HISD Students Read More Than 83,000 Books Over Summer
What did you do on your summer vacation?
For thousands of HISD students, the answer was that at least part of the time, they were reading books. As part of HISD’s “Millionaire Club” literacy program, 16,654 students read 83,803 books during their summer break—an increase of almost 50 percent from last year’s total number of readers (11,567).
Celebrations were held at participating schools across the city on September 25, 2009. One such event took place at Robert Patterson Elementary School, a literature Magnet school, with HISD’s Department of Library Services and the Houston Public Libraries' Summer Reading Program.
“Reading is awesome, especially when the author’s words let you feel what the characters are feeling,” said Ashlee Turrubiartes, a fifth-grader and top reader at Patterson. “I think that after all the fun of Millionaire’s Day, everyone at Patterson will be very, very excited about reading.” Last year, Ashlee was a member of Patterson’s “Name That Book” team and she is working hard to make the team again this year. She’s also recruiting other students for the Name That Book team by telling them what a great experience it was.
Patterson had a parade throughout the school with each participating student wearing his or her Millionaire T-shirt, while other students cheered from the sidelines. Administrators and other staff members were stationed along the way to hand out rewards such as pencils, bookmarks, and a free book to everyone. The parade concluded in the school cafeteria, where Principal Jeannie Castano spoke about Panther pride and the enormous respect the school has for all of its readers. Finally, a kindergarten classroom presented a brief skit based on a piece of literature.
The number of summer readers in HISD is still growing, as a few schools are still reporting data. Each participating school has received four tickets to the October 4 Dynamo game, and will have a drawing involving all participating students to select either one winner of four tickets, or two winners of two tickets each. Every student who participates gets a Millionaire Club T-shirt.
In the summer of 2008, HISD partnered with Houston Public Libraries to kick off the Millionaire Club, encouraging students to read a collective one million books over the summer as a vital part of HISD’s “Literacy Leads the Way” program, a $3 million prekindergarten-through-twelfth-grade program which is designed to significantly improve students’ overall literacy skills. As a part of this program, all teachers at all grade levels are asked to spend a minimum of 20 to 25 percent of their time in every class teaching literacy, including reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills.
