MONROE, The. (KTVE/KARD) — Students at Martin Luther King Jr. High School have a new incentive to read more books and get a perfect score on their accelerated reading test. Laura Bryant is a media scientist and librarian at Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High School. According to Bryant, research has consistently associated students with reading with better performance at all levels.
Bryant reported that students who read independently have better reading comprehension, greater verbal fluency, and general knowledge than those who don’t. She said students become better readers, perform better on achievement tests in all subjects, and have better content knowledge than their non-reading peers.
Because of this research, Bryant said Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High School took the hundreds of research studies seriously and implemented a new way to encourage students to read.
According to Bryant, she served as an elementary school librarian for eight years for Monroe Schools. Now, she said that as a junior high school freshman librarian, she constantly tried to find ways to motivate her students to read. In February, the school created an incentive and incentive currency for students.
Bryant reported that the school started the “A’s for J’s” project.
Bryant said that for every 100 students tagged on an accelerated reading test, their names are entered into a raffle to win a pair of Michael Jordan tennis shoes. On Monday, March 21, 2022, one 7th grader and one 8th grader will receive a new pair of shoes.
According to Bryant, the data speaks for itself, as the school released these statistics:
- First nine weeks, students read 1,477 books
- Second nine weeks, students read 2,006 books
- Third nine weeks, students read 5,119 books
Bryant reported that motivation to win a pair of Jordans increased Martin Luther King Jr. High School student reading by 347%.
