Natalie and I have finished distributing our summer reading lists to students! Elementary students get them in classes; junior high and high school students gets theirs by mail. Speaking for myself, writing and publishing my two (JH & HS) is the closest I will ever come to publishing a Great American Novel, and I'm quite proud of them. Cue applause, please.
If you are used to Summer Reading Lists that require all 10th graders to read from a list of 8 choices, or something like that, you will be surprised by ours. Of course, our summer reading program fits in with the whole Paideia personality, so maybe you won't be surprised at all.
Here are the Paideia Summer Reading requirements:
- Elementary (grades K-6): read (or have read to you) 5 books
- Junior High (grades 7 & 8): read 5 books
- High School (grades 9-12): read 4 books
ANY books. Preferably good books, but books will do. Graphic novels, fiction, non-fiction, YA, adult, easy readers, picture books. Yes, it's assumed that students will read in the approximate range of age and ability. They do have to account for their reading to next fall's literature teachers, so 5 Garfield Fat Pack comics for a 7th grader could be a little embarrassing.
So our summer reading lists are really more aptly called "Reader's Advisory Guides." Each one includes a thousand or more titles, either in award winner lists, student & faculty recommendations, or 'canonical' lists. Newly published and standout favorites even get annotations.
Did I mention we're pretty proud of our reading lists? If you're interested in seeing more, you can download one or all as PDF files, and please remember this guiding philosophy:
We believe that the best readers are those who read books of personal interest, for the joy of it. The main criterion for summer reading is that students read books they want to read, for enjoyment only!
2009 High School Summer Reading List
2009 Junior High Summer Reading List
2009 Elementary Summer Reading List
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