CARROLLTON, GA – Setting goals to achieve specified results is nothing new, but Kristina Bivins, a second grade teacher at Carrollton Elementary School, has figured out creative ways to motivate her students to exceed them.

In January, to reward her students for making great progress, she allowed them to pummel her with whipped cream pies to celebrate the class collectively hitting the 1,000-book mark during the first two nine-week grading periods. Last week, with the help of CES art teacher Amy Boehms, students tie-dyed white face coverings as a reward for almost doubling that number – 1,741 books at this writing.

Bivins said reading the books was the goal, but the outcome was even more significant. By January, the students scored an average of 88 percent on comprehension and grew the equivalent of nine months in reading improvement. As a class, the students posted an average 413 Lexile score, which is an indication of the difficulty of the text they are reading. Less than two months later, their reading comprehension had grown to 91 percent on average and the Lexile score boosted to 451 – almost a 10 percent increase. 

“Our second grade classes have an end-of-the-year goal of 550-550 for combined Lexile averages,” said Bivins. “Considering we just completed the third nine weeks these results are impressive.”

(Photo)

CES art teacher Amy Boehms, back left, helped Kristina Bivins, back right, and her students tie dye face masks as a reward for exceeding reading goals for the class. The students proudly show off their works of art in this group photo.