Summer Reading

Dear Parents and Students:

In order to preserve the progress students have made during the academic year, I feel it is very important for students to continue daily reading all summer.  Choose a time of day that works and make it a daily habit.  Choose books you enjoy; read fiction and non-fiction.  Challenge yourself.  Learn new words.  I have included on this website ideas to help build reading comprehension.

Student test scores are available on Family Access.  If a student scores in the 60’s range in reading on the Stanford test, students read at an average level compared to all seventh graders nationally.  What my colleagues and I notice is that with our materials at school, many average readers struggle.  Please continue working at improving your reading comprehension and vocabulary.  If a student scores below the 60’s range, remedial reading instruction may be a valuable activity for the summer. 

I have also included a list of materials and resources to find interesting, quality literature. 

Have a wonderful summer!

Mrs. Wells

Ways to Extend our Learning in 7^th Grade

¶     Encourage your child to read other books from the authors they read during this academic year.  Encourage any and all reading possible.

¶     If your child is a struggling reader, buy the novels from the 8^th grade novel list and help him/her get a head start.  If your child is not a struggling reader, encourage him/her to read other books by the same authors.  The 8^th graders will be reading:  The Outsiders by SE Hinton, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

¶     Visit the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park.  Visit the Wing Luke Museum.

¶     Visit Seattle’s International District and try some new cuisine in restaurants or Uwajimaya.

¶     Keep an eye out for the Seafair events and other international festivals at Seattle Center, the International District and other venues across the Puget  Sound Area.  Look for ways to celebrate cultural diversity and Washington State History.

¶     Encourage your child to read the paper and watch the news.  Discuss what is happening out there in the world.   Practice summarizing—this is particularly difficult for students.

¶     Discuss what your child reads.  Ask specific questions:

How does your life relate to the characters?

How would you summarize the book?

What other way could the characters have resolved the conflict in the story?

What was your favorite part of the story?  Why? 

Who was your favorite character and why?

How would you promote the book?

¶     Let your student help you with writing and researching tasks.

¶     Encourage writing letters to relatives across the country and around the world.  How about a pen pal?  Explore the differences between electronic mail and “snail” mail.

¶     Before going to a movie or renting a movie, encourage reading the book first.

¶     If a movie is released that is a remake of an older version, watch both and compare and contrast.  Do the same with songs. 

¶     Discuss the lyrics of the songs you hear your children sing or play.  Ask them how the lyrics demonstrate the poetry features we learned this year.  What symbols do they see or what deep meaning is the artist trying to get across?  How was the language changed from usual usage? 

¶     Look for spelling errors in public signs and advertisements. 

¶     Learn a word-a-day with your children—have a contest to see how many times each person can use it correctly in everyday conversation.  Learn a group of words related to a word root.

¶     See how many words they can create from words on billboards and everywhere else.

¶     On long trips, encourage books on tape in the car or on airplanes.  Can you download those from computers now onto I-Pods?

¶     Have all family members learn a poem a day or each week to recite from memory and discuss this with the family.

¶     Have your student man the map on road trips.

Suggestions to Strengthen Reading Skills:

1.  Read a paragraph, story, book, or chapter into a tape recorder.  Then, listen to the tape as an auditory reinforcement of what he/she just read, as many of us are auditory learners.

2. Practice defining words with multiple meanings.  Then, use the word correctly in a sentence or paragraph or small story, which increases understanding of word meanings in different settings.

3. Silently read a short story, newspaper articles, or magazine.  Pay attention to the TITLE.  Have the student write down the 10 major ideas in the selected passage, and 10 minor details.  A major idea is one that is essential to understanding the overall meaning of the passage.   The minor details ‘under’ the major ones to help visualize the relationship.  Many of us are overwhelmed by the details of reading and have problems deciding what is important.  Practice does help.

4. Do crossword puzzles, which expand your word knowledge and meanings, and improve problem solving skills.

5. Draw a picture of the chapter, the concept, or the steps in a process.  As this activates a different part of your brain and helps with visualization.

6. Write about what you just read.  Fill an entire page with thoughts, reactions, questions, predictions about the reading selection.  Force yourself to think more deeply about what you read.  Research shows that writing enhances comprehension and gives practice to organizing thinking into words.

7. Check out www.websters.com and learn a word a day.  Use this word as many times as you can during the day.  Make a chart of the words, categorizing them, coloring them, using them in a sentence that connects to a theme you enjoy.  Practice such as this increases meaningful vocabulary acquisition and is the key to improved reading and understanding.

8. Organize a book club.  It can be as small as you and your parent, or include other family members and friends.  Read a chapter and discuss it.  Celebrate with an appropriate activity when finishing the book.  Discussing and listening to others’ thoughts is an essential thinking skill.

9.  Understand that you need to stop and re-read when the meaning of the words is not creating a mental image.  If you are reading aloud, you can usually ‘hear’ when understanding is missing from what was read.  Self-monitoring of comprehension is a skill all good readers possess.

10. Draw maps and/or pictures periodically about the events in a story.  Again, as you know, visualization is a reading comprehension building block.

11. PARENT ALERT:  Anything you can do to help your child interact with the reading will improve skills.  Search out materials that support interests of your child to begin, and then ease them into expanding their reading to include new information and topics.

WHY SHOULD YOU SPEND TIME COACHING YOUR CHILD TO BECOME A BETTER READER?

Adapted from Marc Prensky’s work, http://www.marcprensky.com/writing

From Woman’s Day, 5/30/06

BACH 2006

Ideas for Summer Reading Materials:

Newbery (notice only one “r”), ALA Teens’ Top Ten, Alan Award, Alex Award, American Award, Margaret A. Edwards Award, Sid Fleischman Humor Award, Golden Kite Award, Heartland Award, JHunt Award, Coretta Scott King Award, National Book Awards, Orbis Pictus Award, Michael L Printz Award, Pura Belpre Award, Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal, John Steptoe Award

And here is a list of books Mrs. Wells has heard are good ones that young adults enjoy!