FCTS Librarian Wally Keniston is on a mission to encourage students to become lifelong readers.
That’s why since 2021, he has recruited FCTS students to participate in the Sora Reading Challenge. The contest is a reading program run through the Sora app that encourages students to read digital books and listen to audio books from their school library.
Students track the number of minutes they read everyday for a certain period of time. Schools can design their own Sora Reading Challenge, and Wally organized a February challenge that set the goal of students reading 28 minutes a day every day for the 28 days in the month.
The hope is that the students will read for fun and increase their time as readers.
Wally is happy to report that this February was the highest eReading month of all time at FCTS. The students who dedicated themselves to reaching that goal were, Joshua Bell, Kai Feldstein, Silas Giguere Matthew Guilbault, Zoey Kus, Kaitlyn Lively, Makenzie Shaw, Alexis Smith and Haiden Willard.
“The aspect of Sora that’s interesting to me is that we have students riding long distances on busses and they all have their phones,” Wally said. “Those phones give them the opportunity to read anything they want in the Sora collection. For example, a student who has a 14-minute bus ride to school could spend that time reading and again for 14 minutes on their way home. That would cover the 28 minutes for that day.”
Students who drive to and from school can also listen to audio books to meet their goal.
Wally believes that young people who become readers are setting themselves up for success later in life.
“Clearly these students have increased their opportunity for accomplishment by continuing to read,” he said. “It will help them achieve greater things in the future.”
Zoey has always liked to read so the Sora Reading Challenge was something she was eager to participate in. She even got her 12-year-old sister to follow along.
“I liked how it was easy to access books from elementary to high school and on up,” Zoey said. “There’s a huge range of books to choose from.”