Read -- and Pedal -- Across America!
Georgia fourth-grade teacher Faye Smith puts a new spin on Read Across America projects! Her PAUSE program, Pedal Across the United States Every day, pairs reading and cycling in an interdisciplinary reading motivator. Education World writer Leslie Bulion talks with Smith about the many places she and her students will go as they read and pedal their way across the country. Included: Ideas for integrating this project across the curriculum!
"I want to make reading fun," says Faye Smith, who teaches fourth grade at Lamar Elementary School in Augusta, Georgia. "But I want my students to know that it's not only the book itself that's important. It's the act of reading. I want them to learn that they'll always have something to do if they take a book with them wherever they go!" Smith tells Education World.
Smith's students are certainly going places; they are moving through Georgia, South Carolina, and onward toward Washington, D.C. on the stationary bicycle in their classroom! "I read several years ago about a teacher who used a bicycle in her classroom," Smith says. "I thought it might be a good way to motivate students to read."
PEDAL ACROSS THE UNITED STATES EVERY DAY -- PAUSE
This year's [2000] Read Across America theme, Oh, the Places You'll Go, prompted a slew of elementary school classes to read their way across the United States. Some of those students earned miles for every book read and mapped a route across the country. Others read a book set in or written by an author from each of the 50 states.
Adding a new spin to the Read Across America theme, Smith's students pedal actual miles on an exercise bike during class reading time! The miles are adding up as the kids progress on their virtual class trip through their home state of Georgia and neighboring states. The planned destination is Washington D.C. Smith calls her program PAUSE, an acronym for Pedal Across the United States Every day.
"We do PAUSE throughout the year, two or three times during the day," explains Smith. "When we are changing subjects, I'll say, 'Okay, class, we're going to PAUSE.' I choose a student to pedal while everyone reads."
The rider signs in on a chart, logging the time. Students read silently from their library books or listen to a read-aloud chapter or short story from Smith. When the ten- to 15-minute reading period is over, the rider logs an ending time. The bike has a pedometer so students can track their mileage.
"It's my intent to have riders read their own books during silent reading times," Smith says with a laugh, "but I haven't worked out a stable enough book stand yet!"
PEDAL ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
PAUSE Connects
To the Curriculum
Faye Smith's PAUSE project connects to the curriculum in many ways. The most obvious connections relate to reading and physical fitness. Teachers might also integrate the project with
*Math: Students total the miles "biked" at the end of each pedaling session and each week. They create charts and graphs to illustrate their progress. They solve math word problems about miles traveled and miles to the next destination.
*Reading and Science: Students search newspapers and the Internet for weather reports along the virtual route.
*History and geography: Students learn historical and geographical facts about stops along the route.
*Writing: Students record in PAUSE journals thoughts about what the areas they travel through might be like.
*Physical Fitness and Safety: Students incorporate their activities into a unit on bicycle safety.
*Health: Students take one another's blood pressure before and after they ride.
*Technology: Students use e-mail to communicate with classrooms along the PAUSE route.
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Although Smith insists that PAUSE is still evolving, she has already integrated an impressive array of cross-curricular activities into the reading program.
"We total the miles at the end of each pedaling session and at the end of the week," Smith explains to Education World. Mileage is used for charting and graphing activities. "We look at the number of miles we have gone and how many we need to go to reach a particular location -- the border of South Carolina, for instance. I ask 'How many more people will have to pedal to get us to South Carolina?'"
Students look in newspapers and on the Internet for weather reports along the virtual route. In addition to observing the weather, they discuss how particular weather events may affect route and clothing choices, and they predict the weather for future travel days. Smith's students spend time studying historical and geographical facts about the places they visit on their virtual ride. One student looks for local current events from the newspaper each day.
"My students keep PAUSE journals," Smith tells Education World. "At the end of the day, I ask students to think about what they might have seen, what they think an area is like, and how it felt to be there," Smith says. "They try to include words from our reading and other things we've talked about. One boy wrote in his journal that as he was riding, he saw shacks and thought to himself that slaves must have lived there back in colonial days. That was something we'd read about in our social studies book. I thought that was a great connection to make."
In addition to students' integrating what they read into their writing work, Smith hopes to see students improve basic vocabulary and reading skills. "I have already seen an increase in the number of books my students have read this year," Smith tells Education World.
A bonus Smith didn't anticipate is the efficacy of PAUSE in classroom management. "It works really well with discipline," Smith laughs. "I've got some active kids, but after I give them a turn pedaling, they are too tired to do anything else!
"At the end of a pedaling turn, the kids feel it," Smith adds. "They are used to riding bikes for play, but I find that many of them are not used to a distance type of exercise."
"This is a terrific idea showcasing how a classroom teacher can integrate physical activity into a classroom setting," Mark Manross, executive editor of PE Central tells Education World. "One of the great things about an integrated idea is that it may bring teachers from different disciplines in the school closer together as they discuss and share the ideas being implemented in their classrooms." (See Education World's 1997 review of PE Central, a Web site for health and physical education teachers.)
PEDALING INTO NEXT YEAR AND BEYOND
One helpful suggestion Smith received from another teacher via e-mail was to take the students' blood pressure before and after a riding session. "I'm going to incorporate that next year," Smith enthuses. "I'll show the kids how to take their blood pressure, and we'll chart that as well!"
In addition to developing a working bookstand for her stationary bicycle, Smith plans to spend time this summer developing a reading list of books and stories about the locations the class will visit during the virtual bike trip next year. "I am also very interested in developing a pen-pal program with another school that we might 'travel' to," Smith tells Education World.
Article by Leslie Bulion
Education World®
Copyright © 2007 Education World
Originally published 08/17/2001
Last updated 11/15/2007
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