When I was in high school, we had a required book to read over the summer prior to our senior year and our Physics course. That teacher continues that tradition and allows students to use that reading assignment as bonus on a test during the year.
My first teaching job was in a district in Maryland where students were required to read two books over the summer and then those books would be discussed in their English classes over the first grading period (I think I'm remembering that right...).
I have been toying with the idea of integrating a summer reading assignment into my class. I came across a list of over 40 novels that are written by or deal with Hispanics/Latinos. Many of the books I have not yet read so my summer reading list just got a lot longer! The books are predominantly in English but I think the cultural perspective would be worth the trade-off.
I do not know what type of a project I would ask of the students but I do know that it would not need to be completed until halfway to two-thirds of the way through the first grading period. I would want to do this in my level III and IV classes and limit the number of students per book. I would need to gather a list of which books are available in local libraries as well as if any can be purchased at a cheap cost.
Other teachers, have you done a summer reading assignment? What were some difficulties you encountered? What positive feedback did you receive?
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