Summer Reading
What does the research say about summer reading and the effects on academic achievement? I thought you'd never ask.
1. Reading over the summer makes a difference academically.
Studies show that reading six books over the summer can help maintain your reading level, while reading ten books or more can actually improve your reading skills.
Heyns, Barbara. Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling
2. You can choose something below your reading level and benefit.
"When students read easy-to-understand materials (in which there is one new word in 150), they have a 30 percent chance of learning the new word in that selection. In more difficult reading (one new word in ten), the chance of learning those words drops to 7 percent (Swanborn and de Glopper 1999)."
Abilock, Debbie. "Portkeys to Vocabulary" Knowledge Quest 35:1.
3. Free voluntary reading (choosing what you want to read) is strongly correlated with student achievement.
Multiple studies have confirmed that free reading results in better:
Reading comprehension and analytical reading
Writing style
Vocabulary
Spelling and grammatical development
Krashen, Stephen. The Power of Reading. Libraries Unlimited, 1993.
I've put together some ideas for summer reading. My goal was to give you titles you may not have heard of before, instead of the classics, or even some more recent titles that are frequently recommended. Once you're in the list, click on the title for a short description, or the cover of the book for a detailed summary, reviews, and sometimes even the first chapter.