YUHSD students challenged to read for a competition
Yuma Union High School District students are challenged by their campus librarians to expand their horizons and get out of their comfort zones.
Students took the challenge to heart with 283 students participating in a district-wide initiative called “Reading Without Walls.” A total of 1,409 books were read between Yuma, Kofa, Cibola and San Luis high schools.
“All of the district librarians had fun bringing this challenge to our schools and enjoyed the student competition,” Cibola High School librarian Amanda Coltman said. “We are looking forward to doing another kind of district-wide reading initiative and hope doing these will not only increase student’s love for reading but increase reading comprehension as well.”
The challenge was as follows: 1) Read a book about a character who doesn’t look like you or live like you. 2) Read a non-fiction book about a topic you don’t know much about. 3) Read a book in a format you don’t usually read for fun. Students were also required to submit a summary of each book upon completion to earn credit.
Each librarian documented their schools’ progress and announced winners for total books read. Kofa had a tie between sophomores Gwen Hendrickson and Deonides Orozco, who each read 36 books. Cibola’s first place went to freshman Carmen Diaz Orozo, who read 47 books. Second place went to freshman Alexandria Sellers, who read 23 books. Yuma High’s first place winner was junior Stephanie Williams, who read 79 books, while second place was Devin Epley, a junior, who read 74 books. Senior Tim Maude read 65 books and finished third for Yuma, and junior Fabian Arellano took fourth, reading 56 books. At San Luis, Paola Curiel read 41 books to get first place, and Carlos Lopez read 24 books for second place.
The idea for Reading Without Walls was derived from a 2017 initiative by Gene Luen Yang, last year’s National Ambassador to Young People’s Literature. It is about the walls humans tend to build around themselves that can be limiting and decrease empathy for others. It is the first time the librarians have had a unified challenge across YUHSD.
