{"id":22930,"date":"2014-11-10T02:00:24","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T07:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=22930"},"modified":"2014-11-12T14:15:59","modified_gmt":"2014-11-12T19:15:59","slug":"to-make-high-schoolers-want-to-read-miami-teacher-makes-it-a-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/11\/10\/to-make-high-schoolers-want-to-read-miami-teacher-makes-it-a-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"To Make High Schoolers Want To Read, Miami Teacher Makes It A Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Miami<\/a><\/p>\n

John O’Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>\n

Miami Northwestern Senior High writing teacher Daniel Dickey says you have to be a good reader to be a good writer. He’s challenged his student to read one million words this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Miami Northwestern High School English teacher Daniel Dickey has found a way to make his tenth graders brag about their reading skills.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Mischael Saint-Sume and Ciji Wright tease each other about who’s going to read one million words first — a contest Dickey created.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you put him in his place?” Dickey asked Wright. “Because Mischael, he\u2019s popping in my classroom every day with a new book.”<\/p>\n

\u201cOh don\u2019t worry about it because I\u2019ve got plenty of books for him,\u201d Wright replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it ends today, by the way,” Saint-Sume said. \u201cI\u2019m going to hit a million.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot if I take my test before you,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

Dickey teaches tenth-grade writing. As a rookie teacher last year, Dickey saw too many students not pass the state writing test.<\/p>\n

\"Bedjina<\/a>

John O'Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Bedjina Nortellus updates the number of words she's read after passing a book test.<\/p><\/div>\n

So he launched a contest: the Million Word Campaign. He wanted each of his students to read a million words last year.<\/p>\n

His wall is covered in student photos. A sticky note on each one tallies the number of words they\u2019ve read. Students add to their total if they pass an oral quiz on each book.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe look on faces when I said, ‘You\u2019re going to read a million words,’ ” Dickey laughs, “kids are: \u2018Mr. Dickey, I\u2019ve never read one word. I\u2019m not reading a million words.\u2019”<\/p>\n

Wright has read 865,680 words so far this school year. Saint-Sume has read 992,076. Last year, Prince Cenat topped the class at 1.5 million words.<\/p>\n

For years Northwestern was labeled a bad school, where students couldn\u2019t read, write or do math at grade level and didn\u2019t graduate.<\/p>\n

Northwestern is now an A-rated school after years of work. That includes strict teaching and curriculum requirements from Miami-Dade schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to come in and do a bell-ringer,” Dickey says, explaining the district’s requirements. “You\u2019re going to do an \u2018I do,\u2019 where you show the kids something. A \u2018We do\u2019 \u2013 we do it together.<\/p>\n

“And all these were great, but at no point did anyone say \u2018And then we\u2019re going to have kids read.\u2019 In order to be a great writer you have to be a great reader.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 28, Dickey is older than most second-year teachers. The South Florida native says it took him a while to find himself after high school.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>

John O'Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Some of the books in Daniel Dickey's library. No student has tackled "Infinite Jest" yet, considered one of the longest and most complicated American novels.<\/p><\/div>\n

He kicked around New York City, trying his hand at comedy and writing.<\/p>\n

One day, a neighbor\u2019s refuse caught his eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was walking out of my apartment, about to hop on the subway,” Dickey says, “and I saw there was a bunch of books in front of this stoop on my apartment.”<\/p>\n

One book jumped out.<\/p>\n

The title was profane: \u201cThe F— Up\u201d by Arthur Nersesian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd after I read that book, I think something changed in me,” Dickey says, “and I think I saw some parallels in this guy, who, he was going somewhere, but he was taking a lot of detours to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickey decided he wanted to finish college, eventually earning a degree from Florida Atlantic University. There, he applied to Teach For America and got the job at Northwestern.<\/p>\n

The Million Word Campaign was his first big idea. Dickey has gathered a small library of books. If something catches a student’s interest, he’ll buy the book for them.<\/p>\n

Young adult fiction is popular, like \u201cThe Hunger Games\u201d trilogy at 301,583 words. No one has taken on David Foster Wallace\u2019s \u201cInfinite Jest\u201d yet — it’s 484,001 words.<\/p>\n

Tiondre Toomer loves biographies about leaders — Barack Obama<\/a>, Dwyane Wade<\/a>, Andrew Jackson.<\/p>\n

Bedjina Nortellus likes books about Greek mythology. Cenat got started with “The Alchemist,”<\/a> an adventure tale he said reminded him of his experience as an immigrant.<\/p>\n

Another student said he wanted to make guap — a slang term for money<\/a>. So Dickey gave him a copy of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” to read<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“He came in the next morning,” Dickey says, “he said ‘Mr. Dickey, I need to stop buying Nikes. I need to start buying houses. What can we do today to start making some guap?’ ”<\/p>\n

But not every student dives into the challenge.\u00a0Keenan James\u2019 struggles on the state writing test started in elementary school.<\/p>\n

\"Dickey<\/a>

John O'Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Dickey asks student Vince Mack a question during class.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThey gave me a one,” he says of the test, scored on a six-point scale. “Then, the next year, fourth grade, they gave me another one.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he didn\u2019t like to read or write. He prefers musical theater. He disrupted classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I didn\u2019t like Mr. Dickey at all,” James says. “When I walked into that classroom I was like \u2018Oh my God, who is this teacher? All he do is talk about reading and writing and I hate both of them.’ ”<\/p>\n

Another teacher booted James from her class and ordered him to write an essay on disrespect. James asked Dickey for help.<\/p>\n

James asked about the Million Word Campaign. Dickey gave the student a copy of \u201cBlack Boy\u201d by Richard Wright. The book caught James’ attention. He kept reading.<\/p>\n

And then he got his FCAT writing test results back last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe score came back and I had a four,” James said. “And I was like \u2018A four?\u2019 I was like \u2018Wait, wait, wait, you must have got me mixed up with somebody else, ’cause I know I ain\u2019t got no four.’ ”<\/p>\n

It was the first time he passed the test. Keenan says he couldn\u2019t have done it without Mr. Dickey.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor so long I felt like I accomplished something,” James said. “And it felt so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to make it clear that Daniel Dickey brought the Million Word Campaign to Miami Northwestern, but the idea is used in schools nationwide.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John O’Connor \/ StateImpact Florida Miami Northwestern Senior High writing teacher Daniel Dickey says you have to be a good reader to be a good writer. He’s challenged his student to read one million words this year. Miami Northwestern High School English teacher Daniel Dickey has found a way to make his tenth graders brag […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":22933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[14,426,1033,1120,1153],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22930"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22937,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22930\/revisions\/22937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}