Summer Reading for Children High School: Grades 9 – 12

Family Literacy Ideas: Grades 9-12
Click here for Recommended Reading

For most people, high school is a time of transition—from discovering where one fits with friends to discovering where one fits in the world. High school students need to develop sophisticated literacy skills in order to meet the challenges they will face as family members, employees and citizens. At this stage, young people find meaningful connections between what they are reading and their own lives. They also connect to reasons for writing beyond school assignments: resumes, college applications, and diaries.

You can support literacy at home by:
Speaking and Listening

  • Ask questions about what your adolescent is reading, listening to, and studying. Listen carefully to the answers. Discuss homework assignments.
  • Share family stories.
  • Point out interesting news articles in the paper, and talk about them together.
  • Watch television programs together, and discuss your reactions.

Reading

  • Encourage your adolescent to read stories to younger siblings and to help them use the Internet to gather information.
  • Encourage your adolescent to read and understand 25 books each year.
  • Be sure that everyone in the family has a public library card, and visit the library often with your family.
  • Read what your adolescent is reading, and discuss it with him/her without making judgments or talking down.

Writing

  • Share writings with your adolescent in which you express thoughts and feelings.
  • Provide support tools for writing (computer, paper, pens, and reference books such as a dictionary, thesaurus, and quotation book).
  • Encourage public sharing of writing, such as community essay contests, community newspapers, and letters to the editor.

For more ideas, check out www.summerreading.org.

Excerpt from: Opening the Door to Learning: Literacy is a Family Affair, published by New Visions for Public Schools.

Recommended Reading: Grades 9-12
Click here for Family Literacy Ideas

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
By Douglas Adams

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
By Maya Angelou

The House on Mango Street
By Sandra Cisneros

A Lesson Before Dying
By Ernest J. Gaines

Ultimate Sports: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults
Donald R. Gallo, Editor

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
By Mark Haddon

The Kite Runner
By Khaled Hosseini

The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
By Langston Hughes

To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee

The Bluest Eye
By Toni Morrison

Bodega Dreams
By Ernesto Quiñonez

Poems of New York
Elizabeth Schmidt, Editor

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
By Dai Sijie

Of Mice and Men
By John Steinbeck

Excerpt from: Opening the Door to Learning: Literacy is a Family Affair, published by New Visions for Public Schools.