Dumbarton Middle Students:
Feeding the Need to Read
Striving for 25
What has novel balloons, conflict posters,
narrative quilts and is READ all over? Dumbarton
Middle School’s Strive for 25 kickoff
celebration!
On Monday, October 10, by participating in
various reading-oriented activities in their
language arts classes, students began the yearlong
goal of reading and summarizing at least 25
books by the end of the school year. To improve
achievement for all students, the program is
inspired by the Baltimore County Public Schools
Blueprint for Progress.
At Dumbarton, STRIVE stands for “Success
Through Reading is Visible Everywhere.”
As teachers in every content areas sported stickers
declaring that they, too, “FEED the NEED
to READ,” the school showed true STRIVE
spirit. Students summarized their favorite books
and shared the summaries as they celebrated
the joys of reading. Sixth graders created “novel
balloons” or “soaring summaries”
to display and share on their hallway. Seventh
graders identified the characters, settings,
plots, and themes of their favorite novels on
quilt squares to create a massive literary quilt
wall. Eighth graders identified important themes
and conflicts as they created book jackets and
posters for display.
And of course, everybody read.
