Posts Tagged ‘summer reading’
That time is almost upon us ….
Summer!
What about some ideas for students who may need some extra encouragement to keep reading over the summer?
BigUniverse Learning provides great books that could be used with many of these activities:
Summer Reading Activities for Struggling Readers (from Imagine Learning)
- See a movie that’s based on a book. Then, read the book together.
- Encourage your child to read for fun by reading entertaining books, newspapers, and magazine articles together.
- Have your child read the recipe as you make something fun, like a favorite family dish.
- Read stories out loud, either to your child or with your child.
- Encourage your child to explore new interests by signing up for a sports team, summer camp, or even a fun summer class.
- Then, find books and magazine articles about his or her new interests and read them together.
- Have older children read out loud to their younger siblings.
- Make reading together enjoyable by focusing on the meaning of what you read rather than focusing on reading accuracy.
- Talk to your child about things he or she has read in school or at home.
- Play board games that involve reading, and include siblings and friends whenever you can.
- Ask your child’s teacher to recommend books.
- Have your child watch reading-focused television programs on PBS.
- Make reading a family event by having 15-30 minutes of family reading time every day.
photo credit: woodleywonderworks via photopin cc
Before I go one sentence further let me say this -
eReaders are fabulous.
I love our Nook … its a family reader.
I love being able to read Kindle books on my phone.
We’ve all heard that eReaders can get kids excited about reading. Not. so. fast.
This summer my daughter had one required reading book: Lincoln : A Photobiography by Russell Freedman. Me, being Smart Mom, decided that she’d jump on it faster if she could read it as an eBook.
I was wrong. Dead. wrong.
Over the last year, Catherine has used our Nook as much as my husband and me. She’d read in the car going to / from sports practice (Dad read while she practiced). She’d ask to “keep reading” [insert title here - Percy Jackson, Magic Tree House, et al] in the evening.
We had fewer tussles when she could do her reading without having to turn a “real” page.
So what happened this summer? It wasn’t the fact that Lincoln was required reading. We got her a paperback version and she would read aloud to us mostly without fuss. Frankly, I was very surprised.
The experience has taught me some things that are worth considering before we declare e-readers the panacea for dormant readers.
- The Novelty will wear off … just like any other shiny new thing. It was fun for a while, but then it was “just like any other book.” Even the newest toy in our house – my Xoom tablet and its bigger screen – wasn’t enough of an enticement to read.
- Environment matters. Catherine read in the car because she knew she needed to get her reading done and the screen is easier than paper and the car’s dome light.
- Format matters. The pictures in the Lincoln book look great on the tablet, but they were definitely different. Catherine spent a lot more time poring over the paper version of the photos. She’d go back and forth among the pages revisiting them … something much easier to do with paper.
In looking back at our summer experience, I don’t think one reason weighed more heavily than another. In looking forward, I think free choice matters, too. It could be that the required reading element was a contributor … I guess we’ll find out this coming summer when we have two chapter biographies to read!
Teachers more than anyone know just how real the “summer slide” phenomenon is. Take a student out of his or her learning rhythm and they will begin to lose ground. At least one month, according to recent studies.
Thinking about this brought me to this very real analogy: if we had that many days away from our job as kids do for Summer Vacation (104 according to Phineas and Ferb!), we’d probably forget a couple of things, too.
As a mom, this was the summer I have been dreading for years: required reading for my now 10-year-old. She had to read Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman. It is just one book, and it will be the baseline for her first Social Studies unit of Fifth grade. I understand it and think it is more than reasonable … but the push back. Oh, the push back!
So how do we help our kids – who at this age have a lot to say about what they like and don’t like – without destroying the idea that reading can be fun? and getting that “must do” in there too?
1. Let them pick. Let them decide what material they want to read, and when. Maybe they like to get stuff done in the morning, maybe at lunch … pick a time that works. By letting your reader read something they like (magazines and manuals count!) , keeps those skills polished.
2. Set the limits. You should set a minimum time, both per reading session and how many days a week. Most school districts have guidelines. For example, ours is 90 minutes per week. That still allows plenty of time for summer fun.
3. Divide and conquer. Just because the process sounds easy and fair to us, doesn’t mean that it will be interpreted that way. Our suggestion is take that agreed upon time and split it in half. Your reader can start with their favorite and then do the required reading or vice versa.
