PREVENT SUMMER READING LOSS!

We are entering a dangerous time for children—summer! No,I’m not talking about swimming accidents or mosquito bites. I’m talking about summer reading loss. Many children’s reading scores erode over the summer due to lack of practice. Yes, it’s true. Unless you take action now, your children will return to school with weaker skills. University of Florida researchers Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington warn that the poorer the family the larger the summer reading loss will be.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/summer_reading.htm

So what’s a parent to do? First, make sure that your child reads 10-20 books this summer. The books should be on topics of her interest and at an appropriate level. Assessing your child’s reading level is easy. Go to the library or bookstore and ask your child to pick a book at random, anything that attracts her eye. Randomly select a page in the middle and ask her to read it aloud. Tell her to raise a finger every time she comes across an unfamiliar word. If she raises two fingers or fewer, the book is fine. If
she raises three to five fingers the book is okay only if you’re going to read it with her. If there are more than five words, the book is too hard. Pick something else.

Ask your child to summarize what she read in three to five sentences. You’ll be able to tell readily if she understood the page or not. If she’s too confused, this isn’t the right book for her. It’s as simple as that. Never try to force your child to read a book she’s struggling with. This
will cause her to associate reading with suffering and the older she gets the more resistant she’ll become.

Strong readers read for pleasure. Make sure the books are of high interest— her interest, not yours. If you can afford to buy her books, even better. A child who owns books will read them over and over, building her vocabulary and background knowledge (knowledge of the world). Instead of summer
reading loss, your child can increase her reading level during the summer months. Beach reading can become brain building.

Hal W. Lanse, Ph.D. is the author of READ WELL, THINK WELL: BUILD YOUR CHILD'S READING, COMPREHENSION AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS