As the summer months wind down, some students are staring down a looming deadline: finishing their required reading assignments.
Mandatory reading lists that ask all students in a grade to read the same book or pick from a curated selection are a summer staple. The goal is to keep kids engaged over the break, ideally staving off some of the “summer slide” and preparing them for work they’ll encounter in the year ahead. (Sometimes there’s a test or essay assignment waiting for students when they return to school; sometimes there isn’t.)
Still, some teachers aren’t fans of the practice, and say students should have more choice over what they read when school is out.
“Assigned reading that they will hate? Nope,” said one teacher, in response to a question from Education Week on social media. “Making personal reading choices available and enticing? YES.”
Multiple studies have shown that giving kids access to books over the summer and getting them to engage in reading can maintain—or even improve—achievement over the break. But are students missing out on potential summer learning if teachers skip the assignments, and instead simply encourage more pleasure reading?
“This is one of the major gaps in the research,” said Jordan Dille, an assistant professor of education at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, who has studied summer reading interventions, in an email to Education Week. “We don’t have strong studies directly comparing assigned reading lists with student-choice reading.”
Schools need more and better information to guide their decisions, he said, like research that asks what role incentives play in motivating kids to read over the summer, how long programs should last, and how much accountability for doing the reading is enough.
“Right now, many schools continue to assign summer reading the same way they have for decades,” he said, “largely because that’s how it’s always been done, not because we know it’s the most effective approach.”
Researchers offer suggestions for how schools can approach summer reading
The benefits of summer reading are related to a research-tested truism: The more kids read, the better readers they become.
Studies show that students’ reading volume is related to their vocabulary knowledge, reading fluency, and the background knowledge that they have, said Lauren Capotosto, an associate professor of education at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.
Growing those abilities over the summer “contributes meaningfully to reading comprehension,” she said.
But most of the research on the effect of summer reading doesn’t distinguish whether children are reading books they picked or books that were assigned.
“There’s a reason for us to want students to read over the summer,” said Capotosto. “But we don’t have evidence that mandating a particular book has more desirable outcomes than allowing students choice. I would think not, and would encourage schools to allow students choice.”
The research literature on reading in general does suggest that motivation matters, Dille said. “Students who read books that match their interests tend to read more, finish more books, and engage more with what they’re reading. Interest drives practice, and practice is what ultimately improves reading.”
While that doesn’t mean that schools should never require specific books over the summer, it does mean that choice might be a better motivator than an assignment, he said.
“If the primary goal is preventing summer reading loss, I’d rather have a student enthusiastically finish three books they chose, even if slightly below level, than reluctantly struggle through one that they were assigned,” Dille said.
If educators do want to have every student in a grade, or schoolwide, read the same book over the summer, there are a few steps they can take to help ensure it’s a meaningful experience, said Capotosto.
First, schools should have a clearly defined purpose for assigning a common book, she said. Is it to help shape school culture? Engage students in discussion of important social issues? Help them practice perspective-taking?
The reading selection should be something that kids can tackle by themselves over the summer with minimal teacher support, Capotosto said. Even so, teachers could take a week or two to preview the content at the end of the school year to set students up for success.
Districts should also make sure that students have access to the book, either by providing copies or partnering with a local library, she added.
And if they still come back to school in the fall not having read it? “That’s certainly disappointing, but I’m much more concerned if they don’t read anything at all,” said Dille.
“The assignment itself isn’t the goal. The goal is preserving reading habits over the summer, so students return ready to build on the progress they made during the prior school year.”
