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Thursday, February 3, 2011

50 Book Challenge





















By Elaine Pearson
Bridget Schaumann, the Librarian at King's High School, Dunedin, wanted a competitive reading competition which had decent prizes to raise the profile of reading in the school. We all know how boys love competition!
She developed the '50 Book Challenge' and has been willing to let others use the idea in their schools.

So, this year I am starting it here...
I am running it basically the same as Bridget with a few adaptions for our school. The students sign up to the competition. Books must be at least 180 pages long and must be from the school library. They have to fill in a short form to have each book counted. At the end of October every student who has reached 50 books receives a certificate and small prize. The student who has read the most books gets a $50 book token and two runners up get $25.

My display shows our two top readers from last year - a year 9 and year 12 student who tied at 104 books each. They are pictured next to the piles of books they read which they found for themselves and dutifully put back. It was very interesting and rewarding for them (and me)to physically see what seven months of reading looked like! I was so delighted that these two students were so proud of their achievement. It sent a great message to the rest of the school.
The books on display are generic collection of popular books - a good introduction for our Year 9's.

Many thanks to Bridget for sharing her idea.
Take a look at her school library Blog.
She has just posted a wonderful video of Julian Smith rapping about reading a book: King's High School Library Blog

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