The 2015 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge officially begins this coming Monday! After the program closed last year (with great success, seeing as we set a new world record for summer reading — 304,749,681 minutes!), comments came pouring in from teachers and principals across the country who had used the program in their schools.
Their feedback was so great we felt we had to share it with others! Maybe you're thinking about signing on to the program this year, or maybe you've already registered your school but are looking for ideas to motivate your students. Either way, we've got a list of tried and true ideas you can use to inspire and incentivize students to read during the summer months. And they're straight from the 2014 top performing schools. Enjoy!
- Host a campus kick-off assembly to launch the school Summer Reading Challenge program and get students excited
- Track your school’s total minutes on the marquee outside of your school as a constant reminder for kids and the community
- Create themed spirit days at school that celebrate summer, like wear your sunglasses to school day, dress like your favorite book character day, and more
- Build reading into every class (even math and science!) for a few minutes every day.
- Involve the principal. Have the principal promise to shave his head, dye her hair, or dress up in a funny outfit if the students reach their collective school goal
- Involve the community. Host book drives or book swaps in town, involve the library through events, and enlist parents to help
- Provide incentives for students, like gift cards, additional books, library pass/an extra free period
Here are a few quotes from principals of top schools last year.
Cathy Pinsonneault, principal, Scotland Elementary School, Connecticut (2014 top school):
"I love to read and passing my love of reading on to students during the lazy days of summer was wonderful. We motivated students by putting up posters at the library and the post office, sending a reminder post card reminding them to read, and recorded a reminder message for the school¹s answering machine. The program was an absolute success for us. Anything that gets students excited about reading and working together for a common goal is a success!"
Will Largen, Principal, Oakridge Middle School (Clover, SC), top South Carolina school and #16 overall in 2014:
"To kick off summer reading, we held a spring BOGO Book Fair and we made sure every student received a book from the Fair. Our entire school participated and logging minutes was done through our homerooms 1st thing in the mornings. Students were motivated by the competition and I liked that they were excited about reading, not athletics. At the end, 58% of our kids reached their reading goal and our school wide goal was meet as well."
Kelly Huggins, principal at Newell Elementary School (Allentown, NJ), the #15 school overall in 2014, always kisses a pig!
