A simple paper chain is really all it is. Yet to the kindergarten through fourth-grade students at Skagit Adventist School (SAS) in Burlington, Wash., the chain means something more.
The students love to read.
Each link represents a number of pages that they've read during class depending on their grade level. Students submit weekly reading slips with their names and book titles. Teachers then clip together a colorful assortment of paper links to the ever-expanding hallway chain.
This is the first year to implement Pathways, a new reading program for grades one and two. However, the teachers saw the need for encouraging and supporting each other in the adoption of this program so it would be successful for themselves and their students.
Besides the paper chain, page reports and other reading activities, SAS teachers discovered the success of the new reading curriculum comes from providing students ample time for reading.
The students' level of enthusiasm for reading surprised the teachers, who realized the true potential of Pathways and reading when students kept asking for more reading time.
SAS students count the pages they read every week and then add a paper slip to the school's reading chain.
