IDITAREAD RACE GUIDELINES

IDITAREAD RACE GUIDELINES
Information for Parents!
(Updated 3/25/11)

WHO? All IDEA students PreK-12^th grade are invited to participate.

WHAT? This race is a reading race. Students pick a musher who is running this year’s race, and then try to read as fast as, or faster than their chosen Iditarod musher is traveling along the route to Nome. Each page in a book equals one “musher” mile, but check that the books are at each child’s own personal independent reading level -- just like all the dogs must be checked by veterinarians before they can run in the race.

WHEN? Saturday, March 5, 2011 @ 10 A.M. – Saturday evening on March 26, 2011 @ 11:59 P.M.

HOW?

First sign-up your students from the link on IDEA’s web site to “race” to Nome, or type in the URL address: http://forms.ideafamilies.org/iditaread/ .
Get ready for the race by encouraging your students to select their books or pages that will get them to a minimum total of 1,131 pages prior to the vet check. (Southern Route this year.) You as the parent (act as the vet) and check to see if the books are “healthy” (each child’s reading level) for the race. For some Alaskan books, check out this book list! If you need more time to pick out all of your books or hear about the race after the start, that is okay; however, it is recommended that you set a reasonable goal for reading before the end of the race!
Reading Guidelines for the IditaRead:

This is your family’s race designed by IDEA to help you encourage reading and/or reading skills that you see are needed! It is suggested that you decide ahead of time the guidelines you wish to follow for the duration of this challenge. (See some suggestions below.)

· This reading challenge is to encourage reading for personal enjoyment of all age levels. You decide if pages read aloud by someone else can count toward the finish line for some or all of your readers. (For example, you may want to require ages 7+ to read to themselves, whereas you could combine independent reading and reading aloud with your little ones .) Keep in mind, “reading” a picture book is a great experience for emergent readers too.

· Decide ahead of time whether or not, or how, you will count pages with pictures. Perhaps your emergent reader will describe the pictures! That's a part of reading too!

· Students could certainly read books they have written themselves, too.

Students keep track of their progress at home on the IditaRead Record Sheet (all forms and certificates are downloadable from the website) and as soon as they reach a checkpoint they log in to the website and post their totals. (If it is motivating, let them log on as often as you/they like). Your child will be listed by age group in the order of pages read on your region's website under the Trail Breaker's page. This list will be updated daily from Monday through Friday. Have them look for their name!
No matter when a reader finishes the race, they can continue to read and log their total pages read until the end of the IditaRead Challenge. There will be a place on the website for the your child to enter her/his total pages read. Total pages read is not part of the competition, just an individual accomplishment that we will celebrate. Several offices are tracking their mushers on bulletin boards or wall size Iditarod trails. Please check with your local IditaRead coordinator for local details.
If your child's musher scratches, look for another musher to race against! Remember, emergent readers have a better chance of beating their musher to Nome if they choose a rookie!
Awards will be given to any racers who meet the challenge to cross the finish line during the IditaRead race. You can award certificates to your readers! They are available on the website (with the neat downloads) to use to help you encourage and motivate your children. We'll have prizes available at our offices to help you celebrate participation! (Make sure page totals are posted on the website and your local office has announced that it is time to pick up prizes before coming in to collect them. Manipulating the data is partly manual...so if we miss something, please let us know! Thanks!
Trailblazer Reports - The IditaRead website will recognize those IditaReaders who journal along their reading trail (writing comments / reviews of the books they are reading). Please consider sharing your thoughts on the books you read! Graphic organizers from Houghton Mifflin and Scholastic are provided to help your child with their writing experience! There will be a small reward for contributors to the Trailblazer Reports!
After the race, we will post the names of the readers who successfully crossed the finish line on the website. So be sure your children enter their progress no later than 11:59 p.m. (the evening of) March 26th. (The IditaRead website will close to new entries at that time, so be sure to get your totals in before the deadline!) Entries will be posted as recorded. If you have concerns about internet security, you can select on option of using an initial for the last name or an alias. Just let Sally or your teacher know what your alias is so that we can make sure your child gets their prize(s). The last names of all students will be removed a few weeks after the prizes are announced. The Iditarod Education Director has taken an interest in our site and will be sharing information about it in the member section of the Insider!

NOTE: If your child’s Iditarod musher must scratch before the end of the race, s/he needs to switch to a racer who has not finished the race and continue to “read to Nome”.

Any questions or would you like to help? Please contact:

Region A – Sally Javier @ 333-2255 or Sally.Javier@ideafamilies.org

Region F - Sandy Blewett @ 456-1368 or Sandy.Blewett@ideafamilies.org

Region G & K - Debbie Mackie @ 260-3158 or Debbie.Mackie@ideafamilies.org

Region MS – Lori Zulliger @ 357-4850 or Betty Bair @ Betty.Bair@ideafamilies.org

Region SE - Janice Salsman @ 789-6106 or Janice.Salsman@ideafamilies.org

Announcements - Register - Checkpoints - Mushers
Neat Things to Download! - Helpful Tips & Lesson Plans!

IditaRead Website Questions - Email Sally Javier

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