Agreeing on a plan and breaking down the task into manageable pieces not only helps get the job done in time, it makes everyone happier, too. And isn’t that the best part of summer?
So whether you’re enjoying a Staycation or heading to the beach, mountains or lake in these next few weeks, we hope that you’ll pack some books!
Terry Doherty is a Stay-at-Home Mom, reading mentor, and a family literacy advocate. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Reading Tub(r), and is the force behind Share a Story – Shape a Future, an annual blog tour for literacy. You’ll find reviews by families for families on The Reading Tub website; and her ideas for reading on Family Bookshelf, her blog.
Rats! It seems like we were just waving the flag for the Fourth of July and POOF! We are now well into August. Ready or not, we’re barreling into the next season: back to school.
Those ads for new clothes and school supplies, backpacks, and lunchboxes also visible reminders that maybe our kids didn’t read as much as they’re “supposed to.” Summer slide is real. Rats!
The good news is that you can turn around the summer slide AND start preparing them for the routine that’s just around the corner.
Last month, the children’s book world lost Donald Sobol. You may not remember his name, but I’ll bet you know his hero: Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown. Encyclopedia Brown has been inspiring readers since 1963. He is as popular with girls as boys and these crack-the-case books are perfect not only for summer reading, but in that initial transition when we’re trying to get kids back into a reading groove when school starts. We call them the 3 S’s of Summer.
- The story is short, with an illustration. The image helps readers create a tangible, visual scene from the words they’ve been reading.
- Lots of dialogue makes it to easy to share the reading aloud and mystery solving!
- Series books make it easy to add new titles and keep kids wanting more from their favorite characters.
It is easy to chop the book into smaller reading sessions (i.e., 1 story, 2 stories). The illustrations break up the pages and make it “go faster,” too. Last but not least, each mystery is independent. You don’t have to know the characters or previous events to enjoy the story. Put those things together and you have a book hook for even the most dormant reader.
Encyclopedia Brown is just one character that neatly fits into the 3 S’s of Summer Reading model. There are plenty more listed on the Family Bookshelf Blog in the story Encyclopedia Brown Inspires Readers – No Mystery There.
The good news is there is still time to keep summer going and start adding in a little more reading time over the next few weeks. Lazy afternoons with a book, the kids, and cold beverage … the perfect antidote to the Dog Days of Summer.
No more Rats, just Sweet!
Terry Doherty is a Stay-at-Home Mom, reading mentor, and a family literacy advocate. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Reading Tub(r), and is the force behind Share a Story – Shape a Future, an annual blog tour for literacy. You’ll find reviews by families for families on The Reading Tub website; and her ideas for reading on Family Bookshelf, her blog.
Posted on June 12, 2011 by Suzan Woodard in Integration Ideas, Literacy, Writing.
Tags: Big Universe Author Tool, Brain Drain, creative writing, Develop Community, Empathy, Reinforce Vocabulary, Self-Reflection, summer reading, Writing in the Classroom, Writing Skills, writing with children
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The Big Universe author tool provides a fun avenue for practicing writing skills.
“Simply put, in the whole range of academic course work, American children do not write frequently enough, and the reading and writing tasks they are given do not require them to think deeply enough,” said Judith Langer and Arthur Applebee in “How Writing Shapes Thinking.”
That statement was written 30 years ago. Have things changed? Let’s hope so.
In The 2007 Survey on Teaching Writing, a national public opinion poll conducted for the National Writing Project, 79 percent of respondents felt reading and writing instruction should go “hand in hand” rather than over-emphasizing reading at the expense of teaching writing skills. Learning to write well was considered key “for students to acquire other skills such as effective communication, grammar and critical thinking.”
Big Universe has based its whole platform on this hand-in-hand approach to reading and writing, making its Author Tool and thousands of books available to teachers and students around the clock. If you have access to the Internet, you have access to these learning tools.
Big Universe members have read the digital ebook library’s picture books 1.19 million times and have used the website’s Author Tool extensively to enhance the classroom experience. To date, Big Universe’s statistics show more than 28,000 books and projects have been created by teachers and students at school and at home.
How can a teacher use the Big Universe Author Tool to enhance learning? Let me count the ways!
- Document Summer Reading: Children can use the Author Tool to create a written log to summarize the books they read during the summer, devoting one page for each story. They could type in the title, the author, the main characters and a summary and then describe a favorite anecdote or interesting fact from the book. The extensive graphics library enables students to illustrate their written work.
