The Importance Of Summer Reading For Economically Disadvantaged Students

“The Lonely, Good Company of Books” by Richard Rodriguez, is an expressive narration about the importance of learning through reading. The essay is a narration of his life from his early school years to high school and how he struggled with the general belief that reading books are the main source of education. “Open the doors of your mind with books” (172) he quotes from a poster over his teacher’s desk. He learned early on that books were the key to academic success. Even though his bilingual parents never read for pleasure, they instilled in him the value of books. This idea was repeated by his teachers that reading was the main activity of learning.

As of late, the literacy rates in America have declined. In fact, over the past ten years “book reading [in] young women slipped from 63 percent to 59 percent, while young men plummeted from 55 percent to 43 percent” (why johnny won’t read pg. 575) Boys have a lower tendency to read than girls due to the fact that school forces them to read things that they are not interested in. Although in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read pg. 176,” Prose points out that

Taking into account of many Americans, the act of reading is not apart of our daily lives as it was many years ago. Instead, the media has taken over and leaves us at a disadvantage of developing our minds. The level of proficiency, “Fell significantly between 1992 and 2005, from 40 percent… to 35 percent (Chronicle).” In spite of that, reading gives us the opportunity to get different perspectives, learn valuable lessons, and engage emotions that might not be sparked otherwise. The list can go on and on, however, even with all of these great benefits, the literacy rate in America is continuing to drop.

Michael Henry’s article “Whats with This Summer Reading” has readers pondering why summer reading has students “moving one step further from reading.” Michael Henry explains that one day he saw a teenager becoming very frustrated with the book he was reading. He asked why the young man was reading the book and the boy said, because it was a summer reading assignment. This made Henry think and he began to research summer reading assignments. He wanted to find out what was causing so much frustration.

Recently I’ve learned that reading is a crucial part of life. Reading allows you to go on unbelievable adventures that you could only dream about. Bryce Shoemaker, author of “The Not So Lonely Good Company of Books” and Richard Rodriguez, author of “The Lonely, Good Company of Books” write about their experience with reading and writing the way they’ve surpassed their struggles. I personally can relate to both of their experiences with having a difficult time reading at a young age. Despite the fact that both of the authors had the opportunity to have a special teacher help him during school and I did not, we still had other common similarities. Having the resources such plenty of books at home and someone to encourage you to read on your own time such as a parent does not

One of the most important foundational skills in the primary grades is learning how to read proficiently. This skill is a key indicator for student’s success for the rest of their educational careers (Wigfield, Guthrie, Perencevich, Taboada, Klauda, Mcrae, & Barbosa, 2008). The teacher researcher believes that the students in her class are not motivated to read paper bound books, and that by implementing an online reading program it will increase her students motivation to complete their nightly reading homework. She also believes that when students complete their nightly reading homework on a regular basis this will help improve the students reading comprehension and fluency scores. It will also have an important impact on the overall academic functioning of students according to (DioGuardi , Theodore, Hughes, Aloiso, Eccles, & Eccles,

This study shows that summer reading programs benefit children from low-income families whose parents may not be motivated or able to bring them every day for an entire summer reading program and the children themselves may not be motivated or even willing to attend an intensive and lengthy summer reading program.

Fiester (2010), reports a study of Baltimore students found that by the end of fifth grade, low-income students read at a level almost three grades behind that of middle income students. By ninth grade, summer learning

The physical setting of a classroom is essential in evolving the literacy growth of students, and can increase the amount of time a student spends with books. This includes the variety of resources that will simplify language and literacy opportunities, the thought put into classroom design, as well as planned instruction by the teacher. The planned variety and utilization of materials is vital to the development of the literacy-rich environment and must be readily available for the student to utilize. Both fiction and nonfiction literature will be made available within the classroom, which includes assorted reading materials that are utilized in daily lives to nurture the student’s comprehension of how literacy is utilized. Examples of materials that will be made available are "phone directories, dictionaries, menus, recipes, signs, printed directions, student work, and alphabet displays” (The Access Center, n.

The Ramapo Readers Project is one of the many different projects that was founded with the idea to promote literacy from the earliest stage of life to the last stage. It is crucial that children today are reading on a regular basis as this will improve their well-being for the future. The Ramapo reader’s project will benefit individuals in the Paterson area who are less fortunate and are unable to obtain certain privileges such as owning reading books. The Ramapo Readers have put a light on less privilege peoples life, therefore, allowing them to be able to have unlimited access to books for the entire family.

Summer reading should be engaging. It should force students to think deeper and question societal

Aware of the need of a summer program in Whitakers, and Enfield I developed a 6 week summer literacy program, named “Quest to the Future”, this program is designed to meet the needs, and build on the strengths, of students who may have struggled along their literacy path. Activities for children feature cooperative play and included indoor/outdoor games, arts and crafts, healthy cooking, summer garden, aqua Zumba, taekwondo, line dancing, swimming, sewing, and field trips. Furthermore, the program focus on areas of interest: science, sports, acting, creative thinking,

Understanding students’ literacy interests will allow me to foster students’ literacy enjoyment, which Krashen (2004) contends improves reading comprehension and facilitates the reading of difficult texts. I will select texts for lessons that are interesting and relevant to students to foster positive literacy attitudes, instil student confidence and aid learning (Ryan, 2005). Students’ interests will inform how the classroom library is stocked. Allington (2002) states it is important to provide students with texts they can read, as well as appropriately challenging texts. My classroom library shall contain a variety of genres and authors that students enjoy, or are likely to enjoy, as well as texts to expand their literacy. Students will be encouraged to read a range of texts, including picture books, novels, graphic texts, non-fiction books, magazines, e-books, websites and books

Our group chose this particular social issue because we believe that reading books for leisure helps a child’s mind develop. Every student needs a break from textbooks, and reading allows him/her to enter a new world. In today’s generation, many kids do not pick up a book and read for fun. They could simply log onto Netflix or Hulu and catch up on their favorite TV show. This has not only decreased social interaction with other children their age, but reading comprehension skills have also dropped. According to k12reader.com, almost two-thirds of children in the fourth grade who are not proficient in reading have a higher chance of ending up on welfare or going to prison. There is no reason a child should fall behind in school. These kids are our country’s

Children who read literature usually have sheer enjoyment for reading, and as this continues will instils a sense of love for literature as they mature and get older. Children’s literature engages the child, and creates a pattern, a ritual whereby children continue to read, and there by learn and grow from all its other benefits. There are many benefits to reading as a child, one of the main benefits of reading is a Social development, this includes emotional, cultural benefits and also reading can promote language development. ‘Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development’ (DfES. National Cirriculum. 2013). Reading to children may be the single most important thing that any child can do to improve children's chances for success emotionally, culturally and improve language skills.