Every day, elementary school students in the U.S. spend an average of only six minutes reading a book. By comparison, these students devote four hours to watching television and seven hours on a computer, playing video games and using a cell phone or other hand-held device. These sobering statistics are manifested in the classroom by challenge areas such as low desire to read, poor comprehension, inability to analyze or apply what has been read and poor test scores. Timber Lakes Elementary School has the action plan to change this paradigm.
What we've done
The school was selected by Scholastic International to host an exclusive Harry Potter Book Club. Out of the nationally selected schools, Timber Lakes ranks first in student participation, books read, volunteer hours procured and products donated.
Within less than five months of the start of the book club, 57 percent of book club students’ minutes reading outside of school increased by 26 minutes per day. During the same five months, student enthusiasm for reading and reading-related activities increased by 90 percent.
More than one-third of all third-, fourth- and fifth-graders participate in the Harry Potter Book Club and enrollment continues to grow every day. Due to the overwhelmingly positive response to this book club, a book club featuring the Magic Tree House series targeting first- and second-grade students will launch in January 2013. This club initially targeted a 30-student enrollment; more than 80 have registered.
The Harry Potter Book Club also collaborated with a wide variety of community partners to create its own reading interactive computer game and three-dimensional castle. They also participated in a local festival and parade, performing the Hogwarts School Song for hundreds of festival attendees.
Timber Lakes also created a mentor reading program in partnership, where Timber Creek High School Beta Club members read with our most unmotivated and struggling readers to help inspire our students to love reading, comprehend what they've read and apply it in the classroom.
How did we do it
Timber Lakes was selected to host these exclusive book clubs as the result of educational advocacy work at the local, district and state level and the positive and productive relationship developed with Scholastic International.
We’ve secured active participation from more than 90 percent of Timber Lakes' faculty and staff and accumulated thousands of parent volunteer hours to develop and deliver unique and innovative reading lessons tailored to our book club students.
The school raised nearly $173,000 via in-kind donations to create our own website, computer game, graphics and video; custom murals for the media center, science lab, cafeteria and front office to build book awareness and enthusiasm; planned visits to Universal Studios and Dinosaur World; and provided books and other purchased items to ensure book club appeal to all students.
More mentor opportunities were created through the International Academy of Design and Technology, the University of Central Florida, Kiwanis of Avalon Park and other key contributors to build one-on-one mentor relationships with our book club students.
Jenny Wojcik is a third grade teacher at Timber Lakes Elementary School