Looking for a new summer reading list? You’re in luck, here’s our must-read children’s books for the summer.

• The Flashlight Book – this wonderful wordless picture book for young children offers an enchanting exploration of night, nature, and art. Both lyrical and humorous, this visual poem—like the flashlight beam itself—reveals there is magic in the darkness. Just look for it.

• Water Can Be – “Water can be a thirst quencher, a kid drencher, a cloud fluffer, or a fire snuffer.” This non-fiction book that shows all the brilliant uses of water will be a wonderful addition to any early classroom library collection. It’s a beautiful combination of poetic verse and illustrations.

Twelve-year-old Crow has lived her entire life on a tiny, isolated piece of the starkly beautiful Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. Abandoned and set adrift on a small boat when she was just hours old, Crow's only companions are Osh, the man who rescued and raised her, and Miss Maggie, their fierce and affectionate neighbor across the sandbar. When planning a summer reading camps, one needs to know which skills their struggling students need improvement on to hone in on. Help students master inferencing, summarization, cause and effect relationships, and characterization are a great place to start. These skills aid them in all reading and writing they'll do. Here are five days of activities or curriculum to practice learning.

• Pop: A Book about Bubbles – Blowing bubbles is a staple activity of preschool and kindergarten. What are bubbles made of? Why are they always round? Why do bubbles pop? These and other questions are asked and answered in accessible language and crisp, full color photographs.

• Maybe Something Beautiful – Based on the true story of the Urban Art Trail in San Diego, California, Maybe Something Beautiful reveals how art can inspire transformation and how even the smallest artists can accomplish something big.

• Garden Theme Book Set – Summer time is a great time to teach young children all about gardening and growing their own food! This garden-themed book set, including titles such as Rah, Rah, Radishes and Errol’s Garden, explores foods that can be found in a garden and the process of gardening.

• Rocks Theme Book Set – Children are often fascinated by and love learning about rocks. Break out these rock-themed books on those rainy summer days to help children explore the differences between rocks and discover more the natural world. If you’re looking for books about rocks for preschoolers, start here.

• I Am America – This one-of-a-kind book by poet and photographer Charles Smith, Jr. is a poignant, stunning photographic celebration of the many diverse faces that make up America. This one-of-a-kind book showcases children of many different ethnic and racial backgrounds. The playful images and touching poetry work together to tell the story of America.

• Seasonal Story Times – Books such as Fun in the Sun, It’s Raining, It’s Pouring, and Down by the Bay are perfect depictions of typical scenes in the summertime. Young children will find these books both entertaining and instructive in early language skills such as rhyme, rhythm, and repetition, and will delight in hearing it read or sung aloud to them.

• Random Books of Kindess Set – It’s always a good time to teach kindness, respect, and gratitude. Books such as I Am Human, If You Plant a Seed, and Most People demonstrate the power of random acts of kindness.
  
• I Live in the City Book Set – I Got Rhythm and Wild Ones are upbeat children’s books that uncover the many sights and sounds of urban life. These books also show diversity in a positive way.

What books are you reading with children this summer? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter!

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Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Subtitle

The Learning and Engagement of High School Students Using Interacitve Technology

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

First Advisor

David Byrd

Document Type

Dissertation

Second Advisor

Peter Adamy

Third Advisor

Carolyn Panofsky

School

Feinstein School of Education and Human Development

Department (Manual Entry)

Education Doctoral Program

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate what happened when grade 11 high school honors students blogged about their summer reading under the monitoring of a teacher during vacation. I proposed that an educational blog might serve as an effective tool during summer vacation to help students retain skills or learning while at a physical distance from their school and teacher. In addition to the blog’s transcripts, a pre-project survey, post-project survey,and post-project interviews provided complementary data to inform my analysis. Qualitative analysis was applied to the blog discussion entries for evidence of peer learning, scaffolding, critical thinking, and literary discussion techniques. Several particular aspects of the experience were part of the research focus:

-Did blogging provide the students with a worthwhile experience that would make them want to continue doing so in the future?

-Did blogging help to engage students in a steady reading pace so learning would continue through summer?

-Did blogging help students in their constructs of meaning through peer learning?

As no studies on this topic could be found, blogging about summer reading under an educator’s guidance and facilitation may be rarely practiced. The study’s results showed the students found the experience worthwhile enough to make them want to participate in a summer reading blog again. Although all of the students indicated they finished their books in time for school, and one student in an interview agreed the blog changed her usual summer reading pace, a limitation of the study was that there was not enough information to be certain of the blog’s influence on reading pace for other participants. Also, there was no way of knowing for certain if all the participants read the entries of their classmates, limiting my analysis for determining if everyone achieved a co-construction of learning. Another limitation of this study was in my demographics of already successful students.

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However, many examples of critical thinking were found in the blog discussion entries, along with several examples of peer learning, scaffolding, and the frequent application of literary discussion techniques. The implications call for a future study to examine how less successful students may respond to a summer reading blog, and to continue analyzing the merits of teachers blogging with students during summer vacation.

Recommended Citation

Place, Janice Becker, 'Blogging About Summer Reading' (2012). Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview. 60.
https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/etd/60

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Summer Reading Project Mr. Becker's Classroom Assessment

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