'Million Page Challenge' 'Million Page Challenge' (February 16, 2005)

Encinal school meets reading challenge

By Marjorie Mader

Almanac Staff Writer

Encinal School's "Million Page Challenge" -- reading one million pages by Dr. Seuss' birthday on March 2 -- seemed like "Mission Impossible" last October.

But amazing things happened at the Menlo Park district's grade 3-5 school in Atherton.

Everybody -- students, teachers, staff, moms, dads, sisters and brothers -- started reading like crazy, picking up the pace after the holiday break. They could read anything -- books for fun, textbooks, newspapers and magazines -- and all the pages counted toward reaching the Million Page Challenge.

Almost six weeks early, on January 28, Encinal reached its one-million-page goal, said Principal Stacy Marshall. "We knew we were getting close; excitement was building," she said.

An announcement over the loudspeaker system and a sign -- "We Made It!" -- posted at the entrance to the school, told the good news.

"The kids were very excited to make the goal," said Ms. Marshall, "and so were the families. It's been a lot of fun."

"We're continuing to track the pages read," said a delighted Ms. Marshall. The students, staff and families want to see how many more pages they can read beyond the one million goal. By February 11, the Encinal community collectively had read a total of 1,070,296 pages.
Brainstorming

The idea for the reading challenge evolved from a cluster of Encinal teachers talking about what they could do to focus on reading by setting goals and bringing the community together, said Ms. Marshall.

"We did some brainstorming," she said, and brought librarian Gail Bradley and Susan Blanco, Encinal's reading specialist, on board.

They teamed up to write a proposal for a Jeanie Ritchie Grant that was one of the 16 grants funded by the Menlo Park-Atherton Education Foundation.

A system to keep track of the number of the pages read was put in place that combined math and geography with a super-size map of the 50 states.

Readers filled out a form, listing their name, book title, author, number of pages read and a one-sentence review, and deposited their slips in boxes in the library and school office.

The pages were tallied weekly in the library.

When the numbers totaled 20,000, a student colored one of the states on the large map in the library. The 20,000 number was significant because 50 (states) times 20,000 equals one million, the challenge's goal. The states were colored in the same order that the states were admitted to the Union, beginning with Delaware.

"Kids come in (to the library) all day long and put their completed record forms in the mailbox," said Ms. Bradley, the librarian. "The circulation of books has gone up 35 percent, compared (with) last year."

The students bought into the project, and so did their parents.

Third-grader Aditya Sinha, for example, carried a Harry Potter hardback and a paperback on his 32-hour flight to India, where he spent his holiday in New Delhi. Some students encouraged their dads to finish their books by New Year's Day.

Both Ms. Marshall and Ms. Bradley said more families were enjoying reading together. One family set a goal of reading 20,000 pages.

"Kids who didn't see themselves as strong readers have become good readers," said Ms. Marshall, acknowledging that "any kind of reading helps."

Some students were surprised to discover how much they read in their classes each day.
Guest author

Encinal is now gearing up to celebrate "Read Across America Day" on March 2 with a week of events. Starting Monday, February 28, Principal Marshall will bring milk and cookies to each classroom and read a book that she will leave for the classroom.

On Tuesday, March 1, Menlo Park author Jeanne DuPrau will read from her recent book, "The City of Embers," to Encinal students at an assembly. She will talk about reading and writing.

Sixteen guest readers -- including Atherton Mayor Bill Conwell, author Nancy Etchemendy and para-Olympic swimmer Kelly Crowley -- have been invited to read to a class on Wednesday, March 2.

An all-day "read in" is scheduled for Thursday, March 3, with birthday cake at lunch.

The finale will be a celebration at lunch on Friday, March 4, revolving around the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Students will participate in an Encinal-designed version of "Jeopardy."

The students have invited the governor to join them, but he hasn't responded yet.
E-mail Marjorie Mader at mmader@AlmanacNews.com

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