FAQ's

FAQ: What is Reading Counts?	Main
Answer: Scholastic Reading Counts is a supplemental reading program that motivates students to become independent, life-long readers. RC is an educational tool designed to encourage and monitor students’ independent and curriculum-connected reading. Its objective is to keep students reading and achieving! Students read books based on their interests and reading lexile levels and take short computerized quizzes to measure their comprehension. For quizzes passed, students earn points that are tabulated twice yearly for student recognition and awards. The goal of RC at GSS is to create students who both CAN and WANT to read!

FAQ: What are the Reading Counts awards?
Answer: The school-wide program will be administered strictly in terms of Reading Counts awards. Students will receive certificates and medals/trophies based on achieving certain levels of progress. They will also receive an incentive prize (bookmarks, pencils, t-shirt, etc.) depending on the level they have reached.. Ceremonies will be held at the end of each semester to recognize the progress of our students. Awards will be given at the 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750 and 1,000 point levels. Classroom teachers will be awarding additional prizes based on specific classroom criteria (may be number of points earned during a particular time period or number of books read).

FAQ: My child is really excited about reading and I love the addition of the Reading Counts program. What can I do to help? How can I become involved?
Answer: As always, we welcome the support of our parents. The most important thing you can do is to encourage reading! Be actively involved in your child’s growth as a reader. Give lots of praise and hugs for your child’s successes! Be a role model—read books with your child and let him/her see that you are an avid reader too!
Of course, we can ALWAYS use help in other ways too: Volunteer your time to help with RC bulletin boards and the reading rainbows, read to a child or a class, enter data for RC recordkeeping, read quiz questions to young students, etc. E-mail Mrs. Depenbrock, ddepenbrock@gssfrankfort.org, or call the school office, 502-223-5041, to find out how you can give of your time and talents to promote reading! Do you own a business, or know of someone who does, who would like to be a RC sponsor by helping with prizes for the RC “store”? All donations are appreciated! Sponsors receive a certificate to post at their business stating that they are proud to promote reading at GSS. Contact Mrs. Depenbrock via e-mail, ddepenbrock@gssfrankfort.org, or by phone, 502-223-5041 to sign up. We would LOVE to buy even more books and quizzes! Monetary gifts are always needed and welcome! Customized quiz collections cost $2.67 per quiz. Pre-packaged quiz collections (i.e. a collection of Hardy Boys or Amelia Bedelia quizzes) containing 30 quizzes cost $49.95 per set. Donations may be sent to the attention of Mrs. Depenbrock at the Good Shepherd School office, 316 Wapping St., Frankfort, Kentucky, 40601. With your donation, make a note as to whether you would like your gift allotted for quizzes, books, or incentives. If you would like your donation spent on particular titles, please also make note of them. We will immediately let you know EXACTLY what has been purchased for the program with your donation.

FAQ: *Do all books have a Reading Counts* quiz for them**?
Answer: There are over 20,000 books that have RC quizzes written for them. At present, GSS has over 5,400 quizzes installed. We hope to see our quiz collection continue to grow. An updated listing of the GSS quiz collection can be found at this web site, in the GSS library, and at the Paul Sawyier Library.

FAQ: What if a student wants to read a book for which GSS does not have a quiz?
Answer: The student should read the book! He/she may read it for pure pleasure or may see his/her teacher to have the title added to the quiz request list and to see what other options he/she might have for earning RC points for reading the book.

FAQ: GSS has a quiz for a book a student would like to read, but the GSS library does not have the book on hand. What should he/she do?
Answer: Our library does not currently contain all the books for which we have quizzes. The student should try searching for the book at the Paul Sawyier Library or other public library, or at a bookstore. As the RC program grows at GSS, we hope to have books to match all of our quizzes and quizzes to match most of our books.

FAQ: *When and where can a student take a Reading Counts* quiz?**
Answer: Students should take a RC quiz when they have finished reading a book and feel that they have comprehended it. Quizzes may be taken on computers in the GSS computer lab, library, and classrooms during the school day and in the computer lab every afternoon from 2:15 to 2:30. Parents are welcome in the computer lab to read quiz questions to students.

FAQ: *What is a Reading Counts* quiz like?**
Answer: The majority of RC quizzes consist of 10-12 questions in a variety of formats. The questions are designed to be an audit of the book, making students accountable for what they read. Quiz questions ask readers about the characters, setting, and plot, as well as other details and ideas that are important to the story. The quizzes are literal comprehension quizzes. They are designed to be fair. The quizzes are written in a way that makes it easy for students to succeed if they READ. If a child has read and understood the book, he/she should be able to pass the quiz, encouraging the child to keep reading other books and passing quizzes. At the end of each quiz, students may rate the book they read and check their own RC Student Progress Report.

FAQ: *What are Reading Counts* points?**
Answer: Scholastic assigns a certain point value to each book title in the RC library. This point value is determined based upon the number of words/pages in the book and its lexile level. When a student passes a RC quiz, the point value of the book is added to his/her RC progress record. A student’s points total is a factor in the RC incentive program.