The 3rd Grade
Reading Counts Motivation Project
Our
collaborative Reading Counts motivation project involves grade three teachers,
Mrs. Karen Northrop, Mrs.
Lisa Withrow,
Ms. Aphrodite Crandall, Mrs. Jeannean Wolf, and Mrs. Lou Griffith; student
teacher Ms. Amy Fritchman; and Mrs. Linda Crabbs, technology; and all third
graders. The goal is to get students to practice recreational reading both at
home and during D.E.A.R. time at school as demonstrated by increased test taking
with passing scores of 80% on the Reading Counts program. Our project is
focusing on increasing student motivation to read books on their lexile level
and obtain points as part of the Reading Counts system. We are motivating
students by displaying their pictures out in the hall by categories of points.
Linda Crabbs, technology, agreed to help us with picture taking of approximately
125 students in five classes. Thank you Mrs. Crabbs! Mrs. Wolf helped all of
us get those pictures onto our computers. Mrs Wolf, Mrs. Northrop, and Ms.
Fritchman worked on the banner and goal titles. They are hanging out in the
B-hall. We decided to go with a
Cats on the Move!
theme. It has been a wonderful visual!
Goal categories include:
Kittens (Meow..) 10 points
On the Go Cats 30 points
Speedy Cats 60 points
Super Sonic Cats 95 points
Top Cats 135
points
Students pictures will move
with meeting new goals. The students have been very excited about trying to get
their pictures out there and then to also move to new categories. Other
teachers have gotten involved and are encouraging their former students. This
has been particularly motivating for the third graders. Some of them have notes
on their pictures encouraging them. We appreciate the effort of those teachers
because the students are noticing!
Other motivation efforts
we are putting into effect in our classrooms are ringing a bell when a student
passes a test at 80 % comprehension. The whole class stops and claps. Some of
us are having a reward for teams when they collectively have 100 points. Some
students are adding up points on their calculators every morning! Motivation
and practice could make a deciding difference as one intervention strategy! Go
third grade team!
