Many of our teachers incorporate Scholastic Reading Counts! as a part of their students’ reading development process. Students set goals after using Scholastic Reading Inventory and are held accountable for the progress they make toward achieving their goals. Unfortunately, sometimes a limited amount of time is spent connecting children to appropriate books on their reading level and because of that issue students are not always forthright about what they can read. Most students want to get books that are cool or appear challenging to their friends. However, the students are accountable to meet their reading goals which mandates them checking out books they not only can read but be able to pass a test on as well.

We use the programs to help us pick the right book for the right student. When ordering new authors for our library stock, the list of books generated by Scholastic Reading Counts! are invaluable to me. The Scholastic Reading Counts! program can assure me that we have lots of books with quizzes available at all reading and interest levels for the students.

One student, in particular, was challenged with reading books. Of course many students struggle with reading in the fourth grade but the difference was her pride was getting in the way of improving her reading. This new student was very shy and came to Carson Elementary School in the middle of the year. She would check out thick chapter books to read because she wanted to be like the other kids. The teacher was able to assess her level through the Scholastic Reading Inventory program. Her assessment was low.

Together the teacher and I were able to guide her to more appropriate reading materials in the library. At first she had difficulties passing the tests that were given with the book. Each week she would bring the book to the library to renew, reread and retest. Her confidence level went down because she would bury her book inside a magazine so the other kids would not see it. Reading time in her classroom became a problem because she found it difficult to read while covering her book with a magazine. I came up with an idea of covering her book with a decorative removable book cover. She was thrilled. She started reading more during silent reading time and would pass the standardized quizzes. Then she began coming into the library before the other kids or wait until they were gone to switch her library books without anyone noticing. She was finally reading. Each week I would help her to find a book from the Scholastic Reading Counts! book list and let her read out loud to see if she was really grasping the content. Slowly, she began to improve.

She is now in the fifth grade and has no problem going to the shelf and searching for books on her own. She loves to come and tell me about the new books she has read. Now she tells me about the joy of passing her quizzes. Her face lights up and I see her confidence. She still struggles from time to time but she knows if she keeps working hard, she can succeed.

This student is not the only success story that we have. The 2004/05 results showed
74.9% of our fourth graders were at or above the state reading standard. Since the implementation of Scholastic Reading Counts! to our school, this number has been consistently high. Last year at our awards ceremony in the spring, 202 of our 226 first through sixth graders received a ribbon, a medal or a trophy for improved reading. Thirteen students earned 1,000-point trophies and we had to come up with a special award for a student who earned 3000 points! This year at our first assembly in December, awards for the first trimester were given. On that day, 126 awards were handed out—nearly half the student body!

This is my twenty-first year at Carson Elementary School. In my opinion, the best thing ever to happen to our library during this time is Scholastic Reading Counts! When I first came to work at the school, it was quite obvious that kids were checking out books only to take them back to their classroom and stash them into their desks, not touching them again until their next library day. The first big change I noticed after Scholastic Reading Counts! was that more and more kids were renewing their library books. Our renewal basket had nearly as many well-used, book-marked books as our return basket. Our circulation continuously keeps climbing. In the last three years it has almost doubled. We have had to increase the number of items students could check out each week three times – from 2 to 5 items and many are coming back for new books before their next library time. Kids are constantly stopping me in the hall to report on their point total. They are recommending books for future purchases to keep up with their favorite sequels or author’s newest book. It is wonderful to see our library be such a very important and necessary part of our school. I cannot say enough about Scholastic Reading Counts!