Reading Incentive at Lake Superior Elementary Encourages Fluency
By Mark Howard
Addison Olson, Winner of HP Notebook Laptop with her classmates
We have sent our students home for the summer with many different types of summer reading incentives, however, this past year we built a program that would acknowledge our students summer reading improvement based on a comparison of the students spring and fall reading fluency rates (words/minute).
This allowed all students whether they were at, above, or below grade level in reading to be compared only to themselves. All 1st through 5th grade students at LSE who came back to school in the fall with a reading fluency rate at or above the score that they had in the spring, were included in a drawing for a HP Notebook Laptop.
In early September our student’s fall reading fluency benchmark was completed and we were pleased to find that 64 of our students qualified to be in the drawing for an HP Notebook Laptop.
Our data comparison showed that 39% of all student enrolled in 1st – 5th grades did not loose reading fluency over the summer months. This trend is less than the national norms that we researched in relation to student’s summer reading decline.
In the third week of September we completed our drawing – Addison Olson an outstanding student in Mrs. Domagala’s 3rd Grade classroom won the laptop. It is our staff’s belief that Addison is a model student learner that is well deserving of this acknowledgement.
All students that were in this drawing were sent home with a personalized certificate for their summer reading accomplishment. Important to note that a significant proportion of the students in the drawing were this year’s 3rd Graders, as they had a higher percentage of at or above level compared to other age groups (see “Research Notes” at close of article).
Addison Olson won the HP Notebook and this was well received by her 3rd Grade classmates, who showed as much excitement, as Addison herself.
Overall our “Don’t Slide Into Summer” reading incentive was a success. It was good to see our students excited about doing their best while coming closer together as a learning community in celebration of their reading growth. It felt successful to see that many of our students became aware of their own data/score, set their own goals, and truly took ownership of becoming a learner while enjoying reading.
Another positive impact is seeing Addison and her family have access to a state of the art 21st Century learning tool. As noted prior our staff and students are proud of Addison – our teaching staff has observed, coached, nurtured and acknowledged Addison’s gift of writing and know that her new laptop will have considerable impact on her craft.
Research Notes:
In a study of 40,000 elementary students it was found that on average, students have a cumulative reading development loss of -1.5 years between the key reading developmental ages of 1st grade through 6th grade (Cooper, Nye, 1996).
The ACT examined reading skills required for electricians, construction workers, upholsterers, and plumbers and concluded that the reading level needed for those careers matched the reading level needed to do well in the first-year of college (ACT, Inc., Ready for College and Ready for Work, 2006).
Mark Howard, Principal of Lake Superior Elementary School
Mark Howard is the Principal of Lake Superior Elementary School in Superior, Wisconsin
