(Feb. 8, 2018) Last year, on the Sunday morning the New England Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl, sixth-grade English teacher Becky Hickman was watching the news. One of the stories featured Patriot Malcolm Mitchell, who had started a literacy initiative called Read with Malcolm.
Hickman was intrigued, and began researching the University of Georgia star wide receiver, who while in college realized he was reading at a middle-school level and set out to better himself. After he was drafted by New England, he created the Share the Magic Foundation to promote the long-term benefits of reading and literacy.
Hickman and her students began following Mitchell on social media, and when he announced a nationwide reading contest called Read Bowl 18 earlier this year, she signed up all her sixth-grade classes.
Last Sunday afternoon, a few hours before Mitchell and the Patriots lost Super Bowl 52 to the Philadelphia Eagles, Hickman learned via Facebook that the 18 students in her “E Block” class had won, reading more minutes in class per child in the month leading up to the big game than any other middle school in the country that participated: 12,273 minutes, or 682 minutes per student.
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