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Students in Annie Stanger’s English classes at Snyder Junior High School participated in a reading contest. Pictured on the front row are (l-r) Kaden Stone, Azariah Sosa, Carlos Chavez (top reader) and Larrisa Wilkinson. On the back row are John Lorenzo, Shaun Harp (top reader), and Emily Carper.
Eighty-nine sixth grade English students in Annie Stanger’s classes at Snyder Junior High School participated in a reading contest during the fall semester.
Stanger said she wanted to encourage her students to read more so she offered them prizes. The students received gift cards ranging from $10 to $40 depending on how much they read and they also received a book from the Newbery and Caldecott award-winning book collection.
The top readers where Carlos Chavez and Shaun Harp. Kaden Stone, Azariah Sosa, Larissa Wilkinson, John Lorenzo, Emily Carper, Jeremiah Sookraj and Ezra Alcaraz also completed the requirements.
“I really believe technology is wonderful and that computers, iPads, phones and all that are great, but it’s getting us to read in small chunks and not go deeper, and the more that we read deeper, the more educated we become,” Stanger said. “The more you read, the smarter you are, and so I think we need to read things in more depth than just a little story. I was just encouraging them to read some prize-winning literature that is at their reading level and so that’s why we had the contest — just to entice them and encourage them to be reading some chapter books.”
She said students also had to write book reports to show they understood what they read. Stanger said she plans to hold a writing contest in which students will have to write and rewrite pieces of work, which will be published in a journal in the spring.
“You have to write things several times before it’s ready for an audience, so the ones that are ready to commit to that, their work will be in the book.”