Jump to content


Welcome Guest! To access all forums & features, please register an account or sign-in. → Why register?


Photo
new york library director dig into reading contest change the rules

  • Please log in to reply
52 replies to this topic

#1 Hum

Hum

    totally wAcKed

  • 59,243 posts
  • Joined: 05-October 03
  • Location: Odder Space
  • OS: Windows XP, 7

Posted 19 August 2013 - 23:26

HUDSON FALLS — Tyler Weaver calls himself “the king of the reading club” at Hudson Falls Public Library. But now it seems Hudson Falls Public Library Director Marie Gandron wants to end his reign and have him dethroned.

The 9-year-old boy, who will be starting fifth grade next month, won the six-week-long “Dig into Reading” event by completing 63 books from June 24 to Aug. 3, averaging more than 10 a week.

He has consistently been the top reader since kindergarten, devouring a total of 373 books over the five contests, according to his mother, Katie.

“It feels great,” said Tyler, an intermediate scholar student at Hudson Falls School. “I think that was actually a record-breaking streak.”

His younger brother, Jonathan, 7, won second place two years in a row now, completing more than 40 books this time.

Prizes were also awarded for the top reader in the kindergarten division, best rock people creations and best coloring entries.

Katie said she is “extremely proud” of her sons’ accomplishments, especially Tyler for having held his title for this long.

“I’ve told them God makes all of us different. There are some things that are hard and some that are easy, but they should excel at what they enjoy doing and Tyler just loves to read,” she said. “Everybody he tells, he gets high-fives. Everybody’s so proud of him.”

Everybody, it seems, but Gandron, who was surprised to learn Katie notified a Post-Star reporter about her son being a longtime winner. During a phone call Tuesday to Gandron, the library director said Tyler “hogs” the contest every year and he should “step aside.”

“Other kids quit because they can’t keep up,” Gandron said.

Gandron further told the reporter she planned to change the rules of the contest so that instead of giving prizes to the children who read the most books, she would draw names out of a hat and declare winners that way. She said she can’t now because Katie has come forward to the newspaper.

Gandron said she has an “attitude” about the contest because several years ago a little girl came in claiming she had read more than 200 books. Her mother backed her up, but it was discovered the girl was lying.

“That’s when we stopped (taking a child’s and parent’s word) because she wasn’t (reading the books),” Gandron said.

Gandron said the rules require each child to read books suitable to his or her grade level or higher. When the book is returned to the library, the child pulls a random slip of paper out of a jar and a library aide poses questions to verify whether he actually knows the content.

Queries include identifying the child’s favorite character or asking the reader what part of the book he would change and why.

Gandron said “as far as (she) knows” Tyler has fulfilled the requirements because he was able to answer everything related to the stories. His prizes, in separate years, included an atlas, T-shirt, water bottle and certificates of achievement.

“They’re really not any grand things. I think he just likes to be the top reader,” Katie said.

Lita Casey, an aide at the library for 28 years, said she is usually the person who asks the questions to determine whether the children have done the reading. She keeps track of the number of books for each student and submits it to Gandron.

Casey said she enjoys working with all the kids at the library and doesn’t want her job to be in jeopardy, but she feels Gandron’s plan to change the rules of the contest are “ridiculous.”

Casey said everyone in the club is on a level playing field because all begin and end the same day and all have the opportunity to read as many books as they wish.

“We’re not going to see some of these kids until next year, and you’re worried about them (being treated equally), and then, you’ve got two kids who come in every week taking books out?” she said.

Casey said she called library board member Michael Herman to complain.

“My feeling is you work, you get it. That’s just the way it is in anything. My granddaughter started working on track in grade school and ended up being a national champ. Should she have backed off and said, ‘No, somebody else should win?’ I told her (Gandron), but she said it’s not a contest, it’s the reading club and everybody should get a chance,” Casey said.

Casey said some of the children read only the minimum of 10 books so they can receive an invitation to the party at the end of the program.

This year, she made “six or seven” follow-up phone calls a week before the contest ended to prompt kids to finish their books.

Casey established a special relationship with the Weaver boys, who call her “Gram,” because they are frequent visitors to the library. She said between the two brothers, they have borrowed 1,000 books in the past few years.

As a testament to Tyler’s love of reading, Casey said that a few years ago, the summer theme centered on regions of the United States. Kids were supposed to read a book on each section of the country. A few children dropped out of the program because they didn’t like the subject matter, Casey said, but Tyler read at least one book on each of the 50 states.

“It was just something he wanted to do. He read them and told me about them. He wrote a synopsis and his mother typed it up,” she said.

Tyler said this uproar has made him “a little bit angry.”

“If they end up where a librarian would pick out a name from a hat … she might only read one slip and then (that child) would be picked out. He didn’t put enough effort in and he won. It’s not fair,” he said. “How would it even be a contest if you just picked a name out of a hat?”

Katie said if Gandron takes an alternate approach to the contest next year, neither of her sons will participate and they’ll head to Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls.

“I don’t see the downside of Tyler winning five years in a row. I think people should be proud of him, especially a library director,” she said.

source




#2 Sylar0

Sylar0

    Resident Elite

  • 1,297 posts
  • Joined: 06-June 09
  • Location: UK

Posted 19 August 2013 - 23:34

So kid does well at reading club gets noted for it library asks for it to stop because others don't want to put the work in...



