River View Junior High’s Chad Dickson earns literary award
Pictured is Chad Dickson at Disney World last summer. He did this to demonstrate to his students that it’s always a good time to read and it’s fun to read anywhere.
WARSAW – River View Junior High School has been informed that Chad Dickson, an eighth grade English/Language Arts teacher is a finalist in a national literacy grant contest. The contest is sponsored by Dollar General and Suave with the purpose of helping support literacy growth of students in the classroom. Dickson was nominated by his colleague, Kecia Buxton, in the “Help Write Their Life Stories” contest. The focus of the literacy grant is to celebrate teachers who inspire students through books and reading. According to Mrs. Buxton, “Mr. Dickson and his co-teacher, Mrs. Michelle Zimmerman, have used their own resources to develop an extensive classroom library and are always willing to recommend titles for the school library. In addition to providing time in class for reading, Chad also does classroom read-alouds, something that many classroom teachers have eliminated from their curriculum by junior high. This provides an opportunity for both modeling good reading and exposing students to books that might be outside of their typical genre selections, therefore expanding their future reading selections.”
As a finalist, Dickson will receive a Sauve gift basket, a $250 grant for books and reading materials and a $250 Dollar General gift card for books and classroom materials. When asked by a colleague just how much of his own money he has spent to continually upgrade his classroom library, Chad said “more than I care to know”.
According to River View Junior High principal, Jerry Olinger, “Chad’s strategy of growing students’ love for reading is a perfect example for other teachers to follow. He understands a love for reading is developed by enjoying what you are reading. Chad doesn’t force students to read certain books; he encourages his students to select books they will enjoy. Then he challenges students by teaching the state-required literary skills in conjunction with the books they have read. In addition to his teaching philosophy, Chad is a perfect model for his students. He designates a portion of each class period for reading time and he is right there front and center reading with his students. We even see current high school students come back to the junior high to visit Mr. Dickson and borrow books from his classroom library. Simply put, Mr. Dickson does a fantastic job.”
Category: Education
