Joshua Dixon students critique The Vindicator

By Amanda Tonoli

atonoli@vindy.com

COLUMBIANA

Joshua Dixon Elementary fourth-graders got to read and critique The Vindicator for a special segment of Right to Read Week.

Right to Read Week, a program of the Ohio Council of the International Reading Association, “supports and promotes literacy to help all Ohioans reach their full potential and develop a lifelong love of reading,” according to the association’s website.

Joshua Dixon’s theme for the week is camping. Several camping-related activities were planned for students, including a pretend campfire set up for students to read around.

During a stop, drop and read assignment, students picked up a newspaper and discussed their likes and dislikes of print media.

Fourth-grader Alexis Kasunich held up a page of The Vindicator with disgust at a page with one photograph and the rest text.

“There are just so many words,” Alexis said.

“You need more pictures to go with the words.”

Paxton Loosli, fellow fourth-grader, enjoyed seeing the pictures, and most of all, the comics page.

Fellow picture lover Hunter Davanzo, fourth-grader, most likes the sports photographs. He said he feels closer to them as he is a soccer player himself.

Even though Alexis did make a plea for more pictures, she said the words are what are most valuable, especially in a newspaper.

“It helps tell you information about people, and it’s nice it doesn’t have bad words because kids do read [newspapers],” Alexis explained.

By reading newspapers, Alexis is working on her fitness of her brain and her eyes.

“To get smart, you have to read more, and it could even help you not have to get glasses or go blind by working on your eyes,” she said.

Physical-education teacher Amanda Moore said she enjoys Right to Read Week because reading is so essential to what all teachers do.

“Reading is important because without it, students can’t do math or they can’t do science or they can’t learn in social studies,” she said. “It’s just very important.”

Courtney Schiffauer, physical-education teacher, echoed Moore’s sentiment.

“It is the basis of all subjects,” she said.

Along with reading at school, students are asked to read 20 minutes a night for the entire week.

The school’s goal is to read for 40,000 minutes or more.