I'm at a small middle school, grades 5-8. Over the past few years, we've tried a few different things to try to increase participation.

I work with the reading consultant and teachers to create a list of recommended books for each grade level. Most lists have teacher names attached to the recommendations and we give all staff members the opportunity to make recommendations, not just reading and LA teachers (e.g. our music teacher has some recommendations on the 8th grade list).
In the spring, we make a packet of the teacher recommended books, list of Nutmeg nominees, reading log, and letter explaining the expectations (we ask that students read at least 2 books over the summer). We give a paper copy to every student and post the information online.
In the spring, I visit the elementary school to talk to 4th grade students and do some book talks. I also have each grade level into the library to do book talks and view book trailers about the teacher recommended books and pass out packets.
A few years ago, we selected a book for the incoming 5th grade students and purchased a copy for each student as a gift to gain excitement around reading. We have been able to expand it over the last few years to include a book for each grade level (over the last few years, I've increased my proposed budget to ask for funding for the gift books). It's not a required read, but we try to select a title that most students in each grade will enjoy and we've found that many students list the gift book on their log.
We ask students to complete a reading log and they turn it into their reading or LA teachers in the fall. The teachers give the forms to me and I enter all of the students' data into a spreadsheet (this also helps when I can sort by grade for our records and for the Governor's Reading Challenge reporting form statistics).
LA/reading teachers have a project for students in the fall depending on grade about the book that they read over the summer. I'm not sure how this originated as it was in place when I started, but I think that helps our participation a lot!
Students who read 2 or more books get a certificate (I use the spreadsheet to create a mail merge) and a bookmark. In the past, students who read the highest number of books have been invited to an ice cream social, but we may change that to be the homeroom(s) that have the highest percentage of participation will get a prize (to be determined).

Catherine, I love the Summer Reading Kick Off Ice Cream Social event idea and am looking forward to getting other ideas from this thread!

Best,

Kate Cofrancesco

On Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 2:20 PM Catherine Ryan <cryan@suffield.org> wrote:

Our participation needs improvement as well.

fyi
We don't require, but encourage/ask students to read at least two books over the summer.

We provide a reading log for them to track their reading and ask that they return the log at the start of the school year for a chance to win a raffle prize. (eg. Barnes and Noble gift card) We used a Teen Book Bingo sheet the first year I came. I remember collecting a lot of bingo sheets that September! The resource and idea came from the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. A source that may be helpful is www.spl.org/summeroflearning

We decide on a theme, create flyers including links to reading sources (eg. Governor's Reading Challenge) and "benefits for summer reading", etc. The flyer is accessible on the district website.

Last year, we started a June Summer Reading Kick Off Ice Cream Social event. We invited our community library to promote their reading program as well as offer library card sign up. The ice cream came from our local ice cream shop. Students received cinch sac bags (with school name/logo) to fill up at the event with free bookmarks, ice cream coupons, summer reading flyer/reading log, and their first summer reading book. We are a 6-8 school, so we invited students coming up from the fifth grade. The upcoming fifth grade students were the majority of our event participants.

Hope that helps!🙂

On Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 1:02 PM Loretta Sullivan via CASL-L <casl-l@mylist.net> wrote:
Hello everyone,

I wanted to ask what other districts do for summer reading for students in grades 5-8 (middle levels)? Do you ask for a reading log? What incentives do you offer? Is there required reading or is it voluntary? If you can share what you have, that would be great.

Our public library also has incentives for summer reading and we advertise these to our students before they leave us in June.

Any thoughts or ideas that have worked is appreciated. We are trying to get more kiddos reading over the summer as our participation last year needs much improvement. We would like to do something that is manageable for teachers to assess in the fall when students return (we are a school of approx. 850 students).

We offer a "reading celebration" in the fall for those students that participated in reading over the summer.

Respectfully,

Loretta Sullivan
Library Media Specialist
Bennet Academy
Manchester, CT

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Suffield Middle School

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