Two Million Reasons to Celebrate

"Richard, you're going to the principal's office."

Richard looked up at me, a little surprised. He wasn't the kind of kid who got sent to the office, and I wasn't the kind of teacher who sent kids. He smiled--he knew I was up to something. He was right.

He brought a note to the principal saying, "Dear Dr. P. I am very proud of Richard because he has just reached the goal of reading two million words this year. He has inspired my class to read and we are lucky to have him!"

Our principal, Dr. P., never misses an opportunity to capitalize on the moment. He searched for a book in his office and found a fantasy story with the main character sharing Richard's name. He wrote a note of congratulations to Richard on the inside cover and gave it to him. When Richard came back to class, kids crowded around reading the inscription like it came from Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber.

Fourth graders in California are supposed to read a half million words. Our computerized reading program counts the words that students read if they pass a reading comprehension test on that book. Richard passed that goal long before winter break in December.

After that, Richard made the one million goal, and quickly he came close to two million. He was about 40,000 words away when he started reading "New Moon" from the Twilight series--over 100,000 words, and it would certainly push him past 2 million. We all held our breath as he took the test online. He would need to pass at 60% in order to get credit for the book--but his average is over 90% so the odds are good. Drumroll as he finished...the results came in...and voila! He made it. All the kids cheered.

Two million words is nothing to sneeze at. That's like reading all seven books of the Harry Potter series--twice. The Twilight series--three times. War and Peace---four times. Ulysses--8 times. The Sun Also Rises--29 times. Hamlet --- 62 times.

But Richard didn't read the same book twice. He read over 100 different books. Looking at the list is like reading the menu at Jerry's Deli--a diverse group of lexical delicacies. The Sea of Monsters, Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Ricky Ricotta, Goosebumps--the list is endless.

My whole class celebrated Richard's achievement. None of them are even close to two million words (I do have one other student near one million, though). But when Richard calls out, "Can we have reading time?" my class holds their collective breath, hoping, hoping, hoping.

Of course you can have reading time. How else can you get to two million?

Thanks for a great achievement, Richard. I know you'll go far.