The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Taking a pie to the face for literacy
The students of Horizon Science Academy were all about the books May 4 as the school celebrated their success in ReadCON.
Shannon Greif, a firstgrade teacher at the school, was the leader of the event that sought to give the younger students in the school a chance to stretch their literary muscle by reading books.
“ReadCON is a special event they created just for kindergarten, first- and second-grade students,” she said.
“Our school is a STEM focus, so we do a lot of science, technology, engineering and math, so we have contests for our older kids and our little ones get kind of left out sometimes. So this is their big competition.”
Greif said the competition was held across all 27 schools which are Horizon is affiliated with, and it is made up of two parts.
First, the students were tasked with making posters based on the books they’ve read. The second part was a pure wordcount contest.
“They had to read as many books as they could and take Accelerated Reader quizzes on them so it kind of helps them with comprehension to get them ready for testing,” she said referring to the Accelerated Reader digital book tests in which students answer questions based on the books.
“They’ve been really motivated,” Greif continued. “We have kindergartners who are reading 10,000 words in a month. It’s really exceptional.”
She said the students were given various benchmarks to reach with different rewards. Reading 1,500 words allowed the students to go outside and play a game during class time, reading 2,500 words snagged the children a gold medal and reading 3,500 words got the children a stuffed dog that says “I love to read.”
The students who read the most in each class were given the chance to toss a pie, whipped cream on a plate, into the face of a teacher or staff member of their choice.
“The kids have been very excited by it,” Greif said with a laugh.
“The kids have been talking nonstop about who they were going to pie all month.”