The Commercial-News, Danville, IL

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May 23, 2008

Young readers treated to a limo ride

Bis-Henn students celebrate achievements

BY CAROL HICKS

BISMARCK — Bismarck-Henning Elementary School honored its top Accelerated Readers with a special day this week.

The top 12 readers in the AR program, Principal Laura Girton and Librarian Marie Thornsbrough rode in a Hummer limo from KC Express Limousine Service of Danville to the Blue Kangaroo book store in downtown Danville on Wednesday.

The ride also included lunch at Monical’s Pizza and a free book before returning to school for another special ride. This time in a monster truck called the Raminator provided by Hall Brothers Racing of Champaign.

“The students had to earn 100 points in the AR program to ride the monster truck,” Thornsbrough said.

Nineteen students rode the truck on the school grounds in the afternoon.

One student, Evan Spiros, son of Jim and Stephanie Spiros of Danville, broke the school record on points earned in the AR program. He earned 333.1 points during the year, which included reading six books of the Harry Potter series.

“I broke the record at my elementary school,” the young Spiros said.

And he has already set his goal for his third-grade year. “I’m going to break my record next year with 400 points.”

Eight-year-old Spiros is in the second grade this year. He loves to read and admitted it wasn’t much of a struggle to read the books and gain the points to break the school record.

According to the young man, he got it by accident.

“I was going for 200 and Mom said, ‘you go for 300, so it was really by accident,’” he said.

The series of “Unfortunate Events” is his favorite set of books, but the individual book he enjoys reading the most is “Dragon Rider.” The best part of that book, according to Spiros, is that the Dragon Rider found more dragons in the Rim Heaven.

For Spiros, the day was special because he rode in a limo and a monster truck and also ate at Monical’s, but he added a small tidbit of information — that his favorite food was a steak at the Beef House near Covington, Ind.

The Accelerated Reading program is a computerized reading-enrichment program. Students read books and take tests to earn reading points. The lowest point received is half a point for the smaller books and up to 44 points for larger books.

“It (AR program) measures their comprehension.” Thornsbrough said. “The size and content of the book is what determines the number of points earned.”

She went on to say the prizes, which are provided by the school’s Parents’ Club, is a good incentive for the students to read, but the main goal is to increase their reading level and help those students that are struggling with reading.

The Parents’ Club has purchased a newer version of the program for the school, Thornsbrough said, which will be ready this fall.

According to Thornsbrough, this version will test the students five times a year to determine the reading level of each student.

Students will then read books in their level of reading. Printouts from the program will help teachers monitor where a student is and the improvement of each as the level of reading improves.

By reading at the specific level, Thornsbrough said, that student will test well on the books, earn points and not be disappointed at not receiving any points.

“They (AR students) are a great group of ladies and gentlemen,” Girton said. “I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

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