BleedGopher
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 60,716
- Reaction score
- 15,968
- Points
- 113
per STrib:
Standing beside her, 6-foot-8 University of Minnesota basketball forward Jarvis Omersa added, "We are, too."
As indicated by the wide-eyed, giddy students, Omersa and his teammate Jarvis Johnson brought star power to the kickoff.
The reading contest uses the educational and familiar "myON" computer program. Participating students have access to 5,800 books through the program, which tracks reading time and includes helpful tools. So far, 200 schools have signed up.
In January, 68 schools with the best average reading times will advance to the playoffs. That's the same number of men's college basketball teams that will be in the March Madness bracket. Winners of the reading game will get yet-to-be-determined prizes.
Cordell Smith, the reading initiative project manager for Minnesota Final Four Host Committee program, said the aim is to get children reading by an age and grade where the skill becomes a predictor of success. He called it, "reading to learn rather than learning to read."
Omersa, a U freshman who graduated from Orono High School, drew the attention of the children with his height and the spiky blond tips on his dark curly hair. He folded himself into a chair for the first book he had chosen, "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh."
"The head coach wants no sissies so he reads to us from something called Ulysses," Omersa read, interrupting the reading to ask the youngsters questions or playfully comment. "What do you like to do in the summer?" he asked.
A boy said, "I like to go swimming and I also like to travel."
Omersa also read from one of his favorite series of books as a kid, "David Gets in Trouble," in which the title character gets into all sorts of mischief. "He's skateboarding in the house," Omersa said. "That was ridiculous."
http://www.startribune.com/read-to-...ota-including-pillsbury-elementary/493339181/
Go Gophers!!
Standing beside her, 6-foot-8 University of Minnesota basketball forward Jarvis Omersa added, "We are, too."
As indicated by the wide-eyed, giddy students, Omersa and his teammate Jarvis Johnson brought star power to the kickoff.
The reading contest uses the educational and familiar "myON" computer program. Participating students have access to 5,800 books through the program, which tracks reading time and includes helpful tools. So far, 200 schools have signed up.
In January, 68 schools with the best average reading times will advance to the playoffs. That's the same number of men's college basketball teams that will be in the March Madness bracket. Winners of the reading game will get yet-to-be-determined prizes.
Cordell Smith, the reading initiative project manager for Minnesota Final Four Host Committee program, said the aim is to get children reading by an age and grade where the skill becomes a predictor of success. He called it, "reading to learn rather than learning to read."
Omersa, a U freshman who graduated from Orono High School, drew the attention of the children with his height and the spiky blond tips on his dark curly hair. He folded himself into a chair for the first book he had chosen, "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh."
"The head coach wants no sissies so he reads to us from something called Ulysses," Omersa read, interrupting the reading to ask the youngsters questions or playfully comment. "What do you like to do in the summer?" he asked.
A boy said, "I like to go swimming and I also like to travel."
Omersa also read from one of his favorite series of books as a kid, "David Gets in Trouble," in which the title character gets into all sorts of mischief. "He's skateboarding in the house," Omersa said. "That was ridiculous."
http://www.startribune.com/read-to-...ota-including-pillsbury-elementary/493339181/
Go Gophers!!
