School-wide reading goal doubles over four years at Leonora Fillmore Elementary!

For four years, Scholastic Reading Counts! has been the centerpiece for the motivational reading program at Leonora Fillmore School. Leonora Fillmore School, a K–5 elementary school has used Scholastic Reading Counts! to improve their original motivational reading model for students’ recreational reading. Teachers discovered early on that their intermediate students needed to be held accountable for comprehension in their personal reading. Independent reading logs were proving to be inaccurate and soon became an indeterminable tool for gaining insight into a student’s reading comprehension ability.

In the early stages of using Scholastic Reading Counts! they trained their staff, invested in quizzes and used Scholastic’s MyLibrary service to align their school library with quizzes they had purchased. As a result, Scholastic Reading Counts! quickly became a natural fit as a means to determine whether or not students were reading and comprehending independently.

The most difficult challenge Fillmore faced at the start of using the Scholastic Reading Counts! program was trying to pick an achievable goal for third through fifth grade students. Initially, point goals for each grade were determined after receiving a tremendous amount of support from the community. Local businesses and organizations were willing to donate prizes and gift certificates in order to reward the students at the Fillmore School for their reading efforts. After considering the prize totals, the school set point goals. Each year since, point goals are determined by considering previous year performance, and increasing them accordingly. School-wide incentives to use Scholastic Reading Counts! became an integral part of Fillmore’s agenda. Monthly award ceremonies where students would receive recognition for turning in independent reading logs now had a new component for intermediate students. Third through fifth grade students would now receive awards in front of their peers and their parents, for accumulating Scholastic Reading Counts! points. Students were thrilled with their own progress and the potential for being rewarded for their success.

Cynthia Shubert, Fillmore’s Literacy Coach, is the driving force behind her school’s success with the Scholastic Reading Counts! program. Between awards assemblies, she visits each classroom and encourages each student to do his or her share to reach the group goal. In order to closely follow student progress, Ms. Shubert generates point status summary reports. She believes these reports are a tremendously useful tool for teachers and coaches, as they provide a month-to-month comparison of student growth. This has proved particularly useful for the Fillmore School as a means of early detection for student comprehension struggles, especially before periods of standardized testing. She is proud to declare that each year her students have reached and surpassed their determined reading goals.

As a literacy coach, Ms. Fillmore works very closely with ELL students. Scholastic Reading Counts! has proven to be an essential component of the curriculum especially in encouraging fluency and comprehension. Ms. Shubert believes that a student must be held accountable for his or her own comprehension progress, and Scholastic Reading Counts! is essential in ensuring this. She states that if a student can read fluently, he can comprehend. If that student can comprehend, he will have a greater chance of success in math, science and social studies, as comprehension is central to academic and professional success.

Reading is the number one priority at Fillmore School. When they started Scholastic Reading Counts! four years ago, they set a goal of 5,000 points. This year they are working towards 10,000 points total. They have always reached and surpassed their target and their end of year celebration is a testament to the success of the students due to the Scholastic Reading Counts! program. Thanks to the tremendous support of the community and the PTA members, Scholastic Reading Counts! is an indispensable part of a reading success story at this elementary school.