How to Promote Summer Reading
June 11, 2015
We know how frustrating it can be to work with a student all year long to help them improve their reading skills, only to have summer break come and ruin it all! For many students, the absence of an academic influence during the summer can be detrimental to their overall academic progress. The best solution? Encourage your students to continue to read all summer long to keep their skills stimulated, which will help them maintain and maybe even enhance their reading level. However, we know that this is a lot easier said than done, which is why we’re going to share a few great tips to help you promote summer reading with your students.
Make it a game. For kids, summer is all about fun and games, so why not take advantage of that? Create a summer reading scavenger hunt, including any fun reading related tasks that the students should complete. For example, you can ask them to read a book that’s related to a movie, or read two books by the same author. If you prefer, put all of the tasks onto a bingo card and ask them to cross out boxes as the reading tasks are complete. Make sure to have prizes handy in September for those dedicated winners!
Utilize technology. The internet is a beautiful tool for learning and staying connected. Start a summer reading blog and share it with all of your students before the year is over. You’ll want to post regularly to stimulate conversation about the books that they’re reading. The key to making this work is encouraging meaningful discussion with open-ended questions, and remembering to respond to your students’ comments.
Keep in touch. Summers are for traveling, and so are postcards! The same way we use postcards to keep friends and family up-to-date on our travels, encourage your students to send postcards to update you on their reading progress. Give each student a few pre-addressed postcards on the last day of school and encourage them to send you a summary and illustration of some of the books they read over the summer. Don’t forget to send one back!
Send them to the library. Almost every public library runs summer reading programs. At the very least, make sure that your students and their parents are exposed to the programs that are available to them to encourage participation.
Do you have a great tip to help your fellow educators inspire their students to read this summer? If so, feel free to share your ideas on our Facebook page!
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