Summer is a time for children to have a break from school, go on vacations and have fun. However, it’s also been a time for students to regress when it comes to reading.
“Kids normally slide back two reading levels in the summer when they don’t read,” said Sarah Weber, an instructional coach at Stober Elementary School in Lakewood.
With that in mind, the staff at Stober started a summer reading program this year. Each student took home eight books at their reading level, four fiction and four non-fiction. The students are filling out worksheets about on each book and will bring them back at the start of the school year.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the program is a blog started by the school librarian where students can log in and comment and discuss the books they read.
“We made a big deal about getting books and promoting the idea of reading in the summer and making it fun,” Weber said.
The program has been incredibly successful so far, Stober Principal Andrew Zapotoczny said, with more than 80 of the 280 students at Stober logging in and blogging, some even before school was out.
“Before school was out, 75 kids were already blogging,” he said.
He added that there are students actively blogging whom he wouldn’t have expected to participate. Teachers have also been active and even Superintendent Cindy Stevenson logged on and commented on a student’s post.
The Bates family includes two children who have been active in the summer reading program this summer. Kaylin, who will enter the fourth grade in the fall, and Madison, who will be in first grade, have read more than twice as many books as they did last summer, according to the their mother, Pam.
“I like it because they have to actually do worksheets on each book that they’ve read, and it’s been fun. The technology piece of it is something that they have to learn, and it’s safe and it’s appropriate and it’s interactive with the teachers,” Pam Bates said.
Both Kaylin and Madison have blogged about their books and enjoyed the fact that they can keep in touch with friends that way.
“It’s cool because it can keep you connected through a computer,” Kaylin Bates said. “I feel like a teenager.”
Blog posts include entries, such as the one Madison wrote about a book titled “Fantastic Bats.” Upon finishing the book, she wrote, “This book was really cool. I like bats. I have a stuffed animal that is a bat. I learned bats like mangos.”
Another positive aspect to the blogs is that students can read posts about books they haven’t read yet and gauge how good they think the book will be based on their peers’ opinions. The blogging has also given Kaylin and Madison valuable experience on the computer, something Pam Bates said they don’t get a whole lot of at home. It’s also been a learning experience for her, being exposed to new technology.
“They haven’t been exposed to a lot of technology here at home; most of their stuff comes from school. So this has been a learning experience for me,” she said.