Class of 2015 Chooses Favorite Books

At the end of their freshman year, members of the class of 2015 selected some of their favorite books:

Band of Brothers
Because I am Furniture
Boot Camp
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Bronx Masquerade
Carter Finally Gets It
Catching Fire
Chain Reaction
A Child Called It
Cirque du Freak
Crank
Deadline
Evermore
Fallen Angels
The Fault in Our Stars
The First Part Last
Forged by Fire
Furnace
Ghosts of War
Glass
Gossip Girl
Graceling
Harry Potter
Heat
House of the Scorpion
The Hunger Games
I Am Number Four
I Will Save You
Inkheart
The Lightning Thief
Lockdown
The Looking Glass Wars
Matched
Maximum Ride
The Maze Runner
Mexican Whiteboy
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Monster
No Way Out
Perfect Chemistry
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Pretty Little Liars
Purple Heart
Rash
Rules of Attraction
Shooter
Sold
Something Like Fate
Speak
Tears of a Tiger
Thirteen Reasons Why
Twilight
Unwind
The Vow
Wake
We Were Here
Wintergirls

BW Freshmen Visit Millstadt Readers

This week, Belleville West students are promoting reading at area grade schools.  As part of the million page challenge, the English department made a pledge to donate new books to area second graders if the freshman and sophomore classes reached their reading goal.  Teachers and students are delivering books to the grade schools this week.

In the photo above, Kim Vogel and Taylor Miller (students in Ms. Sage’s English 1-2 class) visit second graders at their alma mater, Millstadt Consolidated School.

BW Readers Talk about Books with Second Graders

This week, Belleville West students are promoting reading at area grade schools.  As part of the million page challenge, the English department made a pledge to donate new books to area second graders if the freshman and sophomore classes reached their reading goal.  Teachers and students are delivering books to the grade schools this week.

In the first picture above, students from Mrs. Dachsteiner’s English 1-2 class visit students from High Mount School.

In the second picture, students from Ms. Hoelscher’s Oral Communication class discuss some of their favorite books with students at Henry Raab School.

BW Students Share Reading with Second Graders

This week, Belleville West students are promoting reading at area grade schools.  As part of the million page challenge, the English department made a pledge to donate new books to area second graders if the freshman and sophomore classes reached their reading goal. 

The English department is donating 500 new books to second grade students at eight local grade schools.  Teachers and students are delivering these books to the grade schools this week.

In the picture above, Belleville West freshmen Austin Branson, Christian Burton, Abby Sells, and Madeline Graham (all students in Mrs. Thurnau’s English 1-2 class) share new books with second grade students at Roosevelt Elementary School.

Belleville West Celebrates Reading

Congratulations to the the freshman and sophomore classes at Belleville West High School.  As the 2011-2012 school year draws to a close, each class has read more than 1.3 million pages of pleasure reading! 

The class of 2014 (the sophomore class) read 1,347,885 pages this year—or 2,369 pages per sophomore.  The class of 2015 (the freshman class) read 1,301,950 pages this year—or 2,434 pages per freshman.  Together, they read 2.65 MILLION PAGES of pleasure reading this year.  (If those pages were all placed end-to-end, they would stretch 355 MILES.  That’s all the way from Belleville to Cincinnati, Ohio.) 

In recognition of their accomplishment, Belleville West held a reading celebration on Friday, May 11.  Activities included “Drop Everything and Read” time, drawings for books and e-readers, and a Skype visit with award-winning author Matt de la Pena.

BW Readers Surpass Goal

CONGRATULATIONS to the freshman and sophomore classes!  As the 2011-2012 school year draws to a close, each class has read MORE THAN 1.3 MILLION PAGES OF PLEASURE READING!

The class of 2014 (the sophomore class) read 205,081 pages of pleasure reading during the sixth triad.  Their total for the year is 1,347,885 pages—or 2,369 pages per sophomore.

The sophomore classes with the highest reading totals for the entire second semester are:

Mr. Reidelberger’s second hour class:  58,172 pages
Mr. Johnson’s fourth hour class:  58,106 pages
Ms. Bielong’s fifth hour class:  50,968 pages
Ms. Hoelscher’s second hour class:  41,884 pages
Mr. Jenkins’s fourth hour class:  37,604 pages
Ms. Hoelscher’s third hour class:  35,812 pages
Mr. Reidelberger’s fifth hour class:  34,035 pages

The class of 2015 (the freshman class) read 183,470 pages of pleasure reading during the sixth triad.  Their total for the year is 1,307,571 pages—or 2,444 pages per freshman.

The freshman classes with the highest reading totals for the entire year are:

Ms. Thurnau’s second hour class:  126,293 pages
Mrs. Matysik’s sixth hour class:  113,046 pages
Mrs. Matysik’s fifth hour class:  102,559 pages
Mrs. Matysik’s first hour class:  88,215 pages
Mr. Brunner’s second hour class:  85,529 pages
Ms. Bielong’s fourth hour class:  81,473 pages
Ms. Thurnau’s seventh hour class:  77,721 pages

So…the sophomores get bragging rights for the higher total number of pages, but the freshmen get bragging rights for the higher number of pages per student.

The Belleville West teachers finished the year with 258,628 pages of pleasure reading—that’s more than a quarter of a million pages for the faculty.  (But that’s only 1,878 pages per teacher, much less than our students read.)  Members of the English department read 109,032 pages of pleasure reading this year—or 5,192 pages per English teacher!

Congratulations, freshmen and sophomores!  How much will you be able to read next year?