Dig Into Reading: Promoting students reading 15 minutes daily in school and at home
- Mar 31, 2025
- 4 min read
Meghan Frischenmeyer & Mariah Walsh
Carthage Sixth-Grade Center, Carthage, Missouri
Introduction
Through the Dig Into Reading multiliteracy project, we have created a culture of reading within our school and are continuing to promote reading engagement at home. We have been able to provide multilingual literacy resources and encouragement to enhance students' reading in their preferred language(s). Our goal is to help encourage, educate, and engage our students and their families to use their home languages as a way to foster multiliteracy within our community.
We implemented Dig Into Reading during our 6th-grade social studies classes. Our course of study focuses on ancient civilizations, so we tied our reading program into the same theme.
Step-by-Step Plan
June/July
Create a student reading log to track student reading progress in 15-minute increments, students’ preferred language, and home/school location of where they read.
Create an informational guide to provide detailed information about reading minutes, incentives, calendar, etc.
Create an informational presentation for teachers to share with their students.
August
Create and administer Student “Interest Inventory” and “Beginning of Year Reading Survey”.
Translate student reading log, interest inventory, and beginning-of-year survey.
Order reading benchmark incentives.
September
Implement a protected 15-minute reading time during the school day.
Support students in selecting "Right Fit" books to read.
Provide books in a variety of languages and levels. House these books in the school library.
Collaborate with classroom teachers and dual language teachers to provide information about Spanish Language Literacy.
Schedule Reading Log check-ins to provide incentives for reading time benchmark levels.
October
Send out frequent messages of encouragement to promote reading at home.
Design a visual tracking wall within the school to display student reading progress of minutes read.
November
Showcase the Dig Into Reading program at the school fall family involvement event.
March
Send home “End of Year Parent/Guardian Survey” for feedback.
April/May
Compile survey pre/post data
Evaluate the program with the EL Specialist and involve teachers and families. Identify updates for the following year, determine which languages were underrepresented, and decide on program modifications and improvements.
Budget
(3) Paw Print (100) - Royal Blue | $61.47 | |
(3) Paw Print (100) - Black | $61.47 | |
(3) Paw Print (100) - Green | $61.47 | |
(3) Paw Print (100) - Deep Orange | $61.47 | |
(3) Paw Print (100) - Red | $61.47 | |
(1) Paw Print (100) - Yellow | $61.47 | |
6” Nickel Chain (500) | $60.00 | |
My Bilingual Talking Dictionary German-English | $24.95 | |
6 Book Set: Older Language Learner (Bilingual Book) - Spanish/English | $ 91.97 | |
4 Idiom Books Set (Bilingual Multicultural Books) - Spanish-English | $15.95 | |
Agallas (Spanish) | $9.79 | |
Drama (Spanish Edition) | $10.99 | |
Hermanas (Spanish Edition) | $16.40 | |
¡Sonríe! (Spanish Edition) | $17.99 | |
Let’s Learn Japanese: First Words for Everyone | $10.89 | |
Freundlichkeit ist meine Superkraft: Ein Kinderbuch über Empathie, Freundlichkeit und Mitgefühl (My Superpower Books) (German Edition) | $15.99 | |
Learn German with Stories: Dino lernt Deutsch Collector's Edition - Simple Short Stories for Beginners (1-4) (German Edition) | $24.99 | |
Opposites in Pohnpeian: With English Translations | $11.95 | |
Ponapean-English Dictionary (PALI Language Texts―Micronesia) | $75.00 | |
My First Pohnpeian 200 Picture Word Book | $12.95 | |
My First English-Français Learning Library (Ma première bibliothèque bilingue anglais-français) : Box Set of 10 English - French Board Books | $17.39 | |
The Portrait of Dorian Gray - Le Portrait de Dorian Gray: A French to English Bilingual Book With French to English Dictionary | $24.99 | |
Le Petit Prince (French Edition) | $8.99 | |
Alice in Wonderland - Alice au Pays des Merveilles - A French to English Bilingual Book with French to English Dictionary | $19.99 | |
Esperanza Rising | $16.69 | |
Artemis Fowl (Spanish Edition) | $12.95 | |
Una arruga en el tiempo (Novela gráfica) / A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel (Spanish Edition) | $16.95 | |
El principito (TD) (Spanish Edition) | $9.95 | |
Charlotte's Web (Spanish edition): La telarana de Carlota | $7.99 | |
Dador, El: The Giver (Spanish edition) | $14.99 | |
Emmie es invisible / Invisible Emmie (Spanish Edition) | $12.95 | |
El ladrón del rayo (Percy Jackson y los dioses del Olimpo 1). (Percy Jackson Y Los Dioses Del Olimpo/ Percy Jackson and the Olympians) (Spanish Edition) | $10.99 | |
El Crossover: Crossover (Spanish Edition) | $13.99 | |
TOTAL | $957.44 |
What did it look like?
Sustainability
We created the following resources for this project: reading logs, calendars, parent letter, informational slides, beginning-of-year survey, student interest inventory, parent survey, and end-of-year survey. Our school will utilize multilingual and culturally relevant books for years.
Reflections
Our first Dig Into Reading program was a success! We saw increases in student reading engagement and motivation. The majority of resources will not require revision and we will reuse them next year.
Some of the implementation and resource aspects that we plan to revise for next year include:
We will provide students with a comprehensive Dig Into Reading folder at the beginning of the school year. This folder will include the “Excavation Guide” that details the goals, incentives, calendar, etc. The folder will also include all of the reading logs for the year that will be numbered 1-300. This year we provided students with a new reading log after they completed a log. This made it difficult for students to keep track of logs and was time-consuming for teachers.
Next year we will adjust the end-of-year goal to 300, fifteen-minute increments, rather than 400. This goal will be more appropriate and attainable for students.
We hoped to have volunteers for a reading support calendar, but we were not able to achieve this goal. We plan to reach out to community members, parents, and staff to assist us in the future.
This year we had the following incentives for Dig Into Reading
375 Minutes = Popcorn treat
750 Minutes = Ring Pop
1500 Minutes = Extra Recess
3000 Minutes = Extra Recess
4500 Minutes = Game Lunch
6000 Minutes = Dig Into Reading Celebration
Each level also included a different colored paw print charm.
Next year, we plan to adjust the incentives to:
375 Minutes = Trail Mix Pouches
750 Minutes = Ring Pop
1500 Minutes = Popcorn Treat (very popular, but needs to be awarded at a higher level of minutes read)
3000 Minutes =Extra Recess
4500 Minutes = Dig Into Reading Celebration
The paw print charms were a hit! We plan to keep them for next year.
This year we gave out incentives every two weeks and then moved to every month after winter break. Due to teaching schedules, this was sometimes difficult to implement. Next year we plan to award incentives once per month and try to coordinate with other events in our building such as Fun Fridays, Computer Science, etc.