- Reinforce Vocabulary: Have children write, using vocabulary they have learned. This written practice will sharpen their thinking, improve reading skills and will carry over into spoken language. You can see an example of how this was done in the book Lee’s Leaders’ ABC Book of Fourth Grade Science, an imaginative book written and illustrated by Russell Cave Elementary students.
- Foster Creativity: Big Universe creates a climate for creativity. Just look at some of the titles of the member-created books on the website’s library shelves. They’ve authored stories of aliens and giant hamburgers and dancing animals just for the fun of it. They’ve written about holidays, relatives and their favorite sports. Big Universe’s Author Tool makes capturing students’ and teachers’ imagination easy. See the funny animated book titled “Party Farm.”
- Build Empathy Bridges: Sometimes embarrassment or cultural differences create barriers in the classroom, making communication hard. Big Universe’s Author Tool helps kids relate to one another. It gives them a voice, allowing them to express feelings and share ideas and perspectives. This can help build confidence, compassion and communication. Read “You Can Be Anything.”
- Personalize Instruction. Many teachers have crafted material to supplement classroom curriculum. When they couldn’t find books to flesh out their lessons, they simply created their own. Others used Big Universe’s inviting forum to complement an assignment. I loved the color poem project that one teacher gave students. Read “Pink,” “Blue is” and “Red.” Parents can author a story to reinforce a life lesson, too. Read “Sidney Crosby the Penguin.”
- Develop Community. “Maintaining a sense of ‘community’ in schools is essential to writing,” said teachers in statements submitted to the National Commission on Writing. Sharing written work is one of Big Universe’s core principles. This fun forum allows students to work together or share book lists and stories with each other. One Indiana teacher had her students each write a book titled “My Life.” The books are charming and give insight into the personalities of different classmates.
- Hone Writing Skills: Incorporating free-writing exercises throughout the school week will get students’ brains primed to think. It’s a great summer vacation activity to prevent summer brain drain, too. Have kids write free form for 10 minutes or more each day – not being overly concerned with spelling, grammar or structure. The goal is to get youngsters comfortable with transferring thoughts in their heads to “paper.” Ask children to clarify what they heard in class or saw on a field trip. Have them list questions that their experiences prompted. A summer blog is another option. Children can journal about going to the pool, making ice cream or going on vacation. Skills of observation will sharpen with practice and so will the ease with which children use words to paint pictures.
This is only a starter list. I am sure there are many other ways teachers have creatively incorporated Big Universe into their classrooms. Briefly share your successes in the comment box below to inspire your peers.
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
Why is reading in the summer important? Is it something teachers just say because they think they are supposed to? Is it something that parents encourage as one thing for children to do in the summer?
As a teacher, I encouraged reading in fall, winter, spring, and summer. Reading can open so many doors and offer so many great opportunities for learning and enjoyment.
Here are a few things I have recently found concerning the importance of summer reading:
- “The benefits to readers in a summer reading program include encouragement that reading become a lifelong habit, reluctant readers can be drawn in by the activities, reading over the summer helps children keep their skills up, and programs can generate interest in the library and books.” (ALA Library Fact Sheet)
- “Children who don’t read over the summer tend to lose literacy skills while children who do read during the summer actually improve their reading ability. Summer learning losses accumulate over several years and are an important contributor to the achievement gap.” (State Library of Iowa)
- “The body of existing research demonstrates the critical importance that the early development of summer reading habits can play in providing the foundation for later success.” (New York State Library)
- “The number of books read during the summer is consistently related to academic gains. Children in every income group who read six or more books over the summer gained more in reading achievement than children who did not. The use of the public library during the summer is more predictive of vocabulary gains than attending summer school is.” (State Library of North Carolina quoted in the State Library of Iowa site)
- “If children read one million words a year, at least one thousand words will be added to their vocabulary. (One study found this could easily be accomplished by letting children and teens read any format reading material they wanted, including comic books and teen romances.) (That’s an average of 2,868 words per day!)” (State Library of Iowa)
- “According to Mc-Gill Franzen and Allington (2004), “Too many children spend their summer with no books to read.” Their research cites the necessity of finding novel ways to get books into the hands of children during summer breaks. This idea is supported by research from Barbara Heyn (1978), who found that reading was the most influential factor related to summer learning. Further studies by Krashen (2004) simply state, “More access to books results in more reading.” These and other studies find that when schools close their doors, the opportunity to read is often closed with them, especially for those children without access to books.” (New York State Library)
The wide range of books offered on the Big Universe Learning Site can be used as a way to have a library in your home this summer. Big Universe is a way to provide books for summer reading to encourage future success.
