To get youth interested in reading we need to help them see that reading is fun. Here are a few suggestions to encourage reading in students of all ages and ability levels this summer.
- Read Aloud America (Summer Reading Program – Read Aloud America). Download a 5-week program full of reading suggestions and activities.
- Get a library card from your local library. Virginia’s libraries have a vast collection of activities related to reading, story times for little ones, summer reading competitions with prizes, art classes, and gaming consoles. One library even has a surfboard that you can borrow (Borrow a Board from Virginia Beach Public… | City of Virginia Beach). But back to reading, access to digital reading is also available to anyone who has a library card.
- Use Summer Fun to Build Background Knowledge | Colorín Colorado (colorincolorado.org). Explore ways to make literacy interactive, tactile, and fun!
- If you have read and shared books from Tar Heel Reader, be advised that Tar Heel Reader will soon become a part of Monarch Reader: books for beginning readers of all ages (buildingwings.com). Tar Heel Reader books can be used by all youth because they can be accessed on the computer using a variety of digital accessibility methods such as touch screen and switches in addition to typical mouse controls. The books can be read aloud and/or downloaded as a PowerPoint file to save on the computer or print.
Encourage youth in your life, be they students or your own children, to read this summer and all year long.