Columbus Christian School’s 11 third-grade readers have advanced to the Final Four in the state’s Read to the Final Four competition.
Third-grade teacher Laura Adams announced the news Monday morning.
“I am so proud of all the hard work the students have put in,” Adams said. “Now we read for the championship.”
Originally, organizers’ plans were to stir added hoopla by including having the four teams of students actually at the NCAA Final Four men’s basketball tourney at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. But the novel coronavirus has nixed that idea, according to Adams.
A celebration will be held at the school at 3170 Indiana Ave. instead.
“It sounds like they are planning quite the party,” Adams said.
Read to the Final Four, inspired by NCAA tournament this month, is a friendly competition encouraging schools to log the most minutes reading. The top 68 schools in the state — the same number of schools to make the NCAA tourney hosted soon in Indianapolis and surrounding areas — were invited to the competition bracket from more than 300 schools statewide. The academic program uses a digital literacy platform, powered by Renaissance myON, to provide access to 6,000 enhanced e-books and track time spent reading.
The Indianapolis-based Indiana Sports Corp. teams with the NCAA on the project.
The top 68 schools were picked during an official selection show to advance to the final competition.
Teams advance based on the number of minutes read during each week, automatically recorded by the program’s software, which also has built-in safeguards to ensure accuracy.
The competition focuses strong, sports-style attention on academic achievers. Former NCAA basketball stars appeared on the school selection show and spoke of the significance of solid reading skills as part of classroom fundamentals.
Adams’ students recently made the Elite Eight of the competition and won earbuds and $1,000 for the school library to buy books. More prizes await the winner of the entire competition.
Top readers in the Final Four win a bike and a bike helmet.
