Reading lives on here

By Charles Sowell  

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 1:45 p.m. (0)

Spartanburg High School’s Seven Reads climaxes with a pep rally like gathering in the gym for all 1,500 students that’s part motivational speech and a glimpse of just what makes a best-selling author tick.

But it is reading that lives at the heart of the story and a community that has pulled together to give all of the students a book of their own to read over the summer. One book each for 1,500 kids.

“It’s a way to get the students at Spartanburg High really involved with reading and to connect with the authors,” said McKenzie Wilson, a junior, during a telephone interview after school last Friday.

She introduced authors Sharon Draper and Tori McClure to the students during the assembly. Wilson is one of the Seven Reads ambassadors from her class, chosen by teachers because of their interest in reading.

Mike Ayers, Wofford’s head football coach kicked the program off with a Knute Rockne-like pep talk. “You choose to fail. The decision is yours. And by doing that you chose to fail family, friends and teachers but more importantly you also fail the children that you don’t have yet.”

Reading levels have improved at Spartanburg High in the past three years, said Terry Pruitt, deputy superintendent at District 7 and there have been gains on exit exam scores, too.

“But it’s really hard to point to one thing as being behind those changes,” he said. “How do you measure love of reading? That’s the hope here and it isn’t just the parents and teachers who hope to instill that love, it’s the whole community.”

“I read Abundance of Katherines (by John Green) for my book last summer,” Wilson said. “But after hearing them speak today (Draper and McClure), I want to read their books, too.”

Students get to pick the book they want to read from an approved list, Pruitt said. “Except for the 10th graders; this year they all read the same book.”

Draper’s books, Battle of Jericho, November Blues, and Copper Sun are a trilogy centering on the lives of students. She’s won the Coretta Scott King Author Honor for Jericho and November Blues.

Draper writes poetry and fiction, but told the students reality lies at the heart of any good fictional book. “You tell the story from a fictional person’s point of view, but the way you get to that fictional person is by taking a piece of real people – people that you know – a little here and a little there and putting it all together.”

Fostering a love of writing plays a role, too, for some of the students at Spartanburg High. For budding spoken word poet Markeisha Nesbitt meeting Draper was a dream come true.

“I’ve read all of her books and I’d hoped to meet her and now I have.”

Nesbitt has one CD out of her spoken word poetry and a YouTube video of a performance at the Hub City Showroom downtown. She’s a senior with plans to go on to college.

Susan Oldham, a member of the community Seven Reads Committee, said Nesbitt’s poetry is powerful and touching. Nesbitt’s poem “Lost It” tells the story of teen pregnancy and Nesbitt’s angst at watching a young friend’s disintegration.

McClure’s “A Pearl in the Storm” is ostensibly the story of her rowing single-handedly across the Atlantic but the reality of the book is found in the people who helped her pick herself up after failures and keep on plugging.

Last week’s event was Draper’s third trip to Spartanburg. She, like McClure, is an educator and like McClure she found a voice in her writing that sets her apart from the mundane.

“We plan to expand the Seven Reads program to all of the schools in the district next year.” Pruitt said. “There are details to work out, like finding appropriate titles and authors to speak with the elementary school children.

“But we’ll do it.”

Seven Reads was once known as the Spartanburg High School Summer Reading Program, he said. “Not the catchiest name and about a year ago we changed it to Seven Reads.”

By the time the other schools are integrated into the program it will truly be a program promoting reading in all of District 7.

“I want you to make this very clear,” said Oldham. “We (the volunteers) pay for the bulk of this program. In economic times like these it is important for people to know that.”

Pruitt said the district only contributes a minor amount of money. “Ninety-eight percent of the cost of Seven Reads is donated by the community,” he said.