At the beginning of the summer, I bought myself an eReader. It’s a popular one from an online retail powerhouse. And it’s okay. My reasons for buying it were simple: portability and an end to space- and paper-consuming physical books. This device was going to revolutionize my reading habits (which had suffered the last few years) and help me get through a number of books I wanted to finish between June and August.
How’d I do? Well, not so good. In fact, I feel like a kid returning to school after summer break, having to look my new teacher in the eye, and say, “I didn’t do my summer reading.” The guilt is heavy.
How does this compare with your experience in the back-to-school classroom? In some school districts, there are suggested summer reading lists, while elsewhere you’ll find very specific lists of must-reads for students. What’s it like where you teach? And how would you describe your students’ summer reading results?
We have tried many approaches to summer reading, but for the past two years we have assigned one book from a grade appropriate list. Then they were also to read four additional books of their choice. We do a classroom assignment the first week, using one of the books they read. We send the assignment and forms to fill out with the book names in the last report card of the previous year. So far it works great! They get choices and are reading!