Students could be found curled up with a book, lying on the floor their eyes glued to a page or sitting with a friend sharing a story.

“It’s a great thing to see,” Ridgecrest Principal Sara Allen said. “I’m really excited about it. We wanted to increase reading.”

It was part of this past school year’s challenge for the student body to read one million minutes.

“We’ve been tracking our progress each month,” Allen said in late spring, noting students were on track to hit the goal. “We started this in November and we’re nearing finishing up. I’ve heard the kids say how much they’re enjoying reading and that’s a reward in itself.”

The overall incentive was to invite magician Mike Hamilton for a school assembly before summer.

Along the way, teachers set aside time for students to read. There also were incentives such as a restaurant providing bookmarks for a free meal or when students read enough minutes, theyearned free books.

“We’re wanting to increase reading because it’s the basis of what we do. Our math scores have significantly improved over the last few years. With reading, we had pockets of students here who were moving in the direction we wanted, but overall, it was lagging. In looking at it, we felt what was missing was that application piece. They’re getting good at decoding and they’re building fluency, but applying it to real text is still a challenge. That will get in their way of comprehension. So that just takes reading,” she said.

Allen said Ridgecrest’s staff and faculty encouraged students in third grade through fifth grade to take part in Book Blitz Jr., where small teams read selected books and compete to answer questions, correctly identifying the title and author.

“We’ve had multiple teams, which is great. It was our first year,” she said. “We’ve also tried to align our curriculum with our library so it can be an extension for kids, especially when they have a topic they’re working on in class.”

That included adding variety and new texts to update the library’s collection.

To track the students’ reading for the challenge, the number of minutes read were added and monthly, new overall totals appeared on the school poster in the front hallway.

The thermometer marked their accomplishments—128,140 minutes to 331, 260 to 534,520 to 695,320—en route to successfully completing the Million Minute Challenge.

Canyons School District Library Media Specialist Gretchen Zaitzeff said reading supports students’ learning.

“Reading helps with everything; when you can read well and can comprehend what you’re reading, you can learn anything,” she said. “When you read fiction, it’s like, sprinting. You’re using these large muscle groups in your brain. The more you use them, the stronger you are. With nonfiction, it helps with empathy. It helps with perseverance and with your self-confidence. All these things are important and reading helps with them.”

Ridgecrest’s challenge also was a good kickoff to summer reading. Zaitzeff encourages students to participate in the Salt Lake County’s summer reading program as well as to access school libraries’ e-books and audio book platforms that are available.

“We know students read the most when our schools are closed on weekends, holidays, COVID and during the summer,” she said. “That’s why it’s essential we have an e-book and audiobook collection available to all of our students so when they have time to read, they can read whatever they want. Many students have time to explore topics and stories and genres that are interesting to them; it helps with the summer slide.”