When choosing which book or books to assign students to read over the summer, you have an opportunity to engage and inspire them to go above and beyond with their reading.
Many schools will assign one or two books per grade in high school to read over the summer break. Why stop at one or two?
Create a Summer Reading Challenge for each incoming grade level.
Here are four books that could be assigned as summer reading assignments:
9th Grade: OF MICE AND MEN
10th Grade: LORD OF THE FLIES
11th Grade: CATCHER IN THE RYE
12th Grade: THINGS FALL APART
After students have read the books and finished their assignments they will be allowed to read a second a book. The book can come from a pre-written list, created by your department.
Here is a list created from novels that have literature set questions in Castle Learning Online:
The Adventures of Frog and Toad
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
The True Confession of Charlotte Doyle
Award points for each book. The denominations will vary depending on the student’s grade level. For example, Where The Red Fern Grows will be worth 15 Points to a 9th grader, but 5 points to an 11th grader.
Create an online Standings Board
As students complete books and assignments, add the points to their total. This way, students can check in over the summer and see how many points they have accumulated.
|
12th Graders |
Book 1 |
Book 2 |
Points Totals |
|
Gordon, Barbara |
Things Fall Apart 15 |
The Sun Also Rises 15 |
30 |
|
Drake, Tim |
Things Fall Apart 15 |
N/A 0 |
15 |
|
Pennyworth, Alfred |
Things Fall Apart 15 |
Speak 10 |
25 |
The “Reading Season” should last until the midnight of the night before school begins. Students will have to hand in their assignments proving they read the books on the first day of school. Once the scores have been verified, announce the Summer Reading Champion of each grade level.
Make sure to give some awesome prizes. You’ll inspire a student who didn’t win this year to step up his or her game for next summer.
Creating healthy reading competition is a surefire way to engage students over the summer and increase the amount of time they spend reading.
If your school doesn’t have Castle Learning Online, be sure to contact us now for a free trial that you can use today for summer assignments!