#3 nvllsvm

nvllsvm

    Resident Elite

  • 1,491 posts
  • Joined: 27-July 05
  • OS: Arch Linux

Posted 19 August 2013 - 23:37

I+find+the+quot+I+don+t+want+to+live+on+



#4 OP Hum

Hum

    totally wAcKed

  • 59,243 posts
  • Joined: 05-October 03
  • Location: Odder Space
  • OS: Windows XP, 7

Posted 19 August 2013 - 23:38

liberals :laugh:



#5 chrisj1968

chrisj1968

    copyrighted!! ©

  • 3,900 posts
  • Joined: 17-June 08
  • Location: United States

Posted 20 August 2013 - 00:02

Wait till you see the new initiative called "common core" that is being pushed in schools across America. just as stupid



#6 Nomad_

Nomad_

    Resident Fanatic

  • 554 posts
  • Joined: 19-July 02

Posted 20 August 2013 - 00:08

Conservatives :laugh:  



#7 curme

curme

    Grand Inquisitor

  • 4,119 posts
  • Joined: 24-December 03
  • Location: Korea

Posted 20 August 2013 - 00:11

liberals :laugh:

How could you possibly deduce their political affiliations form that article? It is so frustrating these days that every little thing instantly becomes some pedantic political row.



#8 +Nik Louch

Nik Louch

    ..:::..:::..:::..

  • 32,875 posts
  • Joined: 14-January 03
  • Location: Leicester, UK
  • OS: Windows 7, OSX, Android, Ubuntu
  • Phone: Galaxy Note II

Posted 20 August 2013 - 00:14

Heaven forbid he be congratulated for his awesomeness!

 

Quick, let's celebrate someone not quite as good!



#9 OP Hum

Hum

    totally wAcKed

  • 59,243 posts
  • Joined: 05-October 03
  • Location: Odder Space
  • OS: Windows XP, 7

Posted 20 August 2013 - 00:14

How could you possibly deduce their political affiliations form that article? It is so frustrating these days that every little thing instantly becomes some pedantic political row.

 

^ I don't -- just a joking remark. ;)

 

Humor is still legal.



#10 +techbeck

techbeck

    Neowinian ULTRAKILL

  • 14,780 posts
  • Joined: 20-January 05

Posted 20 August 2013 - 00:15

This is a tricky one.  One the one hand, you have people who are just lazy and do the bare minimum to get something at the end.  On the other hand, you have others who bust their asses to do well but just cannot keep up with other kids.  Some kids are exceptional and no matter how hard you try, they cannot be beaten.  Personally, there should be a minimum number of times you can win in a row to give the people who want to work for it, a chance to win.  Its not hard to tell the difference between the lazy ones, and the hard working ones.



#11 Randy C

Randy C

    Mentally Compromised

  • 2,836 posts
  • Joined: 30-December 04
  • Location: Third Planet
  • OS: Win 8.1

Posted 20 August 2013 - 00:23

So lets award mediocrity instead, another reason why American education is going downhill.  Show young people the rewards for hard work and determination.



#12 OP Hum

Hum

    totally wAcKed

  • 59,243 posts
  • Joined: 05-October 03
  • Location: Odder Space
  • OS: Windows XP, 7

Posted 20 August 2013 - 00:23

This is a tricky one.  One the one hand, you have people who are just lazy and do the bare minimum to get something at the end.  On the other hand, you have others who bust their asses to do well but just cannot keep up with other kids.  Some kids are exceptional and no matter how hard you try, they cannot be beaten.  Personally, there should be a minimum number of times you can win in a row to give the people who want to work for it, a chance to win.  Its not hard to tell the difference between the lazy ones, and the hard working ones.

 

^ sounds just like the adult world. :shifty:



#13 timster

timster

    Neowinian Senior

  • 1,909 posts
  • Joined: 29-March 08
  • Location: Mississauga, Canada

Posted 20 August 2013 - 00:32

Heaven forbid he be congratulated for his awesomeness!

 

Quick, let's celebrate someone not quite as good!

it's the liberal way. can't afford to hurt anyone's feelings....

 

So lets award mediocrity instead, another reason why American education is going downhill.  Show young people the rewards for hard work and determination.

well, you can't expect much from public education



#14 Shiranui

Shiranui

    Iconoclast

  • 3,183 posts
  • Joined: 24-December 03

Posted 20 August 2013 - 00:43

Reminds me of "Matilda", which I'm currently reading with my 6-year-old.



#15 xp1ode

xp1ode

    trust_no1

  • 2,642 posts
  • Joined: 07-March 03
  • Location: afuera de la caja.

Posted 20 August 2013 - 00:55

Wait till you see the new initiative called "common core" that is being pushed in schools across America. just as stupid

What is it?  I think i heard it today when i was at school with my 7 year old, but as i was filling out the paperwork i didn't get a chance to hear what the teacher was saying.





Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: new york, library director, dig into reading, contest, change the rules


Click here to login or here to register to remove this ad, it's free!
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1171777-boy-told-to-step-aside-to-let-others-win-reading-contest/
www.neowin.net
crawl=CC-MAIN-2013-48
146642
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:LP2LJIWAOC22JRBTU4JM3EV6U3NLPEMH
<urn:uuid:873f691f-efa6-4a29-bc73-2dcbd1986f28>
2013-12-11T11:36:20Z
74.204.71.247
sha1:SWQSG66V2BWQX7LDOBMHY73WLQSXWLWN
<urn:uuid:8f1fb2ca-4d1f-4a22-b148-0cf2f7ee4ece>
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1171777-boy-told-to-step-aside-to-let-others-win-reading-contest/
length
response
<urn:uuid:bae1036c-33fa-4881-9b5b-0632e06a6a51>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2013-48
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for Winter 2013
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf