Encouraging Summer Reading with Authentic Experiences
It's June. Many are itching to call it a year. The local swimming pool is open, and it's much more inviting than that next page in the textbook --> for the students as well as the teachers. Three months from now, our kids will arrive back after a much-needed break, take a reading screener, and the results will tell us what we already know. Here's the deal: Some kids leave school and read a ton, and some do not read at all.
How can we encourage the latter to engage in habitual reading over the summer? Some argue that it is the classroom teacher that must be the primary influencer in this task. This is a noble statement. Yet it can also be a tall order for a teacher trying to turn a really resistant student into a lifelong reader. He/she might need several teachers in a row to spark a love for literacy plus a purpose for engaging in text.
Cahill, Horvath, Franzen, and Allington wrote a helpful resource titled No More Summer Reading Loss (Heinemann, 2013). I have explored some of their ideas in my prior school, such as opening up the library during the summer. Yet I have not been strategic in these efforts. This year, we have made more concerted efforts to target our students who need to read the most, while encouraging everyone to read every day. Our primary approach to encourage summer reading by facilitating authentic experiences.
Providing Books for Students in Intervention
We don't want to make a judgment in sending home books for our students who received additional support in reading. Yet we know that the typical student who struggles in reading has less access to text in the home. That is why we are sending home books in the mail to these kids over the summer. It can't get more authentic than a book, right?
They were provided choice in what they wanted to read. Our two reading teachers gave each student a visual list of high-interest titles that they could circle with a highlighter. Then the teachers ordered the books, sorted them, and prepared each title for staggered mailing. This was a lot of work on their part, but worth it as we believe more books in the home can make the difference.
Leveraging Digital and Online Tools
I am the first to admit that technology is not the panacea that some enthusiasts might like you to believe. However, when it comes to issues of access, technology makes perfect sense. Getting a kid to the public library can be a challenge if parents are at work or it is too far away. Digital tools are ubiquitous in most homes now.
Here are a few digital and online tools our students likely have access to over the summer:
Overdrive: Students can check out eBooks and audiobooks using their public library card number.
Biblionasium: Like Goodreads for younger people, kids can rate, review, and recommend books for peers.
Kidblog: An online writing tool that offers students a safe space to publish reflections on what they are reading, as well as to post digital creations.
All three of these literacy experiences closely resemble how adult readers connect and interact with text.
Modeling Ourselves as Readers and Writers
We as educators don't reveal ourselves enough as individuals who engage in authentic literacy experiences . If a teacher or principal isn't a lifelong reader to begin with...well, that's a bigger problem. I'll assume the former.
For our last day activity as a school, a picture book was purchased for every teacher in the classroom. During our recognition assembly I will be encouraging teachers to read aloud their book to their students. In addition, each student will be receiving a small pocket journal. The suggestion will be to carry this around during the summer months and used it to maintain a reading list, a to-read list, or even a grocery list. Writing anything is better than not writing. If we can connect writing to reading, all the better.
I plan on sharing an entry from my own pocket journal, which coincidentally contains ideas for how students might read over the summer.
Promoting lifelong reading with authentic experiences has the potential to encourage more students to become avid readers over the summer.
Interested in some summer professional reading? Contributors to this collaborative blog will be reading and responding to Becoming a Literacy Leader: Supporting Learning and Change, 2nd Edition by Jennifer Allen (Stenhouse, 2016). Jennifer's updated text has many ideas for facilitating coaching cycles, preparing for excellent professional learning, and reflections from the field.
Update 6-3-17: The sign up for this opportunity has been closed due to high interest.