WE VALUE READING

St. John’s uses the McGraw-Hill Reading Series that integrates with their Spelling and English textbooks.
The students’ stories flow into their work on grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, and spelling, providing great continuity.

SCHOOL LIBRARY

St. John’s has a tremendous school library with over 10,000 titles, including fiction, non-fiction, and reference books.  The books are shelved in different areas for preschool, early readers, middle-grades, and teen/young adult.  We use a web-based inventory system called SURPASS CLOUD and all children are issued a School Photo ID library card each year to track the books as they are checked out and returned.

Students in Preschool age 4 through grade 8 all have a designated library time each week;  younger children are read a story before choosing one or two books each week.  The Library is managed by Mrs. Jan Sleight, with help from a host of volunteers!

“March is Reading Month” brings a new book theme each week; with an “Escape from the Library”  game during Mystery Week!

ACCELERATED READING

All classrooms in grades 1-8 use the Accelerated Reading program to supplement the classroom reading curriculum.  St. John’s maintains a subscription to the web-based Renaissance Learning AR Program, allowing students to take online reading comprehension tests on books they have read, both at school and at home.  Each student in grades 1-8 are issued a unique login and password to access their specific reading goals set by their teacher and track points earned for each title.  The upper grade students have point requirements each quarter as part of their ELA grade, encouraging not only reading, but also comprehension.

 

BATTLE OF THE BOOKS

St. John’s annually participates in the city-wide Battle of the Books competitions for both the elementary students (grades 4&5) and the middle school students (grades 6-8).  The programs are conducted by the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library. with a list of ten books chosen by the library for elementary students.  The program begins in early December and battles began mid-February.  The middle school students are given only 5 books to read in March, with battles in April.  St. John’s has faired extremely well each year, sending teams into the semi-final battles.  The St. John’s battle teams are coached by Jessica Theimer and Jan Sleight.