A student coffee shop is one of the new reading incentive programs at Pasco High School.
By MICHELE MILLER
Published November 10, 2004
DADE CITY - The idea hatched from memories of fun times spent in a coffee shop in New York's Greenwich Village.
It was the 1960s then - "about a thousand years ago," said Jill Mink, who with her teenage friends would make the short trip from North Jersey so they could hang out at places like the Cinnamon Stick Cafe. "We used to go there because they put cinnamon sticks in the coffee," she said. "It was back in the days of the beatniks, so it was really cool."
These days Mink works as a literacy specialist at Pasco High School. Over the summer, she and colleague Clara Shoe spent some time brainstorming about new reading incentive programs. Among the handful they came up with was to create their own version of the Cinnamon Stick Cafe.
"We wanted it to be like Books-A-Million, where you grab a book, a cup of coffee and a chair and just relax," Mink said.
So now, on the edge of a center courtyard in Room 302, kids are welcome to gather in comfortable chairs or at a tall bistro table that Shoe picked up for a song at a local discount outlet.
A makeshift wall draped with yards of brown fabric serves as a backdrop. A bright yellow wooden table, painted with red chili peppers by senior Jorge Hernandez, provides a resting spot for beverages and snacks. There is background music, too, played softly on a boom box sitting nearby on a brown wicker table.
"So far the response has been pretty good," she said.
"I think it's a great idea," said Cindy McCarthy, the first teacher to bring students to the cafe. "That's where you get the kids - in a relaxed, recreational atmosphere sharing books with friends. If you know your peers are talking about a book, you want to read it. They may come in for the coffee and refreshments at first, but I think they'll come back for the books. It's contagious."
That's the idea, Mink said, and why reading programs are aimed at both students and faculty.
There is the Folded Page book club that has faculty members meeting once a month to discuss recent reads such as the historical Florida fiction work called A Land Remembered. That book discussion came with a traditional Cracker meal - corn bread, boiled peanuts, conch peas and tomato gravy and rice - and was served at McCarthy's childhood home.
"It was nice to make that book come alive. Many of the teachers here are from the North and aren't familiar with that way of life," said McCarthy, who hosted the discussion at her parents' ranch in San Antonio.
Strategies of the Month club is another program that gives teachers new reading strategies to use in content areas such as science or social studies.
SCORE (Students, Coaches Oral Reading Experience) is aimed at Pasco High's football players who meet on the bleachers twice a week during practice down time to hear faculty members read selections such a Bleachers and Friday Night Lights.
Teen Trendsetters Mentoring is a program headed by student Trish Johnson, who over the summer attended the statewide program. She has recruited fellow students to join the tutoring program that matches high school and third-grade students at local schools.
The After Five Reading Experience is another mentoring program held at the Pasco County Jail that could use some more adult volunteers, Mink said. "It's to help prisoners who have trouble reading and teach those who are fluent readers to become peer tutors," Mink said. "Maybe this will help them get a job when they get out."
Last is Teaching Tolerance, a program that Mink hopes will not only raise reading skills but also promote unity at a school with such great ethnic diversity.
Through a special grant, Mink has purchased books such as Seed Folks and Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
"The morals of these stories are things kids here can relate to," said Mink, adding that 15 teachers have signed on to participate in the program that will culminate with a special Unity Day celebration.
Mink hopes these programs will help fill the gap for a generation of students that hasn't come to school with the same background knowledge as those she taught 40 years ago.
"I don't know why that is," she said. "The kids today have different pressures. There's a lot more mobility. A lot more TV. A lot more video games.
"We can never do for them what they can do for themselves," Mink said. "They need to know that if they can read, they can become independent learners. They can do anything. They can pass any test, go anywhere."
