Beginning Oct. 1, students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School can log their time spent reading into a program called Beanstack for a chance to win a Dunkin Donuts gift card at the end of the month. This program is sponsored by the MSD PTSO and encourages students at MSD to read more for a chance at the grand prize.
Beanstack is shown on a student’s Clever page and tracks what books they have read and the streak that the student has reached when they log their reading. The more books a student reads or how long their streak is, the more badges or awards they receive. Students can also write reviews about the books they read on Beanstack for others to see.
“The Beanstack program is a great way for me to keep track of the books I read, and when I read a book,” sophomore Kalli Wheeler said.
MSD librarian Diana Haneski organized the Beanstack challenge at MSD. She hopes the reward of a gift card will help the students have more motivation to participate in the program and maybe even improve their reading and literature skills while doing it.
“I love that they are getting people to think about their reading because I’m a reader and I love to read,” Haneski said. “I think about the people who don’t love to read yet, because they haven’t found the thing that they get excited about reading.”
The Beanstack program makes it so students can manage their reading time more wisely during the week, month, or the whole school year. It allows students to track how many minutes they get each day on their reading which helps them determine if they should be working on reading more.
“I like the fact that I can see how many minutes I’ve spent on the books I’ve read so I can spread out which books I want to read for the week, and it makes time manageable when it comes to reading,” junior Ava Brogna said.
Beanstack gives readers a platform to motivate students to read and improve on their reading skills. The platform’s fun and engaging options motivates them to make reading more of a habit and share their opinions on books they have read with other students.
