The Byron-Bergen Elementary School’s Celebration of Reading Challenge began on December 5, 2014 – students pledged to read 20,000 books before the school year ended. On May 28, the entire school population gathered to hear the results, delivered by teacher Debbie Slocum: just over 510 motivated young readers had exceeded their goal, reading a total of 23,473 books.
And the students’ reward for all that reading? Inspired by the book “Stuck” by Oliver Jeffers, about an impossible tree where everything thrown into it gets stuck, Principal Brian Meister and Assistant Principal Amanda Cook promised to allow themselves to be duct taped to chairs during the assembly, and to wear clothes made of duct tape the next day. “It’s a fun way to get students “stuck” on reading,” said Meister. “It keeps them excited and wanting to read more, while the duct tape event itself is something they will always remember.”
The Celebration of Reading is the brainchild of Byron-Bergen’s English language arts (ELA) committee, which began the challenge in 2013 with a goal of reading 10,000 books (a target also exceeded by over 8,000). The assembly included guest speaker Nancy Bailey from the Bergen Public Library who invited the children to visit the library and to keep reading over the summer. Selected readers from each grade level received new books to jumpstart their summers, some of which were signed by the authors or illustrators.
Teachers read selections from a few favorite books, complete with comic flourishes. Craig Schroth read from Mo Willems’ “Knuffle Bunny”; Taylor Farruggia read from “Strega Nona” by Tomie DePaola; Heather Young entertained with “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz; and Daneen Williams read from “Miss Nelson is Missing” by Harry G. Allard Jr. and James Marshall. Many other teachers participated in the event, including Nicole Newton, Mariah LaSpina, and Karen Tischer.
A highlight of the readings was a hip-hop version of the Dr. Seuss classic “Green Eggs and Ham” by teachers Ken Rogoyski and Megan Wahl, assisted by student Katherine Rogoyski as “Fox I Am.” Students were also treated to a showing of the school’s video “Read a Book” (based on Taylor Swift’s song “Shake It Off”) which was produced at the beginning of the school year.
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