August
04
Tags
The Phenomenon of the 100 Page Club by Stephanie Severson
At the beginning of my language arts classes all students read 10-15 minutes with a book of their choice. Students are expected to read an additional 20 minutes outside of class. I don’t use a book log, but do take a quick status of the class after we finish reading. This is one of the most important check-ins I do with students. I have a simple chart with names and five columns for days of the week. I write down the book title and then a page number everyday. I use this time also to solicit opinions about the book they are reading, or to ask what the student is planning to read next if I notice he is almost finished. It also helps me to intervene if I have a student who has a different book every day of the week.
About mid-way through the year I starting noticing that more and more students were reading 100 pages from day to day. I wanted to encourage this behavior, but also not make anyone else feel bad about not reading that many pages.
I had an empty bulletin board at the back of my room. I hung up two large pieces of colored paper and wrote 100 Pages at the top of one and 200 or More Pages at the top of the other. I didn’t make any big announcement or issue a challenge, I just hung up the pages. Then as I started noticing the 100 or 200 or more chunks of overnight reading, I asked that the student sign their name on the sheet. If during the month they had another 100 or 200 chunk, they signed the page again.
At the end of the month, I typed all the names into Wordle.net to create a word cloud. Those students who have signed the page numerous times show up in a larger font. I hung up the wordle and then hung up new blank sheets with the same heading. Here’s the dangedest thing — more and more students are reading 100 pages or more per night. It is now May, four months into this experiment and I have more students than ever on the 100 page poster. This is with no fanfare, no reward, no class recognition — they only get to sign their name and then have their name on the word cloud. I do turn the word cloud into administrators in the building, so if they see the student in the hall, they can offer recognition.
I asked a few students who have their name up on the paper for the first time this month, and here are the responses I received.
- “The more you read, the more the book gets good, and so you want to read even more!”
- “Once I notice that I’m getting close to one hundred pages, I think, ‘I might as well keep going.’”
- “I know that I’ve achieved something special, and other kids can see my name and they know I achieved something.”
I will continue to do this next year. I may ease into it with a 50 page poster and 100 pages or more poster, and then up the ante when we return from winter break. I teach at a year round school, and I’m encouraging the students to set a 1000 page goal for our short six week summer break.
Stephanie Severson is a seventh and eighth grade language arts teacher at DaVinci Academy of Arts and Science, a charter school in Blaine. She is an avid reader herself and a book pusher to all readers in the school. She tweets as @stephaseverson. Her classes blog book reviews at Leonardo’s Bookshelf. (http://davincicharterschool.wordpress.com/)
Nerdy Book Club 
Great idea, Stephanie. It’s cool to hear that the 100 pages becomes a target to students who are close to completing the goal, spurring them on to read just a couple more pages. I wonder if you could similarly motivate students to try reading outside of a comfortable genre? Or if the response wouldn’t be the same.
Stephanie, all of these are such smart, easy to use ideas. Not just the 100, 200 clubs, but the whole set-up. Brilliant! Your 7th and 8th graders might be interested in reviewing Nowhere to Run. Perfect for this age group – and any reluctant readers you might have.
This is an absolutely wonderful idea. Done so subtly students aren’t embarrassed and they realize they are being recognized in the process. For middle schoolers it is the little things that matter to them.
I absolutely love this idea, but want to make sure I’m understanding the process correctly. Do they write their name on the chart only if they have read 100 pages the previous evening, or is it whenever their cumulative number of pages reaches 100 (or 200)?
Love the idea. Wondering how to adapt it for third graders. What if they are reading picture books or graphic novels?
I have them sign it anytime there is 100 pages between status of the class… so usually overnight. But I also had it include the weekends, and because we are a year-round school we have more frequent days off, so anytime that happened and 100 pages were read, the student could sign his/her name
Great idea – and love how you responded to what you saw your students doing. I always liked a status of the class for readers or writers. Good in many ways! Thanks for sharing. I want to try Wordle. Love those graphics.
I love this quiet celebration!
I teach fourth graders and think I will adapt this so that students can sign every time they complete 100 pages. I will emphasise that they can count all reading, including math, science, and social studies books in class! I think I’ll invite the other fourth grade teacher to do the same and we can use a shared bulletin board in the hall for our 100 Page Club! And, of course, we as the teachers should be a part of the club! Maybe we will do a 100 page club for the first quarter, then a 200 page club for the second, and so on to the end of the year. Wonderful idea!
I teach 4th grade too so I think I’ll modify it like Alex is planning to. Super easy and great idea!! Thanks!!
What a great idea! I’m going to try this with my HS students.
oh I love this idea! But how do you do your status of the class? I tried it a few times last year (asking which book they were reading & what page they were on) and I couldn’t always manage to get to every kid in the same day (I did have 34 students though so that may have been part of the problem). Is it a verbal roundup? Do they jot it down for you?