Reading is a favorite pastime of mine. I love the way the story plays out like a movie in my head when I am reading a fabulous fiction book. I adore learning new ideas/perspectives/concepts and often pick up nonfiction works from all fields. A good biography is like an invitation to an intimate parlor session with a dinner guest who tells fabulous stories. A great autobiography is like going out to coffee with a good friend. An intriguing mystery will have me analyzing plots and characters with total strangers to try and figure out the ending. A thriller will keep me up for days and cause me to leave the light on when I sleep (if I can even close my eyes). A wonderful science fiction/fantasy novel will have me scouring the skies for evidence of other life, and pouring over hair dye to see how I would look as the alien with blue hair. A good book is truly a gift…
Yet I hate summer reading assignments – at least how they are so often constructed. “Qualified” grownups are picking books for students with little input from the age group set to read the book. Many times a book is picked for its “purpose,” its “lesson,” or for imparting some type of “value.” In isolation a student reads the book without guidance, background, explanation, or other help aid. Generally a journal assignment is given with many students feeling as though they are writing for no specific audience in mind – just the grade. Occasionally an additional book is assigned – or a choice is given –with some type of extra assignment. Again no guidance, background, relevance is given to the student, and the activity is completed in isolation from the student’s peers.
In a world in which 75% of my students walk into my classroom and tell me that they hate to read, how is the grade-driven, individual practice of summer reading supposed to foster a change of opinion?
I want my students to realize that reading is one of the most wonderful, exciting, sometimes challenging, yet inspiring activities available to us as human beings. The chance to glimpse inside the world created by another human – even for a brief time – is a magically amazing opportunity that no other species on earth can recreate. However the way most summer reading programs are now constructed, the activity becomes a joyless task generally completed a few nights before school starts. If this program remains the same assessment based activity it has become, I say do away with it completely.
Summertime for students is a magical time. Reading is a magical activity. Isn’t there a better way to combine the two than the programs in place now?
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