The Sounds of Summer Reading

I am writing this article from my beach chair in Ocean City, Maryland as I eat a Thin Mint Donut. Yesterday I had half a Rolo donut and a half of a Reeses donut.  It was yummy!

My husband preferred the OC Sand donut, and that was totally fine with me. The Fractured Prune, a small chain of specialized donuts, has this all figured out—our world is about specializing!!

Yet, our classrooms are still a “one size fits all approach”, and many parents tend to think that way as well.

This week as I sat on the beach at the campground, a group of people next to me were talking about the good ol’ days. How we got what we got and we were happy with it. How we ate what our parents gave us and that was it. How we sat in school and listened to what the teacher said and we learned. 

As I look around me, I can’t help but think how different the world is for our students outside the classroom and the contrast within the classroom. Educators and parents know that each child learns differently, be it visually, auditorially, or kinesthetically.

However, how much thought has truly been given to the child who just needs it to be specialized, or who has a preference that requires a little more?

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a concept that is gaining momentum in the educational community. It is all about how a “one size fits all curriculum” is not meeting the needs of all of our studnets, specifically the students in the margins—the gifted students and the special needs students.

Let’s say a student struggles with reading fluency. With summer coming to an end very soon, she still hasn’t picked up her summer reading book, let alone started the summer reading project that is due when school starts. If you look at the summer reading assignment, the question that is really being asked is “do you understand the book?”  It is a comprehension question that requires the student to think about the theme of the story and support it.

Here’s the problem. In order to understand the theme and explain, you have to be able to read the book.  Well, a student who struggles with fluency is most likely going to put off reading the book. Definitely a problem.

Have you ever thought of the option of listening to the book? Websites like www.booksshouldbefree.com offer many of the classic and popular books in audio version so that students can listen to the book. While some may say this is not helping them to practice their reading fluency, I would argue that it is doing the exact opposite by providing an example of what fluent reading sounds like.  This is especially important for middle school and high school kids—when reading aloud by a fluent adult rarely happens anymore.  

Using resources that are available for free to help our children accomplish the goal of understanding theme in the story is the point.  When we give students a text that is difficult for them to read we are defeating the purpose and contributing to (Kelly Gallagher, 2010).  Instead, we should be finding ways to meet the preferences that our students have and accomplish the goal nonetheless.

Our 21st Century students live in a world of choice—specialized choice. Preferences and individuality are what these kids are all about We have to start thinking about those preferences and individuality when they are learning as well.  Being able to show our kids that the options exist to listen to the book instead of read the book might just be the answer.

And it might just be the answer for your child getting their summer reading finished!