High school restructures summer reading program

Date: 7/9/2012

July 9, 2012

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

EAST LONGMEADOW — East Longmeadow High School is taking a new approach to the summer reading program.

After coming to the conclusion that the previous summer reading structure failed to truly engage students and encourage a love of reading, Principal Gina Flanagan and the English Department devised a new curriculum.

"In the past, students were required to read one book and at the start of the school year, they would take a 50 question multiple-choice test," Flanagan told Reminder Publications. "We started having the conversation of what the purpose of the program was and we decided the kids were not enjoying the experience.

"We want kids to read because they find it interesting, not because they feel they have to," she added.

After several brainstorming sessions, the school decided to offer a broader range of books from which students had to choose, while also altering the structure of the assessment of their understanding of their reading.

"We decided to give choices with all of the books connected to a book that would be required reading in class when school resumed," Flanagan said.

Also, in lieu of a test, students are now required to post blog entries periodically throughout the summer, answering questions posed by the teacher.

"We wanted to give the students the opportunity to experiment with more technological tools such as online discussion groups and blogs, a lot of which are being used in colleges now," Flanagan said. "We created a blog site for each level, which allows the students to post their responses and also interact with their classmates over the summer."

The responses, she said, serve two purposes. In addition to allowing teachers to better assess the students' understanding of the reading assignments, they also can serve as the students' notes on the book when they return to class.

"That's extremely important because when they come back to school and read the required book that is connected with their summer reading, they will be asked to write a comparative essay," she said.

Flanagan said she and the staff believe this method will foster more complex thinking than a mere test.

"This is a better way to create higher level thinking skills," she said.

Flanagan added that fostering the use of technology is also a key component.

"Technology gets a bad rap," she said. "We need to teach kids its appropriate uses rather than tell them they shouldn't use it at all."