PTA, Teachers Help Support Reading Program at Sternberger

The GCS Reads 20 program is closing in on its first anniversary, and GCS students have recorded more than 131 million minutes of reading during the school year. But for the students at Sternberger Elementary, reading 20 minutes a day is a habit they formed many years ago.

So it’s not surprising that today, Sternberger was named a GCS Reads 20 School of the Month for April 2015. For more than 10 years, parents and teachers there have been encouraging students to read 20 minutes a day, 20 days a month, in addition to their schoolwork. In fact, the PTA helps provide incentives for students who meet that goal, through book fairs and other prizes. Teachers join in by demonstrating their love of reading and helping students track the minutes they read. 

Students like Abby Gray serve as role models. Abby, a fifth-grader in Jennifer Johnson’s class, says reading opens up new worlds for her, and she goes well beyond 20 minutes per day. She encourages students who haven’t discovered their love of reading to keep trying new genres.

Sternberger Elementary, representing the Central Region, recorded an average of 414 minutes per student last month. Three other schools were named GCS Reads 20 Schools of the Month:

• The Middle College at N.C. A&T (Southeastern Region), with 531 minutes on average;
• Jesse Wharton Elementary (Northern Region), with 408 minutes; and
• Stokesdale Elementary (Western Region), with 858 minutes on average.

GCS students read more than 18 million minutes in April, an average of 254 minutes per child.