The Bedell reading contest led several students to push their limits. Juliet Wilson a third grader earned a whopping 278.5 points passing up all of her competition. Talon Smith, a third grader earned 83.5 points, Alexa Falls, a fifth-grade student read for 92.5 points, Sam Garcia, a second grader earned 86.8 points. Melissa Solis, another second grader read 98.4 points. “If my efforts by eating worms and shaving my head motivated one student to read, then it was all worthwhile,” said Armstrong. “Now, I’m wondering what it will take for them to read 25,000 points.”
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Students at Bedell Elementary chanted “Eat them! Eat them! Chew them! as Doug Armstrong, principal, made good his promise from the beginning of the year to eat worms and shave his head if the students met their reading goal of 20,000 Accelerated Reader Points. |
Bookworms popular at Bedell
June 26, 2002
Santa Paula News
Students at Bedell Elementary chanted “Eat them! Eat them! Chew them! as Doug Armstrong, principal, made good his promise from the beginning of the year to eat worms and shave his head if the students met their reading goal of 20,000 Accelerated Reader Points.
Not only did they meet the goal, they surpassed it.“I tried to think of a way to get more children reading. I made this promise at the beginning of the year thinking it was hard enough that nobody would reach it,” said Armstrong. “But, boy was I wrong. And...as the time grew closer, I knew I would have to stand good. You just can’t break a promise to a child.”In the Accelerated Reader Program, books are given a point value depending upon grade level, length, and difficulty. Students receive a .5-point for reading some books and 1-13 points for others. Once they finish reading a book the student completes a test and then receives the allotted point.Throughout the year, students wrote about the project, and some drew pictures of the principal eating worms, which in turn motivated them to read even more and hold Armstrong to his promise.
