If we want students to improve their reading skills over the summer, parents and teachers need to be active in helping students comprehend what they read.
“Engagement with text is the necessary first step if we want to improve reading skills when school is not in session or prevent a decline in reading achievement that might otherwise occur” (White and Kim, 2009).
In fact, research shows that “voluntary reading of books over the summer can enhance the reading achievement of ethnic minority students and reduce skill loss over the summer break if the books closely match students’ reading levels and interests” (White and Kim, 2009).
In their article “Teacher and Parent Scaffolding of Voluntary Summer Reading,” Thomas G. White and James S. Kim offer comprehension strategies teachers can implement several lessons at the end of the school year including the following:
1. Comprehension Strategies students could apply at home during the summer when reading silently.
2. Oral Reading Fluency Practice
3. Reading Aloud to their parents over the summer - this includes also listening to a short passage, a book and providing feedback on how well it was read and if it was read with expression.
In addition, it is important for teachers to spend some time modeling to students the importance of choosing a book based on personal interest and difficulty of the text. “Providing high-interest and appropriately challenging books that match students’ reading levels and reading preferences is essential for encouraging voluntary reading outside school” (Morrow, 2002). Teachers and parents can click on some of the books here to get an idea of other motivating subjects and titles that might interest their students/children.
Later, today, I’ll post some of the end-of-year lessons from the article, which I hope will be helpful for you.
Further Reading
Morrow, L.M. (2002) Motivating lifelong voluntary readers. In J. Flood (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts (pp.664-673). New York: Macmillan.
White, Thomas G. and Kim, James S., (2009) “Teacher and Parent Scaffolding of Voluntary Summer Reading,” The Reading Teacher, 62,2, pp.116-125.
