Clifford visits six schools to celebrate achievements from the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge

Children cheered on their classmates and were treated to a visit from Clifford the Big Red Dog during the Mount Vernon City School District’s Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge celebration on Friday, October 11, 2024. The students with the most minutes read during the summer at six schools received books and trophies from the District to recognize their accomplishments. 

The District utilized Scholastic’s Literacy Pro tool, which provided students with a library of over 3000 e-books to choose from. The tool can also be used to log reading minutes from physical books. Research – most notably the Anderson, Wilson and Fielding study, “Growth in Reading and How Children Spend Their Time Outside of School” – shows that students that read over 20 minutes a day outside of school have much higher achievement rates.

“It was a huge success, and our students read over 67,000 minutes,” said Director of Humanities Marybeth Rhodes. “We had top readers in grades K-8, and this celebration highlights their success as readers and young readers who want to continue to read. It also highlights the work that our teachers are doing in the classroom with the students.”

The celebration started at Lincoln School, which was the school with the most minutes of reading in the District with 12,015. Students cheered as Clifford came into the auditorium to dance and celebrate their accomplishments. 

“We are so very excited and so extremely proud of each and every one of you at Lincoln School, so we were not surprised to find out that our Lincoln School was the school in Mount Vernon who read the most number of minutes during the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge,” said Lincoln School Assistant Principal Kristin Cipriano. “This assembly is all about you.”

The top reader for fifth grade was Carlota Silva at Lincoln School, who read 2,246 minutes.

“I really like reading, and in the app, there’s really many interesting books,” said Carlota. “I read books about what actually happened in real life and fantasy books. I feel so excited because I never thought that I would win this. Every time I read, it feels like the whole story is happening right in front of me.”

Lincoln School student Emely Mateus was the top reader for eighth grade with 1,201 minutes. She leaned towards reading suspense and mystery books through Literacy Pro, and her favorite book was “Little Creeping Things.”

“Reading is a passion I have,” said Emely. “I love reading, and one day I might be an author when I grow up. I love reading because I feel like I’m inside the book and I’m experiencing it. It also helps you open your eyes and observe how the world actually is. I’m really happy that I won, and I hope this inspires other people to read more.”

Clifford the Big Red Dog and District administrators then traveled to Mount Vernon Leadership Academy to celebrate the student with the most reading minutes overall. Sebastian Burgess, a fourth-grade student at MVLA, read 2,561 minutes. His favorite books were the “Black Lagoon” books.

“Once I heard about the trophy and the Clifford dog visit, I wanted to start reading books so I could get that,” said Sebastian. “I like reading because when you find a book you love, you can always find happiness in reading.”

The top reader for third grade, Imari Burrell, is also a student at MVLA. Imari’s and Sebastian’s parents visited the school during Clifford’s visit to celebrate their children. The classes Clifford visited at MVLA prepared for it by listening to the Clifford book "The Birdwell Times." They worked collaboratively to fill out a story elements graphic organizer focusing on character, setting, problem and solution. 

“We are absolutely thrilled as a school community,” said MVLA Principal Colleen Seivright-Crawford. “We are all hands on deck as it relates to literacy, as we recognize it is cross curriculum. We are proud of our young men for this amazing accomplishment.”

MVLA puts a heavy emphasis on literacy by recognizing its top readers on the i-Ready online learning platform during their quarterly honor roll assemblies.They also host a literacy night in collaboration with parent liaisons. They promote reading further through outreach to the community for guest readers which include police officers, parents and MVCSD administrators. 

Clifford continued on to the schools with top readers in first, second, sixth and seventh grades to celebrate those students:

• Graham School: Akeela Samuels, first grade (970 minutes)

• Nelson Mandela/Dr. Hosea Zollicoffer School: Theodore Simpson, second grade (1,827 minutes)

• Denzel Washington School of the Arts: Alexander Cole-Fertil (671 minutes)

• Pennington School: Shay Roy, seventh grade (1,144 minutes)

"We are extremely proud of the reading accomplishments of our students for the first digital literacy summer reading challenge in the Mount Vernon City School District,” said Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Administration Dr. Jamal Doggett. “We look forward to celebrating our students throughout the school year as they continue to make literacy a priority and thrive academically! We also want to cultivate a culture of a lifelong

appreciation for reading for all our students."

The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge will continue next summer, and students should expect even more competition after the excitement of the first celebration.

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