All across Portage Township Schools, students are engaged in Accelerated Reader, which is a program that targets students’ reading level and provides them with short assessments to gauge their comprehension. 
At Aylesworth Elementary School, each grade level has a required designated amount of points each student needs to earn each trimester. The challenge has been to move the students beyond what’s expected and to read more often, as good readers excel in all academic areas.
Therefore, this year, Aylesworth implemented Theater Thursday. By obtaining a site license, Aylesworth was afforded the opportunity to show a movie to students at the end of each trimester, provided they had earned the required grade level points. This was met with huge success. During the last trimester, 73% of all Aylesworth students met their AR goal.
In addition, Aylesworth has implemented the “100 point” Club. Students who earn 100 AR points are rewarded with a t-shirt that reads: “Aylesworth Learner, Leader, Reader” with the number 100 on the back of the shirt. A facsimile of their shirt is then hung in the hallway, and the shirt becomes officially ‘retired.’
This has been a tremendous motivator for the students as many join the ranks of the 100 point club. The goal, Principal Mary Tracy reports, is to get more students actively engaged in reading. “We thought that 100 points would be a goal that students could achieve by year’s end. We hadn’t anticipated the kids hitting the mark by the first trimester!” So, plans are under way for those students who hit the 200 point mark and beyond by year’s end to celebrate this incredible achievement.
“There has been a definite increase in students’ reading, which will benefit them for a lifetime,” said Tracy.
