THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412090322
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COURTLAND LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
STACEY LEWIS SWEARS she didn't read a single book last year.
``I always went to the library and checked the books out,'' recalled the Southampton Middle School seventh-grader. ``And then I dropped them in my bookbag and kept on going until I returned them.''
But these days, thanks to the school's new Accelerated Reader Program, Stacey, 13, actually reads the books before she returns them.
The Accelerated Reader is a computer program that motivates kids to read by awarding them points for reading and passing a computer test on any of the titles in its directory.
Each book has been assigned points based on its difficulty. Students then exchange their points for prizes that have been donated by teachers and area merchants.
Stacey is in the middle of the fourth book she's read in two months, Linda Crow's ``Children of the River.'' Because the books she has read so far have been worth only a few points each, Stacey wants to read Charles Dickens' classic ``David Copperfield.''
``I'm going to give it a try . . . because it's worth 69 points,'' Stacey said.
And it's going to take a lot of points to win the two prizes Stacey has set her eye on: a limousine ride and a pizza party for her class.
``I like my pizza with lots of extra cheese, pepperoni and a real thick crust,'' said Stacey, grinning. ``My class really wants that party so everybody is reading.''
Stacey's class is representative of most at Southampton Middle this year, according to Betty Mann and Sandra Benson, the teachers who started the program.
The two had heard of the Accelerated Reader Program's overwhelming success in other school divisions nationwide. Last year, they received a grant from Union Camp Corp. to use as seed money for funding the program.
The program is repeating its record of success at Southampton Middle. Both teachers are telling stories of students who rarely used to look at books now reading before and after class, on the school bus and at home.
``Kids pick their own books . . . and read them at their own pace,'' Mann said. ``We just want them reading . . . because this will show in improvements in all their classes.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Stacey Lewis, a student at Southampton Middle School in Courtland,
reads in the school library to prepare for a computer test. She
could earn points that can be used to purchase prizes.
by CNB