Belleair Elementary Students Accomplish Reading 16.6 Million WordsBy Renee Burrell
photo courtesy of Belleair Elementary School CLEARWATER - On Tuesday several area children were rewarded for their dedication to reading and to their school, Belleair Elementary at 1156 Lakeview Road in Clearwater. Grade winners from the first through fifth, Thomas Herrera, Dominick Soriano, Selene Evan-Blanco, and Sakayla Davis received bikes and helmets for their participation in a challenge set before them by the Belleair Rotary Club. (Fourth grade winner Jacquez Oliver was not present). Rotarian Madonna Campion said, "For the past 13 years members of Belleair Rotary have volunteered their time, services and money to Belleair Elementary School in different ways. For the past three years the Belleair Rotary Club has challenged grades first through fifth with the use of Scholastic "Reading Counts Books" to improve reading skills and comprehension." Students read books independently then log on to the computer and take a Scholastic Reading Counts quiz. They demonstrate completion and comprehension of the book by correctly answering multiple-choice questions. Throughout this process the quizzes help students with practice in taking standardized tests. "The winner from each grade wins a new bike and helmet. Over the past three years we have seen a significant increase in the amount of words read by the students. The first year (2006-07) participation in the challenge went from a total of 700,000 words read to 1.4 million in 2007-08. For 2008-09 the Belleair Rotary Club challenged the school to read 6 million words … Robert Ovalle, Principal at Belleair Elementary, said that they not only met, but surpassed our challenge, " stated Campion. Principal Ovalle said "I am very proud of all of our students that participated in the Reading Counts program. We know that reading is the most important skill that any child can posses and by offering our students the opportunity to read more books at school and at home only benefits everyone. This year our students read over 16.6 million words compared to only 2.7 million last year. I can only imagine how many words they are going to read next year."
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