My Portfolio: Rallied around reading at Monte Vista Elementary

For the past three years, Monte Vista Elementary’s administration has been encouraging students to keep good reading habits. As such, they have become a “Ken Garff Road to Success school.”
As part of this program, Ken Garff donates several bikes to participating schools to give to students who make a good effort in maintaining good reading habits. Monte Vista held a rally on June 2 to award these bikes.
During this assembly, there were also several other prizes awarded at random to the students. In order to be eligible for the drawing, the students had to have read at least five consecutive days and their name was entered once. If they read for seven consecutive days, their name was entered twice for that week.
“We are trying to encourage daily reading habits,” Principal Tom Little said.
During the assembly, four bikes were given to students. These students were chosen at random from the names of the students keeping up their reading. These students were Dylan DeVoogd, Sienna Chilcutt, Ashley Romrell, and Colby McComie.
Four Utah Education Savings Plan gift certificates were awarded to students in the drawing. These students were Rachel VanCott, Kyler Sudbury, Kayla Nicholls and William Olsen.
Other prizes included eight bike helmets and bike accessories, along with books, a few of which were autographed by the readers at the school’s Dr. Seuss Day celebration.
The helmets and bike accessories were donated by Robert Debry Law Firm and Staats Bike Shop.
“The kids get really excited about the prizes they can earn from reading,” Brooke Howard, PTA president at Monte Vista, said.
Along with the rally, the school also held a book shop. In the past, the school has only received a few hundred book donations which were given as prizes during previous assembly rallies...
This year, however, through donations from the PTA, parents, the principal, the Scholastic book fair program and the Ken Garff Road to Success literacy program, Monte Vista received more than 1,400 books.
This book shop was held on June 1 and June 15. Class times were set up and each student was able to choose his or her own book to take home. “This program is designed to motivate good daily reading habits,” Howard said. “Our students have outperformed and have shown us that reading is important to them.”
Overall, the students read a total of 130,372 days during the school year which averages to 138.7 days for each student.