While I am totally jealous that many of you are already on summer break, I am happy tonight to say that we avoided state sanctions by bringing up our test scores in reading and math.  However, worry-wart that I am, I’m still concerned that we have improved our test-taking, but what about reading engagement?

So for the students identified to receive 6 free books of their own choosing for our summer reading intervention, my concern is, Will they be motivated, engaged, “lost in a book” readers? Or will video games, media, and other distractions steal their reading time?

If you haven’t seen Kate di Camillo’s youtube videos on summer reading, you might enjoy watching them (Search Kate di Camillo summer reading).  Dav Pilkey also has some summer reading videos that I’m going to share with my students. He talks about how reading gives you superpowers. He makes the point that when you are watching TV or videos or playing video games, you are really just watching someone else’s creativity at work. (Which is fine.) But when you read, your own creativity is challenged to come alive. This past weekend, I totally got lost in a book and spent Friday night and 2/3 of Saturday fully engrossed.  It was so fun – I want that for my students.

I love Dav Pilkey’s last sentence: “Imagination is the greatest superpower of all.”