Why does summer reading matter?
Students often ask this question and there are many answers!
Reading is a life skill. Adults have to be able to read employee manuals, car, apartment, and home contracts, insurance documents, purchase agreements, emails at work, literature for college, and the list goes on and on. Strong reading ability = success in life goals.
All the graduation and college entrance tests involve strong reading skills.
If students read a language other than English, then reading in both the home language and English creates success in both. True story! So, read books in more than one language if you can.
Strong reading skills help people research to learn the facts behind any information in the media.
“Summer slide” is best explained by this example: if a 9th-grader ends the first year of high school with a reading Lexile of 9.5, then s/he needs to gain 5 months of “reading experience” over the summer to begin 10th grade on grade level; if s/he does no summer reading, then “summer slide” kicks in and that student drops from a 9.5 Lexile to a 9.2 to start off the 10th grade year. That student now has to make up the amount lost over the summer + the new gains that are supposed to happen during 10th grade! As a result, students often fall further behind and struggle with coursework and tests. “Summer slide” slows down high school success, college readiness, and the adult literacy needed to make well-informed decisions.
What can parents and students do?
Create a family reading time! Read and relax for at least an hour a week at home or at a public library near you! It’s important for children to read both in and out of school, and it’s equally important for parents to continue reading! You don’t need a library card to read at the library, plus libraries have a variety of reading materials, including online resources, newspapers, and magazines.
AISD students have access to myON, an online reading program that they can access on their phone when they are in Wi-Fi. Public libraries, coffee shops—anywherewhere Wi-Fi is available, your child can read. AISD has a 5-book reading challenge for the summer because each student’s education is of paramount importance. Below is a sample of the myON bookmark that many children have already received: