Teachers across western Pennsylvania have found a way to get third graders excited about reading through a program developed by the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation and U.S. Steel.<\/p>\n
More than 1,000 students participated in this year’s Reading Champions program, which has now concluded its fifth year. In total, kids read more than 1 million minutes’ worth, according to U.S. Steel.<\/p>\n
The program encourages kids to read both in school and at home, logging the minutes they read so it can be tallied together, with classrooms getting a range of prizes depending on how much they read.<\/p>\n
The winning class was Carrie Catone’s Wilkins Elementary STEAM Academy classroom with 78,345 minutes. The academy is part of the Woodland Hills School District.<\/p>\n
Their classroom was rewarded with their own suite at a Penguins game and a trophy, modeled after the Stanley Cup, that’s crafted by U.S. Steel.<\/p>\n
The kids were shown on the Jumbotron, the announcer gave them a shoutout and a few of them got to say “It’s a hockey night in Pittsburgh” in front of the arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“My favorite part was screaming so loudly,” one of the students said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another student in Catone’s class, Eilis Simpson, said before being in the program, she only liked to read here and there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I didn’t read a lot, but like, now I like to read, like, every day,”\u00a0 Simpson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Catone said her students read at home, at school, never stopping.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’m really proud, because she inspires her little brothers to read as well,” Eilis Simpson’s father Joshua said. “So everybody in the house is reading.”<\/p>\n
Asked how her class read the most, Catone said it came down to determination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They just continued to motivate each other,” Catone said. “Each week I would tell them what their total minutes were, so their determination was to beat the minutes that they got one week, they would try to beat it the following week.”<\/p>\n
By turning reading into a game, the program has found success.<\/p>\n
The program includes students from Clairton City, Duquesne City, McKeesport, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Propel Braddock Hills Elementary School, South Allegheny, Steel Valley, West Mifflin, Wilkinsburg and Woodland Hills.<\/p>\n
Teacher Ashley Green’s classroom at Clara Barton Elementary School in West Mifflin won in her first year participating in the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She invited KDKA into her classroom, where she set a 20-minute timer for the class to read, fittingly the length of a hockey period.<\/p>\n
“The goal is to get a book in their hands, get them working with words, get them looking at pictures, use their imagination, spark their creativity, and then motivate them to be a part of a team and log minutes towards a classroom goal, an individual goal,” Green said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prizes range from bookmarks to foam pucks, mini sticks to Penguins tickets. The classroom that reads the most gets to watch a Penguins game from inside of a suite.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It was incredible, an incredible experience for the families,” Green said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many of the kids had never been to a Penguins game before. Oftentimes, families get tickets to go to Penguins games who could not afford to go otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
West Mifflin literacy coach Dina Fouser said they saw a 20% increase in students’ reading proficiency scores in the program’s first year. She’s confident the increase is a direct result of the program. Each year since the program, scores have improved, she said.<\/p>\n
“By developing those reading habits, it has allowed them to build stamina and confidence in reading,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scott Buckiso, U.S. Steel senior vice president and chief manufacturing officer of North American Flat-Rolled, was on hand in the suite with students at the Penguins game. He said it doesn’t matter whether you’re the winning school.<\/p>\n
“Every kid here today is a winner. So is U.S. Steel, and so is the Penguins for supporting it,” Buckiso said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The impact, he added, is obvious.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’re helping kids want to get that education, want to be able to read,” Buckiso said. “We give them something, a goal to go after, and that drives the kids in the classroom.”<\/p>\n
He said it helps them to eventually become better contributors in their community.<\/p>\n
“And hopefully we see some of them in our facilities later in life,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
U.S. Steel supplies books for the classrooms, a company spokesperson said. Those books feature positive handwritten messages written by U.S. Steel and Penguins employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One read, “You can do this, one book at a time.”<\/p>\n
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