Summer Reading Overview

Lower School

Welcome to summer reading! These days summer vacation is often a time filled with camps, activities and travel. However, we encourage families to make time for reading every day. Research has shown several things: 1) Academic achievement can almost always be correlated with the amount of time students spend doing free reading; 2) children become readers in households where they see reading habits modeled by their parents—in other words, children do as they see more than do as they are told; 3) to develop fluency and comprehension, students benefit from some reading at a comfort level and some at a developmentally appropriate challenge level. Additionally, it is important to recognize that non-fiction reading (biographies, historical books, science books, magazines, etc.) inspires many students more than fiction. Exposing children to a variety of reading materials is the best bet for getting them “hooked on reading.”

In addition to individual reading, reading aloud has well-documented benefits for children of all ages. It instills a love of books and reading, models fluent reading and inflection, aids comprehension and understanding of story patterns, and develops vocabulary. Because listening levels exceed children's reading levels, particularly in the primary grades, books for reading aloud may be at students' developmental reading levels or above. Finally, reading aloud is an excellent shared experience for families. It forces us to slow down—at least for a few minutes in our busy schedules—and it creates opportunities for excellent discussions between parents and children.

As in prior years, our teachers have developed lists of suggested books and authors for your summer reading enjoyment. This year we are also including a link to a reading list constantly updated by a network of independent school librarians in Texas. (http://www.haisln.org/ReadingLists.htm). It features a wide variety of new and classic selections recommended by librarians who work with students similar to ours at Oakwood. This list is broken down by grade levels so that it’s easy for students and parents to select books at an appropriate challenge level.

Many families ask, “How much should we be reading?” Rather than setting limits, we would reply, “As much as possible, as long as your child is enjoying it.” Realistically, students should be reading or read to for at least 20 minutes each day. Beyond that, the more the merrier!

Please see the links provided for suggested reading at each grade level.

• Pre-Kindergarten
• Kindergarten
• First Grade
• Second Grade
• Third Grade
• Fourth Grade
• Fifth Grade