" (along the lines of the
Indianapolis 500). If anyone has any suggestions on where I can find any
"race" material I could use on the bulletin board, I'm looking for
suggestions.
This year we will also be starting earlier. Other changes I plan is that 3rd
graders should be moving into chapter book reading by December and that
students should keep a book for a day before taking a test (maybe???).
Students were reading and taking the test so quickly on the easy books I
don't see how they could possibly have enjoyed the book...since they rushed
through them so fast. I plan to discuss this further with our 3rd grade
teachers before implementing. If I can find the funding, I would also like
to purchase a variety of new books (popular fiction, dictionaries, etc.) that
we could keep on a shelf. When students reach certain point divisions (every
50 points) they would get to come and choose a book from this shelf. This
would enable students to build up a book collection at home).
Tony Pope, Library Media Specialist
McHenry Primary School
100 McHenry Drive
Rome, GA 30161
Pope1966@aol.com
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