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The Reading Initiative

At Townsend Harris High School, our efforts to promote independent reading go well beyond offering time in classes for students to read. Each year, we host a series of events that bring students together and engage them in exciting ways.

Events include all night reading challenges, holiday celebrations, trip opportunities, and a yearlong grade vs. grade competition that officially begins on Founders Day and ends on Keepers Day.
  1. CHOOSE YOUR READING: The first, and most important thing you have to do, is read independently. Find whatever minutes--seconds even--you have each day to devote to a book you want to read. It can be an audio book, a comic book, or not a book at all (a magazine, a short story, poems); it should be whatever you choose that engages you. If you want to count your school reading, go ahead, but we'd like you to push yourself towards even the tiniest amount of "for you" reading whenever you can all year.

  2. LOG YOUR MINUTES: Once you have your routine going, start logging the time and pages spent reading independently. Make a copy of this Google Spreadsheet and use it to log your minutes/pages read throughout the year. Watch this 'how to' video from Ms. Laverde.

  3. REPORT YOUR TOTALS: Twice each month, you can share how many minutes you read with a form that Ms. Laverde emails the entire school.

  4. SOCIALIZE: You can also earn points for attending events and for participating in events. These events will also have special challenges that you can win and you can earn additional points for winning (see below).

  5. WIN PRIZES: The grade that earns the most points will win the THHS Cup, announced at Keepers Day each June. The students who earn the most individual points will earn a grand prize spot on our Reading Initiative overnight trip in the spring (all expenses paid). There will be other individual prizes drawn throughout the year for students who earn large amounts of points (more info to come as we raise money for prizes).
 
Each point represents one minute of independent reading. Our goal is to log a million minutes each school year. Below is the current standings for the challenge (updated at the start of December):
  1. The Freshmen: 141,858 Points
  2. The Sophomores: 113,178 Points
  3. The Seniors: 84,196 Points
  4. The Juniors: 65,683 Points
Below are some of the key events that take place throughout the school year.
  1. Banned Book Week Read-In
    The entire school will have double period in one class during Banned Book week. Students can read an independent book of their choosing during their double band reading session to celebrate the freedom to read.

  2. The Witching Hour Read-a-thon
    This is our biggest event of the year. Students stay in school all night to read and hang out/have a Halloween party. The challenge is: can you still be reading as the sun rises? Those who make it will win points towards the Reading Challenge.

  3. Season's Readings
    The entire school celebrates the holidays on a Friday in December. There are holiday readings in the auditorium, cultural readings shared by students, independent reading periods, and holiday market run by clubs and our Festival of Nations teams.

  4. Read Dating
    Students rank a series of love poems and then are paired based on their rankings with another student. They then are invited to the library for a Valentine's Day lunch served by staff.

  5. The Reading Initiative's Spring Overnight Trip
    Each year, we choose a new location with a literary theme for an overnight trip. All students are invited to join the trip but select students who are top participants in the Reading Challenge will win our grand prize: a free spot on the trip.