Jefferson
Middle School
Reading Lists
Summer 2009
Other Resources:
For students:
Scholastic Summer Reading Online Challenge
Join
Scholastic’s Summer Challenge and be part of a team quest to eat, sleep, and
dream books all summer! Find great reads, play book-based games, and help
Scholastic support Save the Children! Your minutes can also count toward the
World
Record Challenge.
Making the Most of Summer Reading - Tips for
Parents:
- Finding a book on-level: "Help your
child choose books that he can comfortably read. The "five-finger test" is a
useful guideline for beginning readers. As your child reads, count the
number of words he cannot read per page. In general, there should be five
words or fewer that give him trouble on each page. If a book contains
several pages on which you count more than five words that he can't read,
consider reading that book to your child until he develops more reading
skill." (From
Reading Rockets)
- For a more scientific approach to finding
a book on-level, use your CRCT
Reading Lexile to select summer reading:
http://www.lexile.com/findabook/
The Lexile Framework for Reading
"The Lexile Framework for Reading is a new resource for parents and
educators that focuses on improving early reading skills and increasing
adolescent literacy. The relationships between the reading levels of a
student to the difficulty of text, such as a book or magazine article, are
called Lexile measures. These measures are then linked to scores on the
Georgia Criterion Reference Competency Test (CRCT) and the Georgia High
School Graduation Test (GHSGT) Reading Assessments. Teachers, parents, and
library media specialists can use Lexile measures to choose texts that are
likely to improve the reading and comprehension skills of students."
- Take your children to the library several
times over the summer. The public library has a reading incentive
program this year to encourage students in their reading goals. The
public library also has
special programming!
- Use books on tape/CD/mp3 - fun for the
whole family. Struggling students greatly benefit from hearing
books read to them. If you're taking a trip this summer, purchase or
check-out a book on CD. Students can follow along with the book and
the rest of the family can participate in listening/discussing.
Encouraging students to talk about the book improves understanding and
motivation.
- Talk to your child about what they are
reading. Discussion builds comprehension. Questions could
include:
- "Who is your favorite character?
Why? Do you have anything in common?"
- "Is there a villain in your story?
What is he/she going to do? What do you think motivates that
person?"
- "Why did you select that book in your
list? What interested you first?"
- "What is happening in your story?
If you were the author, what would you write next?"
- Set special reading times for the whole
family. Research shows that modeling reading for children improves
their motivation and interest.
- Read aloud. Middle school
students (although they may not admit it!) still love read-alouds.
Take turns reading the book together and share with the whole family.
- Other tips (see especially--"Motivating Kids
to Read"):
http://www.rif.org/parents/tips/default.mspx