Young Miners up to the challenge

WALLACE — Students at Wallace Jr./Sr. High School have been given a pretty cool incentive for their reading efforts.

WHS’s 10 Book Challenge is fairly simple in nature, but school librarian Katie Bauer is hoping that it encourages kids to electively read throughout the school year.

“They have the whole year to read 10 books of their choice and record a 2-minute book review for each book,” Bauer said. “The reviews are recorded on Flipgrid (a video response platform for educators). It is a closed group, so students have to use their school Google account to view and record videos.”

The contest began in September when school began and is emphasized with students in seventh and eighth grade — but is open to everyone in the school.

“At the heart of this promotion is the knowledge we have that reading is a very strong predictor of future success,” Bauer said. “Independent reading is the best way for students to build their vocabulary, and anything we can do to encourage students to read more is a win for us.”

According to proliteracy.org, one in seven Americans have literacy issues.

People with low literacy skills are four times more likely to have poor health, twice as likely to be unemployed, and are even less likely to be politically engaged or understand what is going on in politics.

Students who complete the challenge get a hoodie that is printed by the WHS school screen printing class — which is an important aspect of the program as well.

“We have an annual contest for the hoodie design and this year we combined two designs by seventh-grader Madison Johnson and ninth-grader Menna Evans,” Bauer said. “I have done similar challenges in the past, but this is the first year we have done video reviews and students seem to enjoy this way of responding to books.”

So far, six students at WHS have completed the challenge and received their free hoodie, including most recently seventh-grader Avi Bosen.