Both statistics and the students’ own experiences and assessments show that reading is becoming less and less common. In a survey conducted in Class 6a, 16 students reported that they never or only occasionally read. Five indicated that they read occasionally. Eleven answered, “I never read.” Various reading projects carried out in the 6th grade were intended to counteract this alarming result. Teacher Melisande Lauginiger writes in her report:

After a small classroom library was set up in fifth grade—which most of the students had actively used for personal reading in addition to the school library—the idea was to visualize this through a caterpillar that would make its way around the classroom. For every book read, the student received a caterpillar segment, which was also intended to serve as an advertisement for the book. This, along with numerous book presentations, has already increased students’ motivation and reading skills.

 

At least 50 pages per week

Nevertheless, it was clear—not least because the parallel class had also had a positive experience with the Reading Olympics—that another project was needed to further promote reading motivation and reading skills. To continue to cater to the class’s high level of enthusiasm for reading, but also to motivate those who had not yet discovered reading—and, by extension, the class library—as a form of entertainment, a Reading Olympics was held during the first semester of 6th grade: The children were encouraged to read at least 50 pages each week and to record the number of pages they had read on a large master list in the classroom.

 

No More Non-Readers!

From the very beginning, the Reading Olympics was very well received by more than half the class. Thanks to the motivation of many students and the competitive nature of the event, the others were swept up in the excitement as well, creating a momentum that captivated everyone. As a result, there were some students who read thousands of pages almost every week. The record here was 5,207 pages in a single week. Equally significant is the fact that there wasn’t a single student who stopped reading because of the Reading Olympics. Some of the students who had previously been complete non-readers went on to read several hundred pages over time—even though participation was voluntary.

 

Certificates for Everyone

Overall, Class 6a achieved an outstanding reading result, reading 139,843 pages in the first half of the school year (August–mid-December). A truly impressive result! The students were finally honored for this achievement in January. All participants received certificates for their great dedication to reading. The nine winners also received book vouchers. These were generously donated by Steinmühle and the Roter Stern/Lesezeichen bookstore, with which Steinmühle has been collaborating very successfully for many years.

 

Livia Schulze in the lead

Livia Schulze took first place with 27,381 pages, Rebecca Zenker took second place with 25,044 pages, and Lilly Peters took third place with 18,432 pages. Henry Just took first place among the boys with 12,252 pages read, followed by Fabian Fahr with 4,164 and Leon Schmidt with 3,668 pages read. Even the students who placed lower managed to read at least 486 pages. Thus, the Reading Olympics—which was very well received by the students—can be considered an impressive success.

 

Awards for the Rising Stars

To motivate even those students who struggle with reading or who generally described themselves as “absolute non-readers,” there was also a prize for the students who made the greatest progress—a prize that almost all students would have deserved: This prize was awarded to Hanna Schmidt-Dege (6th place with 10,350 pages read), Lasse Hühn (12th place with 1,730 pages read), and Enrique Seip (11th place with 2,380 pages read).