Summer Work Remix

Every year I look forward to summer break so I can tackle my TBR stack by the pool without the distractions of the school year. So, as I sat down to think about summer reading for my incoming AP Lit students this week, it occurred to me that they should be able to do the same.

I don't want summer to be filled with dread over reading a book they have no interest in. I want it to be a time for them to:

• begin building the reading stamina they will need to be successful in the class,
• learn to reflect upon what they are reading,
• figure out how to write and talk about what they are reading in a meaningful way,
• and start building a sense of classroom community.

With that in mind, I designed the following assignment. 

Students will set an ambitious, but attainable, reading goal before summer break begins. It may be a certain number of books or pages or a particular author or genre they want to study in depth. Examples I provided include finishing three classic books; reading 1,000 pages; or exploring novels written in verse. They will email me their goal for approval or suggestions for refinement. 

They will then choose whether they want to create a blog or a vlog (video blog) to share their summer reading experience and complete five posts they'll share with the class via Google Classroom by assigned due dates. In addition, each time they will read or view their classmates' posts and respond thoughtfully to one of their choosing.

That's it. No How to Read Literature Like a Professor (they end up just reading the online summary), no assigned book they'll hate, no annotations or dialectical journals. 

I hope they are as excited about this assignment as I am, and I plan to continue a choice reading element and blogging into the school year as part of our discourse about our readings if it is successful. 

Let me know if you decide to give this a try!