Summer Reading for Children Middle School: Grades 6 – 8
Family Literacy Ideas: Grades 6-8
Click here for Recommended Reading
Young teenagers are trying to figure out who they are and how they relate to other people. These years are very important to the development of literacy. At this stage, adolescents need to discover their own strengths, express themselves in various ways, connect reading and writing to their own lives, and use language to make sense of their world.
You can support literacy at home by:
Speaking and Listening
- Talk with your young adolescent about things he/she is interested in, from music and video games to clothes. Don’t talk down or try to sound overly “cool”—just talk.
- Ask what your young adolescent thinks about an issue and listen to the answer. Respect his/her voice, but expect reasons for the opinions.
Reading
- Encourage your young teenager to read and tell stories to younger siblings or grandparents.
- Encourage your teen to think about the meaning of what he/she is reading and writing.
- Visit the library often with your teen. Help select materials that he/she can read independently.
- Encourage and help your young person read at least 25 books each year in a variety of genres (both fiction and nonfiction).
Writing
- Provide whatever inspires your child to write—a quiet place, a new pad of colored paper, colored ink, writing tools (computer, dictionary, quotation book), or background music.
- Encourage your teenager to share his/her writing publicly by posting it on the refrigerator, sending copies to relatives or friends, or reading or performing it in youth groups or family gatherings.
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 6-8
Click here for Family Literacy Ideas
The Book of Three By Lloyd Alexander
Squashed
By Joan Bauer
Colibri
By Ann Cameron
Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the United States
Lori M. Carlson, Editor
Year of Impossible Goodbyes
By Sook Nyul Choi
The Diary of a Young Girl
By Anne Frank
The Outsiders
By S. E. Hinton
A Wrinkle in Time
By Madeleine L’Engle
El Bronx Remembered
By Nicholasa Mohr
The Other Side of Truth
By Beverley Naidoo
Freak the Mighty
By W. Rodman Philbrick
Baseball in April and Other Stories
By Gary Soto
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
By Mildred D. Taylor
Homecoming
By Cynthia Voigt
The Sword in the Stone
By T. H. White
Excerpt from: Opening the Door to Learning: Literacy is a Family Affair,
published by New Visions for Public Schools.