Finally the school year has come to yet another close – no more homework, getting up early or any other educational activities until September rolls back around.
Aside from the required summer reading, of course.
Reading is highly encouraged by almost any educator. One of the most commonly used pieces of evidence to encourage kids to read is because it’s been proven that students who read more outside of school receive higher scores on their SATs and other tests as shown by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies’ British Cohort Study. It’s also been said that it can even help students in classes outside of language arts.
Over the summer, the Westport School District puts together a specific assignment for students entering the next grade, and often times the school gives recommendations of what books to read. For some grades, however, the students have a required book. After students finish their books, they usually have to write out a response or reflection sheet.
Many students at Bedford do indeed enjoy reading for pleasure. “Ursus” sent out a survey to one pod in each grade, showing that 31 percent of the students who took the survey do like summer reading. However, one-third of them highly dislike it while 30.4 percent merely don’t like it.
“It’s boring, and I don’t really think it helps us,” said Ariston Liu, a sixth grader. He brings up a couple of points that many do seem to agree with.
On the other hand, seventh grader Catherine Wallace says, “I think it’s good. It keeps students active, so they don’t forget what they learned during the year.”
Numerous students – even some who are content with it – also have comments on ways to improve the system. Emma Losonczy says, “I like it, but I don’t think there should be a required book to read, and we shouldn’t have to write about it. That’s probably why a lot of people don’t like it.” According to the survey, 54.7 percent of the people who took it responded with a 5/5 for how important it is to choose their book.
“During the summer, I usually do [the assignment] when I find a good book to write about,” Losonczy continued. We can also learn from the poll that 46.4 percent of those kids do most of their reading assignment throughout the summer, while 18.1 percent, the second to the majority, of them do it in the beginning – possibly to get it over with.
Overall, we can see that the opinions and feelings of students on the topic of summer reading vary. Maybe in the future, these thoughts and suggestions will be put into account. For now, though, good luck with the assignment for this summer.