DATE: Wednesday, June 4, 1997               TAG: 9706040444

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   77 lines

BACK TO SCHOOL FOR DR. KOONCE PRINCIPAL GOES BACK TO CLASS TO REWARD STUDENTS FOR READING 40,000 BOOKS.

The parking space reserved for the principal at Southeastern Elementary School was empty Tuesday.

Instead of his car, Woody Koonce took the school bus. That's where he first learned that he was committing the fashion faux pas of carrying a girl's purple and pink backpack.

After that he learned about probability, did the funky chicken dance, made paper pizzas, played word bingo and wrote out math problems in shaving cream on his desk. During snack time he had a banana and a waffle.

During reading time, Koonce tugged on the shirt of the boy sitting in front of him on the rug in Toni Taylor's first-grade class. But the boy, intent on not losing his place in a story called ``Pizza Time,'' did not look up.

It's that kind of behavior that sent Koonce, normally known as Dr. Koonce, back to school in the first place.

Koonce's stint as student for the day rewarded his school's students for reading more than 40,000 books this year in a program called Accelerated Reader - a program by no means limited to Southeastern Elementary, or Chesapeake. More than 28,000 schools nationwide participate in the program in which students read books from a list and then take standard computerized tests. Students receive points based on the reading level of the book.

``We don't do it for the points, we do it for the fun,'' said second-grader Mariam Al-Koshnaw, 8.

At last count, Mariam had almost 500 points - meaning she reads so many books in a week that she doesn't bother to keep count. That's second only to her classmate, Kacey Hanks, 8, who has 539 points. Kacey figures she reads 10 books or so a week.

``They're just crazy about reading. Isn't it wonderful?'' Koonce said of his students. ``I've had parents tell me they've had to tell their kids to stop reading so they can go to sleep. That's a nice problem.''

Koonce said he teases Kacey about making sure she doesn't spend all her time reading.

``Whenever I see her I ask, `Are you reading?' and she says, `Yes, sir.' Then I ask, `Are you playing?' and she says, `Yes, sir.' Then I say, `Good, I'm happy. Because there's got to be a balance,' '' Koonce said.

Kacey and Mariam might very well be reading tons of books without the incentive of keeping score, but the school librarian, Alice Eldridge, said she's seen more children become interested in reading since the program was started three years ago.

``With library circulation it's an unbelievable improvement, just in the numbers of books that go in and out, compared to previous years,'' Eldridge said. She said the effect of the program on standardized test scores was hard to see because the district recently changed the tests they use.

Eldridge said the biggest drawback to the program has been that sometimes parents become a little too competitive about their kids racking up points and then comparing their progress to other children's.

``It's kind of like playing golf,'' Eldridge said. ``You play with people and against people, but you're really playing yourself.''

Last year, the school's 800 students read and passed tests on 22,000 Accelerated Reader books; this year they almost doubled it. So, as promised, Koonce was a student for the day, spending about 10 minutes in each class.

Many of the district's principals had made similar agreements with their students, said Tom Cupitt, the district's spokesman.

``There are a plethora of principal stunts right now,'' Cupitt said.

Kindergartner Lindsay Taylor, 6 1/2, was also doing a role reversal for the day. She was the designated ``Teacher 4 A Day'' in Amy Berry's class. She had some advice for Koonce, the new student.

``Behave. Do what the other students do. They usually eat snacks. They go to centers where they do handwriting and journals and cut out words,'' Lindsay said.

Lindsay's assessment of Koonce's behavior? Good, albeit a bit silly.

``The kids were correcting me and making sure I was in the line straight,'' Koonce said. ``It was kind of neat.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MORT FRYMAN/ The Virginian-Pilot

Woody Koonce sits in on a first-grade class Tuesday. The principal's

behavior, described as silly, gets a chuckle out of student Tracy

Brown.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu