An elementary school in Provo has been rewarding their students with a vending machine, but rather than providing snack foods, this machine is filled with books.
Lakeview Elementary School installed the book vending machine at the beginning of the current school year hoping to promote literacy towards their students. This idea proved to be a success as about 50 to 60 students visit the machine each week to get a book. According to the students themselves, they’ve been reading more often because of it.
According to principal Mike Barker, who was inspired to install the machine after seeing a school from another state with one, the vending machine could be seen as a merit system for students. Teachers provide students with tokens that can be exchanged for one book in the machine and can be earned for showing a wide variety of things such as kindness, hard work, and even by showing an improvement in grades.
The vending machine has been well received by teachers, parents, and students and the school’s primary goal is to get at least one book out to every student by the end of the school year.