image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/7752651@N05/3745495331/
When I think about my experiences reading with my child, I think about the great stories we have read, the things we talk about while we are reading, and how much my little one really enjoys it. I don’t think about the amount of time we spend reading. I don’t think I have ever told my daughter, “Ok, we have to read for 20 minutes tonight.” I may have told her, “I can’t wait to see what happens, so let’s make sure we finish this book tonight.”
Thinking about my experiencing reading with my daughter doesn’t seem to match the reading homework that I used to give students. I remember telling students that they had to read for 30 minutes each night. It did not matter what they read … they just needed to read something. I sigh and shake my head when I think about giving that instruction. My instruction was focused on time (quantity) rather than the reading experience (quality).
My daughter and I will read this summer. We have not joined a specific summer reading program (yet anyway). My daughter will start school in the fall. It is one of my goals to help her develop of love of learning and reading. I want to lay the foundation for that even before she starts school. I want her to see reading as an enjoyable experience and not as just one more thing that she has to do.
My plan for summer reading for her (for us) is simply for us to choose books we think we will enjoy and read them. If one book only takes a few minutes to read, then we can choose another one to read if we want or not. If a book takes us 3 days to read, then we will read for days without any worry as to how long we are reading each day. The teacher in me knows daily reading experiences are beneficial. The mother in me doesn’t want to restrict those reading experiences to a certain amount of time. I want our reading experience more focused on quality than quantity (as a teacher, I know that quantity of reading time is much easier to keep track of than the quality of reading time.)
I hope that my daughter will want to read a variety of types of books (the mother and teacher in me will probably help “guide” that selection). The Summer Reading Lists now available in the Read Section on the Big Universe Site provide a great place for us to start when choosing books to read. There are book lists divided by age groups and topics. Even though I say book lists, the lists on Big Universe are much more than just lists. These lists are collections of book covers. I know that my daughter will enjoy choosing books to read when picking from a picture of the book cover better than if it was just a plain list.
I am looking forward to our summer reading times, and I hope she will enjoy it too!
image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/12801018@N00/3567108541/
So, it is getting close to summer …
Do you have a list of books that you would like to read this summer? Plans for books to take to the pool or beach? Plans to read on a trip?
Do your children or students have any ideas about what they might like to read this summer?
Big Universe has lots of great options for summer reading (and for anytime reading)!
Here are a few of my ideas on ways I might use BigUniverse this summer with my daughter:
- I might let my daughter pick a certain topic for a week and read as many books as possible that week about that topic
- I could do an advanced search in the sidebar to find books interesting for my child’s age
- My child could pick 3 Categories listed in the sidebar and then we can try to read a certain number of books from each category to compare.
- Have you ever looked at the Big Universe Staff Picks ? We might look at those to see what others like before choosing a book to read one day.
- Although I am sure all the books on the site are worth reading, it might be fun for my daughter and I to look at the Last 150 Books Added to the Site to discover something to read.
- We could read books created by a certain publisher or author one week.
- We might look at the books that others have added to their bookshelves recently to find some good idea.
- We could decide to read fiction books on BigUniverse one week and then nonfiction books another week.
My daughter loves to pick out books to read on BigUniverse. Have certain categories or types in mind to help guide her selection might be helpful for me to make sure she experiences a wide variety of books over the summer.
Do you have any ideas on ways you can use BigUniverse for summer reading experiences? I would love to hear your ideas!
Posted on May 10, 2011 by Suzan Woodard in Personal Experiences, Reading Lists, Uncategorized.
Tags: Brain Drain, Bug Books, Cicadas, Insect Books for Children, Ladybugs, Reading Loss, Summer Fun for Kids, summer reading, Summer Setback, Summer Writing
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Big Universe has children's picture books about ladybugs, cicadas, bees, crickets and more.
Summer is on its way and like it or not, so are the bugs. Most adults have lost their fascination with insects and other creepy-crawlies, but don’t underestimate the power of a six-legger to keep a child occupied.
