Winter can be a difficult time to keep students in a reading rhythm.
After winter break, routines have to be rebuilt. At Central Elementary School in rural Vinton County, Ohio, bad weather can add another complication: missed school days that interrupt the momentum teachers are trying to restore.
Fifth-grade teacher Tonya Brown wanted a way to get her students reading again, and to keep them reading even when they weren’t in the classroom.
So she gave them a challenge.
Turning the post-break slump into a quest
Tonya launched a Bookroo Team Quest with a goal of reading 5,000 pages.
“I decided to run a winter challenge to get students back into the swing of things after our Winter Break. This is the time of year when we miss a lot of school due to bad weather, and it was a way to try to engage students and keep them motivated to keep reading in between days off.”
The challenge gave students something concrete to work toward. But Tonya had another powerful motivator on her side: friendly competition.
Central Elementary has three fifth-grade classes, and the students know one another well.
“All the students know each other, and they are very competitive, so they loved the idea of trying to beat another class or even the peers within their own classroom.”
Suddenly, independent reading wasn’t entirely independent.
Every chapter and every page contributed to something students could watch grow. They could compete with another class, challenge their friends, or simply see how much more they themselves could read.
5,000 pages became 7,614
The students didn’t merely reach the goal.
They passed it.
By the end of the challenge, students had logged 7,614 pages, more than 152% of their original 5,000-page target.
And some of the reading began spilling beyond the classroom.
Tonya allowed students to log books they read at home as well, giving motivated readers a reason to keep going even when they weren’t at school.
That mattered during a season when school itself wasn’t always predictable.
A snow day didn’t have to become a day off from reading.
pages read
7,614
of the goal
152%
Giving teachers a window into independent reading
The competition helped motivate students. But for Tonya, Bookroo solved another problem that exists throughout the school year: What are students actually doing during independent reading time?
Silent reading is valuable precisely because students are reading independently, but that can also make it difficult for a teacher to see the full picture.
Bookroo gave Tonya a window into that time.
“I love being able to pull reports and actually track what students are doing during their silent reading time.”
Instead of independent reading disappearing into an unmeasured block of the school day, Tonya could see what students were accomplishing and use that information to encourage them.
And the winter challenge wasn’t the end of it.
Turning reading progress into recognition
By the end of the school year, Tonya was using Bookroo’s reading data to recognize students for what they’d accomplished.
“I was able to use the information to reward students at the end of the year, and even created a ‘Wall of Fame’ for students who read the most pages during the year.”
That’s a small change with a meaningful effect.
Reading became something students could be known for.
The books themselves remained at the center of the experience. Bookroo simply helped make the effort that had previously been largely invisible, pages read quietly in class, chapters finished at home, habits built over months, visible enough to celebrate.
Technology that leads students back to books
Vinton County provides students with access to classroom technology. But Tonya’s experience with Bookroo illustrates a different role technology can play in reading instruction.
The goal isn’t to put another digital activity in front of students.
It’s to use technology briefly and purposefully, to set a goal, record a book, understand progress or celebrate an accomplishment, and then send students back to reading.
For Tonya’s fifth graders, a reading challenge ultimately meant thousands of pages read in real books.
And for Tonya, Bookroo made the reading happening in her classroom easier to see, support and celebrate.
She also found support when she needed it as she introduced a new tool into her classroom:
“My experience with the Bookroo team has been great. They are always quick to get back to me when I have questions and were extremely helpful, especially in the first few weeks when I was getting familiar with the platform.”
What began as a way to rebuild reading momentum after winter break became something larger: a competition between classmates, reading at home, year-end rewards, and even a Wall of Fame.
Sometimes giving students a reason to read one more page can lead to a whole new story.