10 高三 Read and Ride

Read and Ride Schools across the world are trying to come up with new solutions to keeping students active and alert. Some are replacing conventional classroom chairs with exercise balls or standing desks. At Ward Elementary School in Winston, North Carolina, students have adopted a special program that entails riding stationary bikes while reading. Read and Ride is the brainchild of school counselor Scott Ertl, who came up with the idea while exercising and reading at the gym. “I believe it will be a fun way to convince students to become more active,” said Ertl. He placed a bike in the corner of his classroom and encouraged his students to use it during the independent reading sessions. It was so popular that Ertl decided to add more bikes and offer the Read and Ride program to the entire school. Now, Ward Elementary School has a dedicated exercise room filled with bikes that can be used by students while completing their daily reading assignments. Besides making reading more fun, the program also helps students exercise at a comfortable pace without the pressure that comes with regular sports-related activities. It is also a perfect way to release energy during the days when the weather is not conducive to outdoor activities. Most important, however, are the program’s academic benefits. One year after Read and Ride was introduced at Ward Elementary School, students actively involved in the program demonstrated an astounding 83% reading proficiency. Those that hadn’t taken advantage of the exercise bikes tested at a much lower reading proficiency —41%. Similar results were achieved at Russell Jones Elementary School in Rogers, Arkansas, where the exercise bikes have been implemented in two fourth-grade classrooms. The participating students showed an average of a 113 to 118 point increase in state reading benchmarks, almost 40 points higher than the classes that weren’t involved in the program. The program is carried out now at 30 American schools, where aside from bikes, students also use Bouncy Bands and exercise balls.