West Students Accept Challenge to Read 1,000 Minutes

There are many proven benefits to recreational reading, just ask Emily Schaefer, Academic Interventionist at West Elementary. 

“I want to increase the volume of reading which will increase fluency,” she said. “Fluency is the bridge between word recognition and comprehension. Fluency leads to deeper comprehension and a motivation to read. When students are reading fluently, this frees their cognitive resources to process meaning vs. focusing on decoding and sounding out tricky words.”

That’s why Schaefer challenged West students to read 1,000 minutes before the end of December. 

“At the beginning of the year, the students and I discussed the importance of recreational reading at home,” she said. “During the semester we extended the challenge to be for the entire school year. Six students reached 1,000 minutes before Christmas break. Many others are more than half way there and will be celebrating their accomplishment during second semester.”

Students who completed the 1,000 minutes were rewarded with a party Dec. 17 where they ate snacks (cookies in the shape of 1,000), decorated holiday ornaments and played Bingo. 

Fourth grader Abby Brichak said she loves to read because it’s fun. 

“And if you get yourself interested in it you can just keep on reading,” she said.  

“Once I get into a book I just get hooked onto it really quickly,” said fourth grader Kora Evans, adding that her favorite book series is the Dork Diaries.

Schaefer said the challenge is doing more than simply encouraging students to read outside of school. It’s opening conversations. 

“Students have been sharing with me about the books they are reading at home. They are excited about turning in their minutes on Mondays and want to watch their bar graph grow toward the 1,000 minute mark,” Schaefer said. “I communicate with parents on a weekly basis after reading logs have been turned in. This communication has fostered teamwork between myself and my students’ parents, which has helped encourage students to read and keep them accountable from week to week when it comes to making reading one priority at home.”