Being a book reader allows Kirsch to run West Nodaway
SUBMITTED PHOTO
West Nodaway fifth grader Tyler Kirsch looks to evaluate teachers as part of his role as Principal for the Day last week. Kirsch was able to serve in this capacity after earning at least 150 points reading and taking tests for books.
For one day last week, West Nodaway Elementary School principal Holly Brady had a lesser load.
As part of the rewards for reading books, fifth grader Tyler Kirsch was given the opportunity to take over Brady’s job for the day.
West Nodaway uses the Accelerated Reader testing program, which tests reading comprehension with quizzes, in order to keep track of how many books the students are reading. According to Title I Reading specialist Melissa Grace, reading the books and passing the tests comes with many incentives.
“The rewards range from getting a free book from our monthly Treasure Books store to becoming principal for the day,” Grace said. “Each book is worth a certain amount of points on the AR tests.”
The point values and incentives also differ between grades. Students from kindergarten to second grade have to earn fewer points than those from third to fifth grade.
“One of the big incentives is putting a pie in a teacher’s face at the quarterly assembly,” Grace said. “Younger students have to earn 70 points, while older students have to earn 100.
“Picture books are about half a point, while chapter books are worth several points based on how long they are. It’s a program to reward our biggest readers while encouraging everyone to read more.”
Kirsch is one of the school’s biggest readers, having earned nearly 300 points last year.
So far this year, Kirsch has earned 220. He said the number wasn’t too hard to reach because of the chapter books he’s reading.
“This year, I’ve read the Maze Runner series and the Hunger Games series,” Kirsch said. “My favorite is the Maze Runner series because of the way the story works.
“The books are very different from the movies, though. The second movie is completely different from the book.”
There have been a couple of others who have reached Kirsch’s amount of points, but Grace said they don’t get there as quickly.
“Most of the time, kids will get to the Principal reward in April or May,” Grace said. “The fact that Kirsch did it in March shows how much he loves to read.”
Grace said that Tyler’s 35 books this year alone contributes to the school’s overall goal of 11,000 books in the 2016-2017 school year. Right now, West Nodaway rests a little below that goal, at just over 9,800 books read this year.