Written by Julie Wright & Elizabeth Keim

SHORT TEXTS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: LAUNCHING INTO SUMMER READING

For the past ten weeks, we have offered a series called Short Texts at Your Fingertips. One or two times each week, we provided teaching ideas around a different type of short text that is easily found in the home, so that no family feels under-resourced. The ideas we have shared were easily integrated into any curriculum and pedagogy, from Workshop to basal. If you are a caregiver, teacher, or curriculum director, these brief but mighty texts and lessons are our way of saying thanks. And our way of giving children authentic and enjoyable reading and writing engagements each day. For some, summer is already in full swing. For others, summer is just a few short weeks or days away. Regardless of when your school year ends, it’s important that students of all ages keep reading and writing across the summer months. In this blog post we talk about the WHY and HOW to create voluminous readers this summer! Stay tuned for next week’s blog post where we wrap up this series talking about the WHY and HOW to create voluminous writers this summer!

SUMMER READING

Readers bring so much to the reading experience. We love chapter books and novels, but we also know that for some kids short, interesting texts will keep them reading. We think about reading as eyes on print - eyes on print - EYES ON TEXT. It doesn’t matter if you are reading a long text or a short one, reading often with many pages turning is what creates voluminous reading. We want kids to be in the driver’s seat so that they can create reading habits that last into adulthood. Choice helps kids to feel empowered. We often tell students that becoming a stronger reader requires building muscles. When we are building our basketball or soccer muscles, our karate muscles, our art muscles (or even cooking muscles), we have to practice in order to get better and stronger. The same is true for reading -- we get better at reading and build our reading habits when we read widely [lots of text types] and deeply (reading lots about a topic, idea, or author).

TRY THIS!

Step 1

Ask students what they want to read about. Do they want to read:

Fiction or nonfiction?
Short texts or novels/chapter books?
Books and texts by the same author or different authors?
With someone or on their own?

If you want to find out about students’ interests and curiosities, consider using one of these surveys:

Step 2

Ask students to set up a summer reading goal. Ask:

How many days each week will you read?
How many minutes will you shoot for each time you read?

If it’s helpful, ask students to set up a summer reading calendar outlining the days and times they plan to read.

Step 3

Ask students to identify different spots for their summer reading. Create a short list of places that might be a perfect reading nook such as:

Comfy chair
Snuggled up on a couch
On the porch or in the backyard
At the park on a bench
Under a favorite tree
In the car
On the beach or at the pool
On the airplane or train
In bed on a rainy morning

Step 4

Ask students to gather a stack of summer reading books and texts. Consider creating a stack and taking a picture of the spines to celebrate summer reading goal setting! Here’s an example:

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Step 5

Visit the local library regularly (either online resources or if possible, in person). And, make sure all readers have their own library card!

Step 6

If it’s short texts that you are interested in, check out our blog series which is filled with lots of resources that can be found right at your fingertips!

And don’t forget to think about how you will make these short texts easy to access and use. Maybe you have a basket or tub filled with inviting short texts or longer texts with the short pieces bookmarked and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Or, if you have some printed short texts, fill a binder, manilla folder, or two-pocket folder so that you can store them easily and read them over and over again.

FOR MORE RESOURCES, CHECK THESE OUT!

Scholastic Summer Read-A-Palooza
If you want summer reading calendars with daily reading suggestions, check this out
Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Suggestions
Check out the Collaborative Summer Library Program which is filled with lots of resources
Summer reading book recommendations from the Association for Library Service to Children
School Library Journal’s Summer Reading Series: Best Reads All Summer Long
And..here’s a little something for the adults! Take a look at The New York Times Summer Reading List

COMING SOON!

Short Texts: Mighty Mentors That Move Readers and Writers Forward by Julie Wright & Elizabeth Keim (2022)

Three weeks ago I would have said that I know my kids deeply.

I think I was wrong.

Of course, like all parents, I know my kids. I know their patterns, their likes and dislikes, what makes them laugh and what scares them. I know what they like to read and their favorite spots to write and complete homework. I know the at-home and on-the-weekend and in-the summertime kids. .

I think I assumed I knew my kids as students. However, I’m realizing that I don’t know them, really know them, as students, like I am getting to know them now. How could I? They’ve spent the majority of their learning-selves at school. And, now, their learning-selves are at home. The difference at this point, is their learning-selves at home excludes one of the most important aspects of learning which is the social capital they receive from learning with and from peers.

Creating Learning-at-Home Rituals

For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been working to co-create rituals and routines with my kids so that they have things they can count on each day. We created shared agreements about when we would:

Get up and get moving [9:30 a.m.]
Join together at the breakfast table & get organized for the day [9:45 a.m.]
Work through assignments posted online for each of their school classes [10:00-2:00 with lunch thrown in there somewhere]
Unstructured refuel yourself time filled with choice activities such as art, backyard play time, trail walks, puzzles, gaming, etc. [2:00-3:00]
“Mom School”, as my boys call it, where we spend time reading, writing and thinking together [3:00-4:30]

Kidwatching My Own Kids at Home

This pandemic has given me opportunities to study my own kids in new ways. I’m learning more about them each day as readers, writers, mathematicians, citizens, scientists, artists, siblings, chefs, gamers, backyard explorers, family members, comedians, and as dog-lovers. Through kidwatching, I’ve learned that one or more of my kiddos:

has interest, stamina, and finds pleasure in paint-by-numbers
uses cooking / dessert making at the 5:30 p.m. hour as celebration for completing all online assignments from school
actually talks more during the dinner hour since the pace of our lives has slowed down a bit
has learned to do a backflip on the trampoline and has taught the dog to jump on the trampoline too
finds joy in beating his mom at a friendly game of trampoline COVID-19 basketball [formerly called HORSE]
felt “cheated” out of book club time when we had a day where our schedule was a little clunky
thinks our digital COVID-19 writing buddies experience might be kind of fun

When we first started learning at home together, I thought it was short term. I went into the what should we do to get through the next week or two mindset. Now that we have a clearer view that we’ll be going from short to longer-term, I decided to get my boys’ perspectives about who they think they are as learners — at school and at home. I gave my boys this Who Are You as a Learner note catcher.

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To be honest, they weren’t sure what to do with it at first. I think it felt very school-like to them. I told them I wanted them to self-reflect about their interests, passions, curiosities, successes, habits, etc. so that I could think about them as learners in both environments. I’m not going to share their responses because they are for our work at home together, but one important point to mention is that we added ideas across several days. Like most kiddos, my boys started out reluctant about adding ideas. Maybe they felt vulnerable? Maybe they didn’t quite understand the purpose at first? Regardless, they needed more than one go at it before they started adding ideas that uncovered the deeper side of who they are as learners at school versus who they are as learners at home. Hint: Giving kiddos two post-it notes —one for ideas related to school and one for home — works great too!

Whether you are a parent at home who is educating your own kids OR an educator at home educating your students in their homes, I highly recommend giving kiddos an opportunity to reflect about who they are as learners — both at school and at home. Their responses just might shape your next moves as you provide the love and support they need as people and as learners during this time.

Short Texts at Your Fingertips: Launching into Summer Reading