[Tasl] RE: summer reading lists for 8th grade

[Belinda Castille]

My summer recommended reading list for rising 6th graders is the Volunteer State Book Award Nominee list for the current and upcoming school years.

For my rising 7th and 8th graders I recommend the titles on the corresponding YA lists with a disclaimer to focus on the titles on the "Middle School Interest" portion of that list as the High School portion often contains titles with mature content.
B. Castille, Colonial Heights Middle School

Sullivan County, TN 


Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 08:23:44 -0700
From: mlgav at yahoo.com
Subject: summer reading lists for 8th grade
To: tasl at korrnet.org






Our 8th grader teachers asked me for some suggestions for summer reading list.  Does your school have a summer reading program?  If so what do your rising 6-8 graders have to read? Acording to this article...Summer Reading Loss
Regardless of other activities, the best predictor of summer loss or summer gain is whether or not a child reads during the summer. And the best predictor of whether a child reads is whether or not he or she owns books. While economically-advantaged kids often have their own bedroom libraries, poor kids usually depend heavily on schools for books to read.

Understandably, summer reading loss or "summer setback" is a bigger problem for children from low-income families. Their reading achievement typically declines an average of three months between June and September, while that of typical middle-class students improves or remains the same. This means that a summer reading loss of three months accumulates to a crucial two-year gap by the time kids are in middle school, even if their schools are equally effective. It suggests that focusing all of our efforts on improving the schools isn't going to work.

Children need to read outside of school. Research clearly shows that the key to stemming summer reading loss is finding novel ways to get books into the hands of children during the summer break.

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=391

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Life is Short. Dance often!


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