By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
It's a deal that's too hard to pass up.
Read enough books, and get a chance to win a new bicycle.
For students at Cheney's Salnave Elementary School, the Books for Bikes program has proved to be just that – a deal too good to pass up. Since its inception almost two years ago, students in grades first through fifth have read thousands of books, with 12 bikes being given away so far.
The reading side of the deal is supplied by the national Accelerated Reader Program, a program available through Renaissance Learning, a Wisconsin-based company that provides technology for personalized practice and progress monitoring of reading, writing and math instruction used by over 79,000 North American pre-K-12 school districts.
The bikes are supplied by the Cheney Masonic Lodge, where lodge member Bob Brannon said they shop around for the best deals on a pair of wheels to be given out each quarter at a school-wide assembly – one boy's bike, and one girl's.
Brannon said each child taking part in the program must read a certain number of books, and once they have passed a comprehension test on those books, get to put their name in a drawing to win the bikes.
“The more books they read, the more times their name goes in for the drawing,” Brannon said.
Salnave librarian John Buckmaster said the test is given after every fifth book read. One young girl read so many books last year that she had 30 entries in the drawing.
While the program is open to kids in any grade level, Buckmaster said it's the younger kids that seem to be reading the most, and in that regard, it's the first-grade class of Jeanne Fredrickson that's leading the way.
“They've gone absolutely nuts with this program,” Buckmaster said.
Buckmaster estimates that students participating in the program have read well over 2,000 books this year, school wide. Of those, 1,070 books have been read by 19 students in Fredrickson's class, with 976 tests being passed, and – not surprisingly – where most of the bike winners have come from.
It's an accomplishment made even more amazing, Buckmaster said, by the fact that most first graders don't start out the school year reading.
Both of the Salnave students presented with bikes at an assembly on May 30, Duncan Waite and Sarah Hagedorn, are in Fredrickson's class. Waite read 44 books, while Hagedorn went through 35 books, Buckmaster said.
And if you think these books are of the typical see-Spot-run variety, think again. Buckmaster said many students are reading well above their grade level, such as Waite who consistently reads at a third-grade level and Hagedorn who is reading at the fifth grade level.
“They just keep pushing their reading level, push, push, push,” Buckmaster said. “They're not reading something that's easy for them.”
Each bike provided comes with a safety helmet, provided by the Cheney Fire Department. Brannon added that other Masonic lodges around the state are also now beginning to partner with their local school districts on Books for Bikes programs.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected]
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