I recently attended a high school track meet – one that lasted a long time. There was a delay in the action, so I watched a charming little girl play nearby. She was not holding an electronic device or the latest plastic plaything from Toys R Us. Nope. That 3-year-old was playing happily with a ladybug. It occupied her for THREE HOURS!
She did not whine to go home. She did not beg for candy. Nor did she pull a “Grace Van Cutsem,” when the crowd cheered loudly for the relay runners on the track. She simply let her ladybug crawl up one arm and down the next, making a bug-friendly bridge with her chubby, but gentle, index fingers.
I am inclined to think she would enjoy the two online picture books about ladybugs that Big Universe offers. The website has an amazing assortment of fact-filled bug books for junior entomologists. The pictures are exquisite, so pre-readers can enjoy the books on their own or alongside a grownup.
The Big Universe Author Tool provides another way for kids to process what they find in their own backyard. They can write about the bugs they discover in the flowerpots on their deck or crawling in the lawn. The writing tool can be used to create a field notebook to record life cycles, feeding habits and other observations. The website’s “Insect” clipart lets children illustrate their writing easily.
Reading bug books, going on a scientific bug hunt, and writing about it on a computer are a fun combo to ward off summer setback – or “brain drain.” (Experts say reading a minimum of six books is enough to keep children from losing literacy gains made during the previous school year.) The physical activity will keep their bodies healthy, too.
Children’s Books About Bugs
Other BU Blogs About Summer Reading:
Summer Reading Lists: Cats, Dogs and Horses
Batter Up! Baseball Stories for Summer Reading
The ABCs of Car Games: Part One
The ABCs of Car Games: Part Two
The ABCs of Car Games: Part Three
Fight Summer Setback with Free Books
Top 10 List: Golden Opportunities of Summer
Children, Books and Summer Vacation
Reading in the Summer
My dad used to call my sister “Miss Fingers,” because she was always touching things. I now know that she was a tactile learner – driven by curiosity and the desire to understand and experience objects up close and in person.
Today she is a renaissance woman of many talents: school teacher, mother, tennis whiz, quilter, seamstress, great cook, scrapbooker and home decorator extraordinaire.
My youngest daughter takes after her creative aunt. When she was really little, I would have my “Miss Fingers” roll up her hands in the front of her shirt, when we walked through stores with lots of breakables. She just could not resist “looking at” all the pretty things with her busy little digits.
She now spends her free time cutting, pasting, gluing, stringing and knitting things together. Her collages cover her bedroom walls, and her friends have been the recipients of homemade cards, picture frames, scarves, jewelry and one-of-a-kind posters.
If you have a child with a hunger for hobbies, check out the craft series by Big Universe’s partner, Rourke Publishing. Written by Tracy Maurer, these well-illustrated books are aimed at the Grade 3-6 crowd. Following the directions for each project strengthens reading comprehension skills and vocabulary – while fostering artistic creativity.
Paula Willey of the Baltimore County Public Library in Towson, Md., reviewed this series for the November 2009 issue of School Library Journal. Here is what she had to say:
“The crafts in these cheery books are not too hard, but not so simple as to be boring, and are made with a minimum of specialty supplies. Lively, upbeat covers feature photos of regular girls with big smiles. Inside, the subject of each book is first put into context and then illustrated with seven to eight crafts. There is an emphasis on safety and on getting permission and on responsibility. Many projects incorporate reuse of household items that might otherwise be discarded (worn-out jeans, buttons, jars, newspapers).”
Rourke Publishing also offers an “Explore and Draw” series, which would have been up my other daughter’s alley when she was younger – a combination of reading and sketching! Titles include:
Update: (Sept. 24, 2010) While exploring online, I found another superb crafts book by Kathy Ross, a teacher and nursery school program director with more than 30 years of experience on the front lines. “Crafts for Kids Who are Learning About Weather” caught my eye because Jan Barger’s illustrations are simply darling. The pair also has written a crafts book titled “Crafts for Kids Who are Learning About Community Workers.” Ross has several dozen additional crafts book titles under her belt with other illustrators.
Update: (Oct. 4, 2010) Big Universe has added the book “Crafty Kids ” to its online library shelf. Written by Char Benjamin, this Teacher Created Materials book helps early readers expand their vocabulary and explore mathematical principles (patterns) in a tangible way – making crafts for a school sale.
Update: (March 10, 2011) It’s National Craft Month, and I found a good article by Sherri Osborn at About.com with loads of craft tutorial links to explore with your children.
