Now that summer vacation is just around the corner, the time is here to talk a bit with your young students about the importance of summer reading activities and what they can do to improve their reading skills.
With your encouragement, you can help a child reach his/her reading potential. You might find that a few tips can motivate students to keep track of their reading progress.
Join a Summer Reading Skills Program
Encourage students to attend the library summer reading program. Such programs includes story aloud hour, and a summer reading project. Some libraries distribute a summer reading folder with a summer reading log.
Vocabulary Learning Helps with Reading Comprehension
What are some tips on how to improve reading comprehension? Research shows that structured vocabulary teaching helps improve reading comprehension. (LaFlamme, 1997) Teachers can provide a list of vocabulary techniques and strategies on a worksheet which help target more independent vocabulary learning. Initially, students should read shorter texts with known vocabulary in order to focus primarily on comprehension. Some strategies include:
- Keep a running vocabulary list.
- Encourage educated guessing and always infer from the context.
- Offer vocabulary exercises at the end of the books.
- Students who are early readers can benefit from practice reading word families (words grouped according to sound clusters).
- Make a memory game using the words. Visual associations are incredibly important especially in the early stages of vocabulary learning.
- Help students break down the word according to prefixes and suffixes. They should have spent time practicing these skills builders during the school year.
Oral Skills and Vocabulary Learning
Research also shows that an increased oral proficiency also helps bridge between word and text skills. (Shanahan and August, 2008) Listening to books on tapes and CD’s is one way to bridge between the spoken and written word. The more frequent a word appears in context, the easier it will be for the students to recognize and thus process it on a long term basis.
Books for Summer Reading
There are different books for summer reading depending on the reading capabilities of your students. The key is to ensure comprehension and reading speed. The more difficult the vocabulary, the harder therefore it will be for students to understand its content. Books should continually read for pleasure and enjoyment.
Here are some tips to help early elementary students choose books for summer reading.
- Bilingual readers can benefit from books which have a great deal of cognates that help facilitate comprehension.
- Early and beginning readers can benefit from books with phonics approach but also encourages reading. (as opposed to phonic drills)
With sustained reading practice during the summer, students should be able to close any reading gaps and kick off the school year on a fresh start.
References
Laflamme, John G. (1997). "The Effect of Multiple Exposure Vocabulary Method and the Target Reading/Writing Strategy on Test Scores." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 40(5), 372-384.
Shanahan, T and August, D. (2008). The National Reading Panel Report: Practical Advice for Teachers. Naperville, IL: Learning Point Associates.
