Every year at this time, our elementary school begins its Read-a-Thon fundraiser. Each kid is supposed to find sponsors willing to pay so much money for so many minutes. I love the idea of a read-a-thon. I love the idea of kids reading books instead of watching TV or playing video games. I love the idea of kids using their imaginations as the words in books create visual images in their minds. I love everything about books.
The kids get so excited. Some read and read and read. I can feel their excitement. My own kids get very excited too, especially since the school offers prizes. But, this is where my enthusiasm ends. The student who collects the most money gets a huge prize, while the child who reads the most minutes only gets a small prize. Now, I understand this is a fundraiser and in this economy schools are suffering, but I believe that a child who reads thousands of minutes during the two week period should be rewarded appropriately. I think the message to the kids is wrong because it tells the kids that having a lot of sponsors and making money is more important than reading. Besides, kids can't control how much money someone is willing to donate, but they can control their choice to read instead of playing a video game.
I also think the program should reflect the different ages. A kindergartner is going to have a much more difficult time reading for 800 minutes (the school goal for each child) than a fifth grader, yet the younger kids don't receive any recognition until they have reached exactly the same goals as the older kids. Seems a bit unfair to the younger kids.
I have tried to convince the organizers to offer goals more in line with the younger kids and I've also tried to convince them to reward the highest minutes with the same kind of prize as the most money, but I haven't been successful. So, I've designed my own prizes for my kids according to their abilities and what they want most. What is that prize? A day home with me. Yep, that's what they both said they wanted most.
I want my kids to be readers for the love of reading and the amazing places a book can take them. I want them to have fantastic imaginations and use their minds. This read-a-thon is a great idea, but I'm not so sure the execution of the idea is the best it can be.
6 comments:
I wish someone would pay me to read books! Maybe if I gave it to charity and only kept a 20% processing fee?
Seriously. Yay for your school.
The idea of a read-a-thon is great, but our school had problems too! It seemed as though they were really pushing the reading for about 1 month and the whole rest of the year it really didn't matter! I love your prize for your kids, they will love it!
Rebecca,
How can people contribute to the fundraiser?
As you know from reading AI, I'm doing a weight loss fundraiser and have arranged to do it via PayPal to make things easier.
Is your fundraiser just a local thing or can people from far away, that might be interested, make a pledge and pay via PayPal?
I'd love to pledge to your kids? What are other people pledging? Shoot me an email offline.
Randy
That's frustrating that others don't have the insight you do. Your recommendations are right on.
Hi, I was searching for rewards the principal can do for the meeting the whole school goal at our annual read-a-thon and came across your blog. We have each teacher set a classroom goal, and then the principal sets a school wide goal (usually the total of all the classroom goals plus a little). This way it isn't so hard for the little kids to reach the goal. Also, we reward the kids who read the most, one in grades k-2 and one in grades 3-6. The principal rewards the kids if the whole school meets the goal, so last year she had to kiss a calf (note this ties into the book Kiss a Cow, and we are a farming community). Hope the read-a-thon becomes all that you want it too!
Have you looked at www.read-a-thon.com?
Post a Comment