Gotta keep reading

Janet Bergh is all about reading. But it was something she watched on TV that made a difference in the lives of hundreds of students at Ocoee [Fla.] Middle School.

What Bergh saw was last season's premiere episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, where a flash mob of several thousand participants danced in unison to "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas. Bergh, a member of St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Longwood, Fla., thought there must be a way to re-create that excitement at her school and use it to improve literacy.

Janet Bergh appears on the set of Gotta Keep Readin', where the reading specialist at Ocoee [Fla.] Middle School had students dancing and singing to promote literacy.

"I thought, we can do this, and the kids would get such a kick out of it," Bergh said. "So the first thing we did was rewrite the lyrics to the song."

The new version begins "Gotta Keep Reading/Cause this book's gonna be a good book."

Next, Bergh received permission from the song's publisher to go forward with the project.