D.E.O. Middle School Celebrates Read Across America Day

Students and teachers at David E. Owens Middle School will celebrate the annual Read Across America Day with various special events Wednesday morning. In the afternoon, the whole school will participate in "silent reading."

Sixth grade students will be sharing jokes, riddles, magic tricks and card tricks which they learned from reading books and researching on the Internet. Some sixth graders will also be reading their original, Dr. Seuss-style poetry.

Seventh grade students recently read nonfiction books from the school library. They will participate in "booktalks" with each other. Students will pair up and then switch partners numerous times, sharing with each partner what they thought of the book they read. Linda Keesing, the school media specialist, developed the "booktalk" exercise.

"Students can quickly find out about some other interesting books that they may want to check out next," said Keesing. 

Eighth grade students will participate in a "first-line" contest, where they will try to guess which book the line came from. They will work in teams of four, and a special prize will be awarded to the winning team, according to Keesing.

"I  hope there will be lots of enthusiasm for these activities," said Keesing. "Dr. Seuss and reading advocates everywhere would certainly want it that way."