PALM BAY, Fla. — A Brevard County middle school is the only Space Coast school in the running for a big cash reward for a video they made focused on reading lots of books.
- Southwest Middle submits video entry to Follett Challenge
- The school based their video around its '20 book challenge'
- The contest ends Friday at 5 p.m.
Southwest Middle School in Palm Bay submitted their five minute long work to the Follett Challenge, a national contest where the winner takes away a $60,000 prize.
A panel of judges will weigh in on all the videos, and anyone in the public can vote for their favorite one.
Southwest decided to base their video on their school's “20 book challenge,” where students choose 20 different books from 20 different categories.
Many of the students came to the school with a reading level two grades behind, but now some 2,000 books have been read by the 800 kids.
“They start building confidence, and they say, 'Oh, I can read, I am good at this,’ and it carries over to all their content levels,’ said Carrie Friday, Southwest Middle School Media Specialist.
“I can just connect with all the characters in the books I've been reading. The stories that the authors are bringing just makes you want to keep reading,” said Mackenzie Blaylock, Southwest Middle School 7th-grader, who is now reading on a high school level now.
To read about the school’s challenges and successes with the project, visit its blog.
The contest ends Friday at 5 p.m. To learn more about the Follett Challenge, visit its website. Voting will happen next week.
Watch the Southwest Middle School video entry below: