Summer Reading Tips

Staying in touch with reading during the summer:

Here are some ideas from Understood.org about staying connected to reading.  The article notes that for some kids, summer means more time than ever to read; for those who struggled during the school year, it might mean even more frustration.  But this post has ideas to motivate even the most reluctant reader.  Find all the ideas here, but here's my summary:

1. Try a Summer Reading Bingo Board.
2. Work with your child to set a goal as to how much of the board to complete in a given time, as
   
   well as making choices as to what to read.  See the post on Developing Self-Determination with more ideas about decision-making!
• Kim Greene, the author of the post on Understood.org notes that too much choice can be overwhelming (for all of us actually).  She suggests giving your child a curated list or checking a list of books for reluctant readers. 
• Here's another page with wonderful lists for all ages.   I see that listed under '9 Great Books for Reluctant Readers in Middle School' is one of my all time favourites - The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  I just finished reading this book with one my students.  Don't be put off by the thickness of this book - half of it is made up of
  
  illustrations (but the illustrations move the story forward; you can't skip them - they are a version of a graphic novel - part text, part illustration).  I attended a lecture by David Booth, one of the all-time great reading educators.  He told about the time he brought the book into one of his classes with struggling readers and they said, "No way, we can't read that; it's too big" but read it they did and they were so proud to tell others about this 'huge' book they had read.  
• The author, Brian Selznick, has written two other books that I've shared with my students: Wonderstruck (also half text, half illustration but this time the text follows a young boy in 1977; the illustrations, intermixed with the text, go back to 1927 and tell the story of a young girl; eventually they meet!);  The Marvels: this time the first half of the story is illustrated, then the latter half is text.  All three books are based on an element of non-fiction. 
3. Reading is reading - graphic novels, audio-books (!), magazines, non-fiction.  
4. Ms Greene suggests leaving books in places where your kids like to 'hang out'.  When my husband and I drove our grandkids to the cottage, I would put a pile of books in the middle of the back seat between the two boys, and within minutes they were reading them.  I'd also pick out audio-books for them to listen to; more than once I thought that they'd tuned out but when I turned the 'book' off, I'd hear, "What???? We were listening to that."  Check out the Hoopla app from your local library for downloading audio-books.
5. Finally, read together.   Check out one my early posts about the benefits of Reading Aloud. 

One final note.  One of my favourite columnists in The Globe and Mail, Elizabeth Renzitti, wrote this past weekend about summer reading.  There is no shame in reading 'brain candy' as I call it; her premise is that one of the roadblocks to reading is the feeling that you have to read what is 'good for us'.  But she writes that the way to 'inject joy back into it (reading)' is 'reading the book less taken.' You'll find 'reading surprises'.  

Enjoy the reading.

 

The Kids' Version of the Learning Skills and Work Habits Part of the Report Card

As I write this in mid-June, I know teachers are busy at work compiling report cards to give parents the best idea of how the year has gone, detailing the strengths, weaknesses, and next steps for each child.  It's not an easy task and I always thought that if I had time, I'd much rather sit down with both child and parent and give them an oral report, showing them exemplars (student work at various levels) and sharing what I'd seen in the classroom that led me to use the grades I did.

For me, the most important part of an elementary report card is the Learning Skills and Work Habits section.  In fact, in my work for GTK Press, editing and modifying Grade 5 and Grade 6 Math, we have incorporated assessment for these Learning Skills and Work Habits right into the 'regular' Assessment package.

In my classroom, I would set time aside to have students assess themselves on these Skills and Habits, and then I'd make time to review with each student their assessment and compare it with mine.  It was seldom that we differed greatly.  We could then set goals for improvement.

To that end, back in 2011, I worked with the teacher of my oldest grandson (and she is, hopefully, reading this Blog post) to create a Kids Version of the Learning Skills and Work Habits.

If your child's teacher is not able to review the Skills and Habits, you can do it.  Print out the document, and then go over each of the skills/habits and ask your child to tell you how she/he thinks she did.  Use some of the 'Kids' Language' to set the stage.  You could ask what skill/habit he wants to work on next term (or during the summer - choose one).

In September, pull out the June report card and the two of you zero in on one or two of skills/habits that could use some improvement.

Finally, everything is connected.  Check out the Executive Functions post and see how the skills/habits line up. The post on Developing Self-Determination has more ideas.

Good luck!