A Harvard Educational Specialist's Refreshing Approach to "Summer Reading"
Leveling up from checklists and reading logs
If this evokes any sort of nostalgia for you, keep reading.
Not so long ago but in another life, we lived on the top floor of a New York brownstone. The last month before we moved, I was five months pregnant, making my way up and down five flights of stairs (it seemed completely normal). I played the how-many-bags-of-groceries-can-I-carry game so many times. I kept the windows open every day. It didn’t matter what was seasonally appropriate. It was like living in a treehouse.
Since we moved to Los Angeles, I almost never open the windows. I’m not a fan of warm weather and it’s oppressively sunny here (!!). But around 5 pm, when things “cool down” and the sun isn’t quite as bright, I’ve started leaving the window open, and if I close my eyes, the breeze feels like it did when we lived in a treehouse apartment.
It’s not as if I need an open window to be nostalgic for New York. Every time I see the brand of mayonnaise west of the Rockies is “Best Foods” and “Hellmann’s” is only on shelves east of the Rockies, it hits me like a brick.
Summer Reading, Then and Now
The seasonal nostalgia got me thinking about what summertime means as a parent.
Even if I was still in New York, I probably wouldn’t be spending SPF-less afternoons on a boat bar docked in the Hudson, but I’m not fully in the thick of reading lists or sleep-away camp, either. I’m in the glorious in between, which is why I had time to sit down with the person who inspired this post.
As you know from past posts, I spent a lot of time writing a book for children without really knowing anything about kids or how they learn. Then I became a parent and the finer points started coming into focus. Things like reading comprehension and reading level were no longer abstract. In other words, I got serious.
As parents gear up for summer break, I sought advice from a Harvard-trained educational coach, and what I learned transformed my day to day, overnight.
Beth Greene is, among many other things, an elementary and early childhood education specialist. She has worked both in the classroom and as a private educator, and applies cutting-edge research to facilitate courses for teachers and administrators through the Zaentz Early Education Initiative at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her to-do list is stacked with demands from parents, students and educators who all want the best for this next generation, and below is the wisdom I took from the half hour she spent with me.
Summer Takeaway: Focus on Building Knowledge, Not Skills
Book It! was an incredible thing. It was the 80s and 90s and no one knew better than to incentivize reading with Pizza Hut (I say this with zero judgment because my two year old absolutely had pizza two nights in a row this week). But modern research is gifting us with more perspective.
Beth introduced me to the buzzy concept of “Content Knowledge”. What this edu-research darling means is actually very simple: the more you know, the easier it is to learn more (just as Dr. Berner from Johns Hopkins wrote for Civic EQ last year, knowledge is “sticky”).
It comes down to this: when a child knows even the most basic things about the topic they’re reading about, their reading skills soar.
As Beth shared with me, this presents so many opportunities for parents to engage in literacy and knowledge building with their kids throughout the day. Because reading in context and engaging in discussion around the context — at the grocery store, in a park, or at a tourist site on a trip — builds both comprehension and understanding of the language and the world around them.
Young kids need to learn to read and to learn about the world around them. Schools are essential in fortifying the foundations of the skills-based elements, but when it comes to bringing awareness and understanding of the content of the world around them (and opportunities for reading within this context) parents can (and should) make a huge contribution.
Beth also emphasized the importance of engaging kids in discussion about what they have read and how it relates to their own experience. In the most basic sense, both generally and specifically, opportunities abound in the summer to discuss civic concepts in context. Real time experiences of rule-based fairness (like waiting in line or following pool rules), community, geography (reviewing a map or road signs for a family trip), history (in your own community or abroad), and collaboration abound in our environments and in the stories that our children read. The more that we identify and engage with them around these concepts in their everyday life and reading, the more that they will resonate when reading about concepts of civics at a higher level as they grow and engage with the world.
Research specifically highlights science and social studies as two content-rich subjects that organically increase background knowledge. And at least in the US, the only shot kids really have at learning civics in school is through a social studies curriculum.
Discovering a link between civic education and improved reading comprehension feels so much like a win.
Tips for a Reimagined Approach to Summer Reading
Be intentional from the beginning. From this very moment, think about how books, magazines and newspapers — the printed word out in the world around us — can be part of everyday life. Research shows that from the earliest ages, kids benefit immensely from hearing and seeing words that build knowledge of the world around them. Whether a breakfast menu at the local diner, or flyer on the coffee shop wall, or a dinner menu — reading can be a centerpiece of the experience without really even trying.
Embrace a messy literary house. Have kids-focused current events magazines (TIME for Kids and The Week Junior are two favorites) lying around within reach. Maybe keep a few issues around at breakfast, or on the coffee table — something they can grab in the in-between moments that can become conversation starters.
Keep reading aloud - even if they can read on their own. Obviously being able to read independently is the macro goal, but research shows that there are so many benefits to continuing to read aloud to kids even after they can read themselves. Maybe you pick a chapter book that’s a bit beyond their reading level. Hearing you read is going to pay dividends in the long run.
Read lots of different things. Be mindful of all the opportunities daily life gives us to read with our kids. Parents scroll through online articles or daily newsletters, and any headline we’re reading can inspire a curious conversation for kids to think about and discuss, no matter how old they are — and that makes life so much more interesting for all of us.
Be curious and they will be, too. Look up things together. If you see a plaque in a park, get curious and use it as a bonding opportunity to learn something new together.
Print over e-readers. If your kids are old enough to read from a Kindle, as difficult as it might be, it’s worthwhile to encourage them to read in print. Our brains inherently process information differently when we read on a screen. We want kids to think deeply about what they’re reading, and reading things in print helps immensely.
Get a library card. Libraries give us a chance to look at older books as a time capsule; a way to talk about why things might not be presented the same today as they were before. Often times, kids learn the “right” thing to say very quickly without context of where we’ve been. And believe it or not, being open to embracing different perspectives amongst parents and kids can be a bonding experience. (Libraries are also a great resource for book lists that span more time/topics than lists found online or through schools.)
“Book clubs” aren’t just for grown-ups. Kids can meet up after lunch, make a fort, have a snack and read a chapter together. Make reading social.
Infuse the idea of “reading” into everything that you do. If you go to a museum, read the pamphlet. If you go to a show, read the program. If your local coffee shop has a community board, read the flyers. At the end of the day, infusing reading into daily life is one of the most important things you can do during the time you spend together as a family over the summer.
For more tips, check out Harvard Graduate School of Education’s “Encouraging Your Child to Read”, available here. And happy reading!!
More soon,
Sarah