Bethel Park students applaud and jump for Feed the Need to Read
To encourage elementary school students to read, members of the Bethel Park High School drama club and students in the theater arts class wrote and performed an original assembly. The group will be at Barnes and Noble in South Hills Village May 10.
Abby Martz entertains elementary students during an original assembly at Bethel Park School District’s Lincoln Elementary School. The assembly was written and performed by high school drama club members and theater arts students to encourage the younger students to Feed the Need to Read.
When teachers in the accelerated reading program at Memorial Elementary School in the Bethel Park School District approached Chris Nagel, high school English and theater arts teacher, in October about developing an assembly to encourage students to read, he jumped at the chance. Now, Nagel and 22 high school students in the theater arts class and drama club are taking the show on the road. Students clapped and sang at Memorial Elementary School recently, and on March 6, the traveling show visited Abraham Lincoln Elementary School. At the first of two assemblies at Lincoln, one student was heard to say, “That was the best assembly ever.”
Through song and dance, the high school students convey the excitement that reading can bring.
The various skits, lyrics and dances were all generated by the high school students, and each assembly is tailored for the grade levels in the audience.
Amanda Hokaj, a sophomore, said while “Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Numeroff is part of the assembly for the youngest students, “Charlotte’s Web” and “Diary of a Whimpy Kid” are included as part of the skits for the older elementary students.
High school junior Wally Donnellan, a member of the drama club, said teaching young students to read is necessary as, for most, their world revolves around iPads and other forms of technology.
When a member of the cast discovers a large, round hole in the middle of a book, the students call for Bookbusters, based on the 1984 movie “Ghostbusters.” Donnellan plays one of the two Ghostbusters while dancing and singing to the movie theme. Other books explored in song and dance are “Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes” by Eric Litwin, and “Junie B. Jones” by Barbara Park, “The Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle.
Wearing empty plastic television sets on their heads, the high school students sang their way through a skit called “What We Used to Do Before TV.” Another episode altered the words to the song “YMCA” to “READ.”
Throughout the 45-minute assembly, the elementary students danced, applauded and shouted out parts of the songs as the younger students interacted with Nagel and the high school students.
Nagel, who plays a role in the production with books attached to his jacket and a fright wig covered with small holiday lights, said the purpose of the original show is to illustrate to the students what is needed to read. The next stop for the road show is Washington Elementary School on an unspecified date. On May 10, the Feed The Need To Read show will perform at Barnes and Noble book store at South Hills Village.
To prepare for the show, the high school students practiced even on official school snow days, said Vicki Flotta, district director of pubic relations.
Dr. Dee Stark, Lincoln principal and the district’s director of elementary education, said having high school students perform for the elementary students was exciting for the young children.
“Kids at this age idolize teens,” Stark said.
Reading is an important part of the elementary curriculum.
“We encourage kids to read and this (assembly) was a good one,” Stark said.