Just like the hard-working journeys of the nation’s women’s basketball teams — which hopefully pay off with a spot in the NCAA Women’s Final Four in Tampa — there’s an opportunity for Tampa Bay’s elementary-school children to strive for their very own shining moment.
In this case, they win by reading books.
The Read to the Final Four Literacy Program, presented by the Helios Education Foundation, is a reading challenge that’s designed to engage elementary students of all ages. Basketball players learn the passion for their game by acquiring the skills of dribbling, shooting and rebounding. Students can build a similar passion for education by learning the power of reading and recognizing how it can fuel their own life’s journey.
Individual students, classes and schools can earn prizes based on the number of minutes read. A personalized literary program will track reading time through myOn’s digital library, which includes thousands of enhanced and age-appropriate titles.
There’s a track record for success. When Tampa Bay last held the Women’s Final Four in 2019, more than 91,000 students across 150 schools read more than 2.6-million minutes as part of the challenge. During the challenge time frame, all grades read a total of 10.8-million minutes.
This season’s reading challenge begins Jan. 21 with two-week reading competitions by grade. The first quarter (Jan. 21 through Feb. 4) includes pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. The second quarter (Feb. 5-18) includes first and second grade. The third quarter (Feb. 19 through March 3) includes fourth and fifth grade. And it all culminates with the fourth quarter (March 4-21), a special three-week March Madness-style competition for the third graders, just when the action reaches a fever pitch for the nation’s women’s basketball teams.
Students can earn prizes, such as pizza parties, traveling banners, bookmarks and other mementos.
The top “Final Four’’ schools in each of seven Hillsborough County areas — based on the average reading minutes among third-graders — will win a field trip for 60 students and an awards ceremony at Tourney Town during Women’s Final Four festivities in April.
Good luck to all students.
Much like the women’s basketball programs, there’s a secret to championship reading skills as well.
Work hard. Be consistent. Have fun. And just go Four it!
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