Moments after the midday announcements, the halls at Dean Morgan Junior High School fell silent.

The door was open, but not a sound - not even the rustle of papers - could be heard from Linda McKay's classroom. Inside, eighth-grade students sat quietly, eyes glued to open books resting on their desks. Some students chose to read books from McKay's collection. One student brought a magazine from home. Novels, magazines, comic books and even how-to manuals are allowed during silent sustained reading time. Everyone reads.

"It's reading any time your brain is engaged," McKay said.

All Dean Morgan students read silently for 20 minutes a day, four days a week during a class period called "comet block." Sixth- and seventh-graders take a reading class, and between 150 and 200 students are enrolled in reading-intensive classes.

"We always need to increase literacy," Principal Walt Wilcox said. "We decided to take it to the next level, knowing that a lot of our students' households are not creating a literacy environment."

This year, students were challenged to turn off the TV, video games and read for 15 minutes every night at home. The goal is to reach 2,000 combined hours of reading each week. If every student participates, the number would be close to 2,700 hours, said Jim Cobb, instructional facilitator at Dean Morgan.

The school introduced the program "Morgan Reads a Ton" on Monday to kick off its Literacy Awareness Week. Similar programs have happened in the past, but this year marks the end of a five-year comprehensive literacy plan. This year, teachers at Dean Morgan, Mills Elementary School and Verda James Elementary school will receive training from Literacy First, a national comprehensive reform group that advised the district literacy team in January. These schools were willing to pilot the program and the hope is to find a model to use in other schools, said Michael Bond, executive director of curriculum and instruction. Bond leads the district's literacy goal team, which aims to achieve a 100 percent literacy rate in the third grade by 2014. The goal team will gather assessment data periodically, suggest solutions and provide support to schools when needed.

"Part of our responsibility is to recommend actions to the district, superintendent and district leadership in terms of what we have found are best practices," Bond said.

Literacy became the district's No. 1 goal after data connected drop-out rate and reading, said Bond. The drop-out rate of ninth-grade students who fail one class goes up to 60 percent, and ninth-graders who fail one class were not reading at grade level in third and fifth grades.

Literacy First was chosen for its "very compelling, very clear evidence of success," and each session costs about $2,000, said Bond. The district is required to withhold 10 percent of its Title I funding to spend on professional development programs until it meets adequate yearly progress standards for two consecutive years. The district met AYP last year for the first time in five years.

Dean Morgan's Literacy Week provides extra incentive for students to read and to keep track of their reading habits. Students can enter the titles of the books they read in a daily drawing to win one of five books. At the end of the week, students who have completed reading logs are eligible to win an iPod loaded with audiobooks.

One of the first book winners, Sydney Cooney, 11, quickly chose "Maximum Ride" by James Patterson.

"My grandfather had the book, and I only got to read a few pages," she said.

She'll have to wait it until she finishes the book she started for Literacy Week, which at the rate she's going, will be sooner than later.

Reach education reporter Jackie Borchardt at (307) 266-0593 or at jackie.borchardt@trib.com. Read her education blog at tribtown.trib.com/reportcard.