Fort Worth elementary school’s book vending machine has students excited about reading
Students at Harlean Beal Elementary School southeast of Fort Worth start each day by filing past a bright blue vending machine that was installed on campus earlier this month.
Peering in, they point and tell their friends and classmates what they plan on getting. However, the vending machine doesn’t dispense food or candy, soda or any other type of drink.
Instead, it contains a variety of books at different reading levels for students to choose from, after they earn a coveted gold coin which allows them to “purchase” a book to take home.
“Literacy has been one of the top priorities at this campus since I got here,” Jodie Courtade, the principal of the school, told the Star-Telegram. “When I became principal here, the students were not performing at grade level, so our push has been to ensure that the students are literate on their grade levels by the end of the year.”
The new machine is the latest in a growing number of incentive programs, interventions and initiatives at the school aimed at making literacy more attractive and enticing for young readers.
This year, the stakes are even higher as campus leaders and teachers work to help students catch up after more than a year of disrupted learning due to the pandemic.
Karina Olalde, the campus librarian, has been working with students in small groups and encouraging students in every grade to read. The new method has generated excitement across the campus, she said.
Incentivizing reading progress
Students don’t typically associate vending machines with books.
“When they see the machine, they think cookies,” Olalde said. “But then they see books, and it is kind of the same joy, and it is even better because it is a benefit all across.”
Students can earn coins by meeting reading goals, participating in extra learning activities like Saturday Learning Quest and extended day literacy programs, Courtade said.
Dorion Wallace, a first-grader, earned a coin by completing all of his work with Lexia, a literacy support program used at the school.
Wallace, who got a Kung Pow Chicken book, said getting to pick out his own book was an exciting reward for finishing his work.
“It made me excited, and happy,” he said after picking out the book. “Because I did all my work.”
Teachers and students were surprised by the new machine at an unveiling earlier this month.
Aziza Gray, a fifth-grade teacher, said the initiative has continued to drive conversation and work-ethic among students.
“It is shiny and new and everybody wants to touch it,” she said. “I feel like they want to work towards that, so they are working harder … and you want to try and get anything to incentivize the kids to ... want to read.”
On top of earning the book, Gray said there is a benefit to allowing students to keep the book, write their names in it and take them home.
“These particular students have had a rough couple of years, so this is something to bring excitement back, and to show them that learning can be fun,” she said.
Allowing students to take books home is also important for students that lack reading materials at home. Studies have found that simply having access to books can increase student success.
Students have control
Teachers, who have a pulse on what students are interested in, have a say in what books make it into the machine, but students also have the option to fill out a suggestion card to put in a box next to the machine.
“They get even more excited when they see the book they requested appear in the machine,” Courtade said. “So it is a lot of buzz on campus.”
Giving students control, and encouraging pleasure reading can increase academic achievement across the board, not just reading.
Alondra Arellano, a fifth-grade student, earned a gold coin by meeting all the goals for her Accelerated Reader tests. She got How to Catch a Turkey, one of the most popular books picked out by students since the machine has been installed.
She said she looks forward to completing more assignments to get books in the future.
District investing in literacy
Harlean Beal used about $9,000 in Title One funds to purchase the machine and the first batch of books as part of a push for literacy.
With unprecedented funding in the form of federal relief dollars, the district is investing millions of dollars in literacy across several departments.
A total of $2.6 million will go directly to libraries to update aged collections and replace books lost over the course of the pandemic.
Across the entire district classroom libraries will receive $175,000 to update collections, with another $400,000 earmarked for Social Studies reading material and $180,000 for supplemental reading material for humanities courses.
Courtade said that initiatives like the vending machine, which incentivize kids to succeed in literacy on their own, could be replicated across the district.
“My passion has always been getting a book in these kids’ hands and ensuring that they know how to read,” she said. “And the excitement that I see with these kids, they just want a book.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2021 at 5:30 AM.
