Summer Reading and How It Happens

UPDATE:  We got the summer reading list from our son's school, and it's comprehensive.  I'm coming up with my own system for using the list...

Just a heads-up:  The Montclair Public Library begins its summer reading program with a rollicking kick-off event on June 26.  You can attend at 11 or 1, no pre-registration necessary.  The next day, they begin enrollment for the summer reading program itself.

I confess, we've never participated in the program, which is kind of ironic, given that I worked in MPL's children's department briefly in 2000.  (My son arrived unexpectedly early and as deliriously happy as I was at his arrival, I was very sad to give up that position.)  The kick-off was always a rousing success and fun to administer, too. 

But this year, we WILL participate.  My kids are starting to get interested in reading.  Or should I say, I am starting to get interested in them starting to get interested in reading.  And an organized program, with some incentives and attached festivities, seems the way to go for us.

My son's school doesn't have a formal summer reading list or incentive program.  But I wish they did. 

I find it much easier to legislate this sort of thing, e.g. "The teachers say you have to do this" vs. "You have to do this because, well, you do."  

Don't get me wrong: Our house is crammed with books. I am a constant reader and might be doing grad work in, well, reading (and "new literacies") next year! I have written books! But...my kids prefer pretend, outdoor play, art, and building stuff.  And computer games, which I limit, but also have nothing against because my kids seem to learn from them.

So the amount of leisure reading they do is a concern sometimes.  If they don't end up being "readers" as adults, fine.  But now seems a critical time for them to develop fluency and maybe discover that passion. (After all, my son once wrinkled his nose at pizza.  Now, it's his main form of sustenance.  Which I always remind him.)

Some researchers and parents warn against incentives for reading.  

Dr. Marinak, of Penn State, and Linda B. Gambrell, a professor of education at Clemson University, published a study last year in the journal Literacy Research and Instruction showing that rewarding third graders with so-called tokens, like toys and candy, diminished the time they spent reading.

“A number of the kids who received tokens didn’t even return to reading at all,” Dr. Marinak said.

Why does motivation seem to fall away? Some researchers theorize that even at an early age, children can sense that someone is trying to control their behavior. Their reaction is to resist. “One of the central questions is to consider how children think about this,” said Mark R. Lepper, a psychologist at Stanford whose 1973 study of 50 preschool-age children came to a conclusion similar to Dr. Deci’s. “Are they saying, ‘Oh, I see, they are just bribing me’?”  (The full, fascinating NYT article here.)

Does your school have a summer reading program?  Tell me about it.