Let's read! Daytona Beach elementary promotes literacy with book vending machine

As Westside Elementary students eagerly awaited their turn at the Daytona Beach school's new vending machine on a recent Thursday night, they weren't eyeing bags of chips or candy. They were scoping out books.

Media Specialist Lakeisha Byrd, sporting "Reading is cool" earrings and book socks, showed the students how to enter their gold tokens into the slot and punch the number. The crowd waited as each book was pushed forward, and then cheered as they fell to the bottom and students proudly retrieved their prize.

While the machine was unveiled to celebrate Literacy Week in Florida, the hope is to get students excited about reading all the time and increase literacy in a school where Byrd estimates only a third of students are reading at their grade level.

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"I'm always trying to find ways to get books in kids' hands to build those reading skills that they need to be successful," she said. "Literacy Week is all about getting families to start reading as a daily activity so we can get kids excited."

She says most students who read with their families are more successful readers, so she is trying to build a stamina and love for reading.

"I have been so pleased to see how Mrs. Byrd has changed the culture around reading," the district's Media Services & Instructional Materials Specialist Kris Smith said, noting it's the first book vending machine in the school district she is aware of and definitely the first on the east side.

Byrd plans to give out tokens for the machine when students read a certain number of books or words. Smith noted how the process of getting the token and going to the machine adds excitement for the students, and there is a wide variety of books to choose from.

Vending machine will motivate students to read

Third-grader Loyal McCants, 8, selected the book "Pizza My Heart" from the machine in part because she loves pizza, but also because she thinks it will be about friendship.

"I love being friends with people, and I know it's going to be about drama, and I like drama," she said, adding that she usually likes to read mystery books.

Loyal says Byrd's challenges will motivate her to read more so she can get more tokens and grow her book collection. Her class recently reached a milestone of 5 million words read.

"When I'm reading a chapter book and I want to see some pictures, I can just imagine them inside my mind," she said. "I think the book machine is making reading a lot of fun, and it helps people want to get a coin and start reading a book."

Fifth-grader Trinity Larmond, 11, also plans to read more to get more tokens. She likes comics and graphic novels, and selected a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book from the machine.

"Reading is relaxing, and it's really fun to read some interesting books, and sometimes those books teach you a lot," she said. "I hope that everybody that goes to this school can read the most books that they can, so then when they get ready to go to a higher standard, they can already be ready for it."

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Many literacy efforts underway at Westside

The book vending machine was donated by Daytona Beach Commissioner Dannette Henry, of Zone 5, who has wanted to do so for the past five years. She is also donating one to Palm Terrace Elementary and considering one for the local recreation center.

"I think that it is the best way to promote literacy when children have access to books all of the time on a consistent basis, because strong schools build strong communities, and so it was important that the city partnered with schools to infuse these schools in our community with books," she said.

Henry has been a commissioner for six years but says watching the children's reactions was the "absolute best" experience she's had so far. She also taught school for more than 20 years and is an avid reader.

She was excited that the kids will be able to take these books home to keep and experience the feeling of touching the pages of a brand new book.

Other reading initiatives have been in the works at Westside. Byrd started a book club, which she says more and more kids are getting involved in.

Rev. Amy Armistead of The Gathering Place, a First United Methodist Church, partnered with the school in 2021 to start a Read Aloud program where they read and tutor second-graders to create a stronger literacy culture.

"We felt very passionate about providing extra resources beyond the amazing teachers here to just be an extra source of support," she said.

As for the book vending machine, "We love it," Armistead said.

"We love any way to make reading fun and to see reading as a positive reinforcement, like something to be excited about," she said.

Contact reporter Danielle Johnson at djohnson@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona Beach elementary promotes literacy with book vending machine