Summer Reading and Writing: What Some Middle Schools Are Doing

Troy, Michigan
Frances Blatnik, Boulan Park Middle School

All students get a summer reading list that is updated periodically. Eighth graders planning to embark on the high school’s honors program must read five books and complete assignments over the summer.

Seventh graders preparing to enter Blatnik’s advanced eighth-grade class are given a summer reading list. They are required to bring the list to the first day of class and to indicate which books they read. The school’s summer reading Web page is at http://boulan.troy.k12.mi.us/web/msmedia/pages/reading.htm. 

“In my opinion, fostering a love of reading is the most important job of the English teacher, and modeling such a love is the best way of doing that.”

Oceanside, New York
Kathleen Cicerani, Oceanside Public School 

This school district invites students to choose their books and offers categorized lists of titles that students have enjoyed along with recommendations from the librarian, English language arts teachers, and parents. After reading a book, students create literary postcards, which are collected on the second day of school.

The students, who are coming from six different elementary schools, share their postcards as an ice-breaker activity before the cards are posted around the room, in the library, or on the school’s Web site. Cicerani explains that eighth graders also choose their books, but they complete a writing assignment comparing themselves to a character.

Though the district is considering some new ideas for the future, Cicerani says choice will remain central. “I know that’s how I like to read in the summer.”  

Tempe, Arizona
Mark Wenz, Kyrene Middle School

The district has no requirements for summer reading at the elementary level, but Wenz is always ready to recommend books.

For this, he looks to the Arizona Young Readers program, which annually recommends books for different age levels (http://www.kyrene.org/staff/hhelli/AZYR/azyr.htm). Wenz says some of the titles this year are The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants; Cut; The House of the Scorpion; and Big Mouth and Ugly Girl.

“The pressures of constant testing and No Child Left Behind have made it more difficult to read for the pure joy of it since there’s always another state standard to squeeze in before the big test. However, as a teacher, I constantly model reading as a pleasurable activity, and often share short excerpts from my favorite books with the class by reading them aloud and then discussing them.”

Clayton, Missouri
Kathryn Mitchell Pierce, Wydown Middle School

Students are invited to choose from a list of recommended titles for primary, intermediate, and middle school. Each list includes a range of genres and reading “levels.”

Teachers choose various ways to bring the summer reading into their classroom, such as book talks or literature letters. Some teachers encourage summer writing, but Pierce says this isn’t as established as summer reading.

The high school publishes a list of the major books assigned in literature classes and encourages students to read some of them over the summer. Some literature teachers ask students to complete a specific book during the summer and then give a quiz on the title at the beginning of the school year.  

The goal, Pierce says, is to get kids reading all summer. “For summer reading, I would hope that students would take advantage of the opportunity to read titles of their own choosing, to read without being accountable for book projects and assessments, and to read books that are often overlooked in the curriculum—graphic novels, for example. The same is true for writing.”

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Paula Armstrong, Belle Isle Enterprise Middle School

This school was founded in 1998, and doesn’t have a required summer reading or writing program. However, they will be passing out suggested summer reading lists for their seventh and eighth graders and the sixth graders who will be entering in the fall.

New York City, New York
Lois Refkin, Hunter College High School

The English Department at this 7–12 grade public school for intellectually gifted students doesn’t have summer reading and writing requirements, Refkin says, because students already read widely and the school would prefer students to have a break from academic demands and the freedom to explore books and writing on their own.

But when students do ask for suggestions for summer reading, Refkin is happy to oblige. Sometimes she’s distributed a list titled “If You Liked . . ., You Might Also Enjoy . . .” where she’ll mention additional works similar in theme or style or by the same author as works students explored during the school year. She also suggests that students visit http://www.poets.org/ for information about poets and their works.   

“As a teacher I feel that encouraging my students to be lifelong readers and writers for pleasure is the best legacy I can leave them; fortunately, most of our students come here already with a deep and abiding love for both reading and writing.”

Bar Harbor, Maine
Linda Reynolds, Conners-Emerson School

Reynolds says many of the school’s students are kept busy during the summer supporting the tourist industry. She speaks with seventh graders at the end of the school year and encourages them to read over the summer. She’s never “assigned” summer work, but feels it would be a good idea.

“On the very first day of school in September, I make the point with my new eighth graders that anyone who did not read at least five novels over the summer probably went backwards in their reading skills. I present my summer reading in a book talk, and then ask each of them to present their summer reading. Some nervous giggles and some ‘deer in the headlights’ looks tend to be the response. But I make my point.”

Houston, Texas
Katherine D. Ramsey, River Oaks Baptist School

All students at the K–8 school read a minimum of five books over the summer. The books may be selected from a book list created by the Houston Association of Independent Schools Library Network (http://haisln.org/ReadingLists.htm).

In grades 6–8, students may go beyond the reading list to choose books at their reading level for which they get parent approval. These middle school students are required to read one common novel and four books of their choice. All sixth grade students read Walk Two Moons; all seventh graders read Freak the Mighty; and all eighth graders read A Day No Pigs Would Die.

Ramsey says that during the first two weeks of school, students report on their summer reading in developmentally appropriate ways, with teachers using discussions and writing about the books as learning invitations for the year. “We feel that reading widely and deeply is essential for our students’ academic development.”