Hawley Students Hooked On Reading

By Larissa Lytwyn

While most grade school buildings bask quietly in summer’s gentle warmth until the cold rush of fall classes commences, the halls of Hawley Elementary School have remained bustling.

“We opened the building Monday and Thursday mornings this summer for the Smart [summer school] program and also for children involved in the reading program,” said Doris Papp, library media specialist. The bookworm-themed reading program, she continued, has been Hawley’s strongest summer reading initiative yet.

The optional activity follows Governor John Rowland’s “Summer Reading Challenge,” a ten-point guide encouraging children and their families to build a more reading-friendly environment. Recommendations include reading daily, using the library frequently, and engaging in active discussion about favorite tomes.

“Each participant sends in a postcard with the book titles they’ve read,” explained Ms Papp. With the assistance of students from Hawley, Reed Intermediate, and even Newtown High School, Ms Papp posts a bookworm for each book a child has read. So far, the trail of brightly colored, bespectacled bookworms has crawled from the walks outside the library media center, past the computer lab, to classrooms near the other end of the building.

“We’ve had 378 books read so far,” said Ms Papp. “Children love it. They love seeing their names and their book titles up on display.” She estimates that out of the school’s approximately 480 students, roughly a quarter has chosen to participate in the program. “The number of books the children read vary,” she said. “Some have read one, others have read as many as 30.”

She said that she does not monitor which books the children choose to read. “The way I look at it, is, as long as they’re reading, that’s good,” she said. Reading a Dr Seuss book in fifth grade, she continued, is a far different experience from reading it in kindergarten. “It just gives you an entirely new perspective,” she said.

The school receives as many as ten postcards daily, many hand-delivered by students arriving for summer classes. Last spring, the staff discovered a nearly two-decade-old, green-painted mailbox in one of the school’s storage facilities. “It may have been purchased by the PTA at one point,” said Ms Papp. “I believe it was used for kids to write each other in different classes and such.” Now, it is used for children to drop off their post cards.

“We’ve received some postcards from New York City and other places,” said Ms Papp. “It’s been a good way to keep track of what children have been up to this summer!” Jeffrey Russell, a sixth grader at Reed Intermediate School and former Hawley student, has been volunteering with Ms Papp this summer. “The best book I’ve read so far this summer has been Mossflower, part of British author Brian Jacques’ popular Red Wall series.

Melissa Biscoe, a third grader at Hawley, also spent part of her summer sorting books and posting bookworms with Ms Papp. “I really liked reading Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type [by Doreen Cronin],” she said. For more information about Hawley’s summer reading program, contact Ms Papp at 270-0302 or email hawlmc@newtown.k12.ct.us.