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Students Engage in Unique Reading Program June 27, 2001, Baltimore, MD -- Principal Russell Jones and Assistant Principal Sharon Anthony came to Joppa View Elementary School with one goal in mind-- to instill a life-long love of reading in their students. Upon their arrival at Joppa View, they met with Fran Gustin, the school’s Reading Program Director, and began to explore their options for a new school-wide reading motivation program. In the past, Joppa View used the Book It! Program and Reading Makes Sense, but they wanted to try something new. Ms. Gustin attended a conference where she heard Dr. Rick Bavaria, Sylvan Learning Center’s Vice President of Education, speak about Book Adventure. The program amazed her and ended the school’s search. Book Adventure was chosen as the new program for Joppa View. The school chose Book Adventure because it offered an enormous list of great book titles, the ability to create personalized book lists and a place to take on-line quizzes. Principal Jones was extremely excited that the program was on-line. “With the technological thrust in today’s society, the program offered not only a reading program, but also the opportunity for students to practice their research and keyboarding skills as well,” explained Jones. “Book Adventure was our first approach to technology in the classroom. It is an extra bonus!” Once the Book Adventure program was up and running in the school, Fran Gustin and the Reading Committee decided to add a twist. They, along with the administration, presented an additional challenge to encourage children to participate in their reading program. Milestone events, such as “Crazy Hat Day”, “No Homework Day”, “Ice Cream Sundae Day”, and “Movie and Popcorn Day” were planned for the students’ achievement of intermediate goals. During the 1999-2000 school year, the students were encouraged to read 10,000 books from the Book Adventure list. For the children, the final celebration made the reading worthwhile-- Principal Jones had to take ballet lessons wearing a tutu in front of the entire student body. Reading comprehension was the main focus of the reading program for the 2000-2001 school year. Joppa View Elementary School students were given the ultimate challenge of earning 600,000 points on the Book Adventure website. During the contest, students read books and took Book Adventure on-line quizzes. In order to receive points, the children needed to score at least 60 percent on each quiz. They not only achieved their goal of earning 600,000 points, they exceeded it by nearly 50,000 points. The top classroom, a group of twenty-five second graders, earned over 79,000 points for the year alone. When the day came for the students to celebrate their success, they all gathered outside the school for the award that they chose. Principal Jones and Assistant Principal Anthony provided a grand performance of the “Chicken Dance” on the school’s roof. Dressed in chicken costumes, Jones (“Click”) and Anthony (“Cluck”) were raised onto the school roof by the local fire department. They danced to the “Clucky Chicken” while the students, parents, media and area neighbors cheered them on. As a special surprise, Rex Reader and Bailey Bookmark, the Book Adventure mascots, joined “Click” and “Cluck” in the festivities. “Book Adventure is pleased to have been a part of this monumental achievement at Joppa View Elementary,” said Kelly Hodge-Williams Executive Director of the Book Adventure Foundation. “They are a testament to the fact that students do want to read, especially when given the motivation to do so. Joppa View’s implementation of Book Adventure is the perfect example of how schools can use the program to foster a love of reading.” “At Joppa View, the Book Adventure reading incentive program has encouraged children to read more, both at school and at home. We know that many of our students will continue with the program over the summer,” said Principal Jones. “Book Adventure has nurtured the love of reading in Joppa View students. I would not want to be the principal of a school who didn’t use Book Adventure. It becomes part of the entire community.” Book Adventure is a free on-line reading incentive program that uses technology and incentives to motivate children (grades K-8) to read. Book Adventure allows kids to create personalized books lists from over 5,500 titles, take quizzes on the books on their lists, and earn prizes for reading. Book Adventure currently has more than 506,000 registered users, with more than 76,000 classrooms using the site as a reading resource. Children have taken more than 2.4 million quizzes since the site was established in April 1999.To sign up for Book Adventure, students, parents and teachers can log onto the site at www.bookadventure.org. ### |
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