Plan Now for Summer Reading
from NCTE INBOX 4-29-08

May is Get Caught Reading Month (G), and it's time to start making your plans to encourage students to keep reading once classes are over. Try these resources to get your students involved in independent reading all summer long.

Introduce book clubs to your students now with the ReadWriteThink lesson plan Book Clubs: Reading for Fun (E) -- then encourage your students to meet and read during the summer months. The English Journal article "Reading Adolescents: Book Clubs for YA Readers" (S-TE) examines what happened when college students in an adolescent literature class met young readers encountering young adult literature in a book club setting.

To learn more about the ways book groups can create for faculty and students an informal space to connect meaningfully through reflective discussion of texts, read the English Journal article "Facilitating a Summer Reading Book Group Program" (S). For another take on book clubs with older students, check out "Watch Out, Oprah! A Book Club Assignment for Literature Courses" (C) from Teaching English in the Two-Year College. If face-to-face meetings aren't possible, suggest online discussion of the books students read.

To structure independent reading and support summer reading, have students complete a reading plan, a simple wish list of books they hope to read in the future. The ReadWriteThink lesson Developing Reading Plans to Support Independent Reading (M) invites students to reflect on the texts that they have read and then compile lists of books they want to read next. To prepare older students, invite students to create brochures and fliers that suggest books and genres to explore during the summer months with the ReadWriteThink lesson Authentic Persuasive Writing to Promote Real Summer Reading (S).

For more ideas for summer reading, see the Summer Reading and Learning Teaching Resource Collection and the Summer Activities for families page on the ReadWriteThink site.

NOTE: Free access to journal articles mentioned in this INBOX is provided for 21 days. After this free access period expires, articles are available to journal subscribers only. This Inbox Idea was published 4-29-08.

Initials in annotations indicate academic level of the resource (E=Elementary, M=Middle, S=Secondary, C=College, TE=Teacher Education, G=General).

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