Since Jan. 19, Lanier and Crockett high school students, teachers and staff have been participating in a marathon—a race to read 1 million pages.

The schools’ librarians, Emily Hersh and Claudia Gibson, set the challenge and the rules. Books, magazines, comics and eBooks counted toward a school’s total, whether read inside or outside the classroom. The only rule was that the entire book, magazine or article must be read in its entirety to count.

Teachers and staff could keep track of their students’ reading in class by counting the pages of an article distributed and multiplying by the number of students. Anything read outside class had to be logged and rated to count.

“It's good for students to associate reading with something fun,” Gibson said. “Reading is so important to everything we do, every day of our lives. And for our students, reading for fun helps them to increase their literacy skills, pretty painlessly. They encounter new vocabulary, find out about wonderful ​young adult writers and, hopefully, develop a lifelong reading habit.”

Whichever school hit the million-page mark would win an ice cream social, served and paid for by the opposing school’s principal. 

In May, Crockett High School Principal Craig Shapiro will be dishing out scoops of dessert to Lanier High School students for winning the challenge. Lanier hit the million-page mark in just three months.

Despite Lanier winning, both schools succeeded in getting students and staff engaged in reading.

Lanier

• 1 million pages read
• 61 teachers submitted pages read in their classes
• 68 teachers and staff submitted pages read on their own
• 350 students, or almost 25 percent, of students submitted pages read on their own

Crockett

• 720,001 pages read
• 31 teachers submitted pages read in their classes
• 55 teachers and staff submitted pages read on their own
• 592 students, or 41 percent, of students submitted pages read on their own

Congratulations to both schools for their reading accomplishments.