Working...
SUMMER READING
Summer Reading: It schools the mind
Low-income students are most at risk. Unlike their more affluent peers, they lack widespread summertime access to books or enrichment. This summer inequity explains much of the income-based achievement gap, research shows. But any student can fall behind if summer becomes a wasteland of mindless entertainment or unstructured indolence. How can students forestall the summer slide? Read! Repeat!
Reading for fun, and often, has significant, sustained, and positive impacts on achievement. No epiphany, this still bears repeating. On the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2015, just 34 percent of eighth-graders and 36 percent of fourth-graders scored at or above proficient levels in reading. Eighth-grade scores have declined since 2013; fourth-grade scores have flat-lined. There’s no sign of a reading revival. Reading for fun has declined among kids of all ages since 2010. That’s according to Scholastic’s 2017 “Kids and Family Reading Report,” a biannual survey of more than 2,700 parents and children.
What promotes reading? Access to books. In Scholastic’s survey, frequent readers had far more books at home than infrequent readers (141 books, on average, compared to 65 books). Trends hold true across cultures and continents. Research by M.D. R. Evans and colleagues, published in 2014 in the journal “Social Forces,” found greater family book ownership was linked with higher scores on an international reading test for 15-year-olds in 42 countries.
Parents also might want to dust off that library card. A 2015 Library of Virginia study found that rising fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders who participated in summer reading programs performed better than non-participants on state reading tests, even two years after participation.
What else? Evidence points to reading at least five books. Adult guidance and encouragement are critical, but kids should choose books themselves. Some choices might make literature mavens cringe. Of course, choices vary based on age, interests, and gender. Boys, who trail girls in pleasure reading, are hooked by science fiction, sports, fantasy, war — even topics adults might find silly or a bit revolting. One American Library Association boys’ reading list proclaims, “Reach your reluctant readers with bodily functions and blood and guts.” A confession: I laughed my way through it.
Classics have their well-earned place, but summer books need not be by Dante or Dickens to school the mind. What must they be? Accessible, enjoyed. And read — again and again.
Blair, Kristen “Summer reading: It schools the mind” The Herald Sun, May 24, 2017
