Published: November 06, 2009 11:06 am      

Coleman student advances in reading bee competition

Jaxton Hunt may not be at a reading level of Herman Melville and “Moby Dick.” But suffice to say he’s long past “Dick and Jane.”

Hunt, a second-grader at Coleman Elementary, won the Cleburne ISD Reading Bee Thursday at CISD central administration. He advances to the Wal-Mart North Texas Reading Bee at TCU on Nov. 21. The Reading Bee, for second-graders only, is part of the Score A Goal in the Classroom program.

This is the first year the Reading Bee has been districtwide in Cleburne. Second-grade teacher Tracy Humphrey began the bee several years ago at Gerard Elementary.

“In the past, the district was represented by the Gerard winner,” district spokeswoman Lisa Magers said. “It was really important to Tracy to expand the Reading Bee to the district level so the district would be represented by its best second grade reader. That says a lot for Tracy.”

CISD’s district-level competitors — Hunt, Shawn Horn of Gerard, Avery Bush of Irving, Rylee Mullen of Marti, Charlie Spillman of Cooke and Jake Carroll of Adams — qualified by winning competitions at their home campuses. At the district level, they were recognized individually with stoles and certificates.

The competition consisted of each student reading multiple passages of text to a pair of judges. Afterward, the student was asked for comprehension.

“At the campus level, the students are nominated by their second grade classroom teachers based on their [Texas Primary Reading Inventory],” said CISD science and gifted and talented coordinator Tracy White. “All students grades K through two are tested on that for fluency and comprehension, where they are as far as reading level. The students with the highest PRI scores are nominated by their teachers.”

Judges keep a running tally.

“Two teachers score it, two teachers per student,” White said. “They read a number of passages. At the district level, it’s three. At campus level, it was four. The passages increase in difficulty. At campus level, they’re for third grade through 10th grade levels. At district, they’re for seventh through 10th.

“The scorers keep track of the mistakes in the readings. That’s the fluency part of the score. Then the student answers questions. That’s the comprehension part. It’s a combination.”

Hunt appeared to have little trouble dealing with 10th-grade level reading material. That may or may not translate to a win at TCU.

“Many districts are competing in this,” White said. “We don’t know how we’ll do.”

The Reading Bee and state-mandated TAKS testing are not directly related, in that TAKS reading tests do not begin until third grade.

But some 92 percent of Cleburne third-graders passed the TAKS reading last year. That’s a good indication that most CISD second-graders can read.

“TPRI is a good assessment tool,” White said. “We inventory that to identify students who need additional help through our [Response to Intervention] program. That’s something that’s mandated. Every district has it. If students are not showing success in the classroom, teachers document it, and we try interventions. We give them additional resources to bring them up to grade level.

“Each campus has different things that are available based on the uniqueness of the campus. We have four that are bilingual. Most have a reading recovery program. It’s working. The majority of our students pass the reading TAKS in third grade.”

In Cleburne ISD, students officially begin reading in kindergarten. Many, of course, read before then.

“It depends on what they’ve been exposed to,” White said. “[Kindergarten] is where they learn letters and sounds. That’s reinforced in first grade. We have an accelerated reader program on some of our campuses. We begin reading books and testing over those books to test comprehension.”

Literacy is vital to students, White said.

“I was explaining to the kids today that reading is the foundation for academic success,” White said. “You have to be able to read to do almost everything else. There are students who learn to cope based on their reading levels, but you have to establish that foundation pretty quickly.”

CISD elementary students appear excited about reading, she said.

“Most are because it’s new and fun and because of the way it’s presented to them. To see our teachers at work in the classroom is amazing. They bring excitement to the classroom to make reading connect with the students. Most kids are excited about reading at that level. When you get to high school and college and you’re reading things just to get by, it’s kind of a different story. Most of us like to read what we’re interested in.”

White said society should consider literacy vital.

“I don’t know how well you can get by in the world today without communication skills.”