Highland Springs High kicks off literacy campaign

Student, teacher, custodian, cafeteria worker -- whatever position you hold at Highland Springs High School this year, you have one thing in common: You're reading the same book.

"We Beat the Streets: How a Friendship Pact Led to Success" is the focus of a total school literacy campaign. The book tells the story of three boys in Newark, N.J., who beat the odds together to go to college and become physicians.

To kick off the campaign, the school held a pep rally with music and cheerleaders during the first week of school. The spotlight was reserved for football players who walked into the gym reading books and for teachers who danced while the band played Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

"The program is designed to improve literacy overall for all our students," said Laura Matthews, assistant principal and one of the leaders of the literacy committee. "With the increased standards and requirements for meeting adequate yearly progress, we want to continue to meet and exceed those ever-rising benchmarks. We want to focus on literacy and programs that will help our students be more successful on all their SOLs and the increasing benchmarks."

Having the entire school join in the reading helps create a sense of connectedness and reinforces the book's messages. Highland Springs High School has nearly 1,900 students, about 85 percent of whom are black.

"Cafeteria ladies are reading the book so they can talk about it when kids go through the lunch line," Matthews said.

Beyond the reading skills, Matthews said, the school will use the lessons of the book to work on goal-setting, higher-level thinking, career planning and positive decision-making.

Each Thursday and Friday during the length of a lunch period, students will read a chapter and have assignments related to it. For each of the book's 22 chapters, the committee prepared a list of potential activities that range from writing a journal entry to having a small-group discussion. Teachers can choose what works for their class.

Success, Matthews said, will be measured by continued improvements in reading scores on the state Standards of Learning exams, "as well as by improved relationships within the student body and faculty," which aren't as easy to measure.

Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or .