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Teacher, elementary students create music video following success on reading test

A North Carolina elementary school teacher and his second graders are going viral due to the incentive he gave the children to do well on a recent reading test – the promise of their own music video.

Michael Bonner, a teacher at South Greenville Elementary School, got the idea ahead of a recent Common Core reading test his students had to take, CBS News reported. When the incentive worked, the children wasted no time reminding him of what he had promised them.

Bonner posted the results of the music video to his Facebook page.

I promised my kids that I would make a music video of them if they passed their reading test for standard 2.RL.1. Of...

Posted by Michael Bonner on Friday, September 30, 2016

“Reading helps us learn information for school, so we can answer questions and we can be cool,” the kids sang as they addressed the questions that make up the foundation of a story – who, what, where, when, why and how.

Nearly 70,000 people have viewed the video since Bonner posted it Sept. 30. It’s received about 2,500 likes and has been shared more than 1,650 times.

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Bonner told CBS News that South Greenville Elementary is a Title 1 school, which means a high percentage of its students are from low-income families.

"There are kids that may be homeless, do not have access to adequate food or water, or even the basic necessities that help us function," Bonner said. "FBI statistics state that one out of three African-American boys go to prison. I have 12 to 13 within my class. That is approximately 60 percent of my classroom population.

"A quality education, which should strengthen the ability to analyze particular circumstances, could be the difference between them deciding to sell drugs or making the conscious choice to help better their future," he said.