UMHS Summer Reading 2018
WHY WE DECIDED TO PROVIDE STUDENTS WITH A CHOICE
For the past four years, we have conducted our One Book. One School. Summer Reading Program here at Upper Moreland High School. The goal of the program was to engage our entire UMHS family in the focused reading of one title that will link to the themes and character education opportunities of the upcoming school year. Last year's choice, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, was particularly timely as it provided our students with a global perspective on some of the challenges they have, or may in the future, faced as they navigate our ever changing world. We were also hearing from the perspective of a female narrator for the first time as our past three titles, The Other Wes Moore, The Warrior's Heart, and The Phantom Tollbooth, have been told in male voices.
We are proud of the work we engaged in during One Book. One School. and the conversations that were started from the shared perspective of reading one book. However, we have continued to reflect on the varied interests of our students and have dug even deeper into the research regarding adolescent reading. This year, we wanted to give our students the opportunity to choose the genre and content of their summer reading book that best fits their interest. That is why we have decided to offer four titles at each grade level. Students will choose one title from the list that they find the most interesting and read that title over the summer. We begin our foray into choice reading with our summer reading program, however, we hope to take our learning from this experience and evolve our core curriculum to reflect what we see as a best practice in the literacy classroom.
Check out these resources for more information regarding choice reading:
Requirements for Summer Reading 2018
Upon their return to school in September, students will engage in small and large group discussion focused on their book of choice. Teachers will also utilize the summer reading titles as an opportunity to gain a sense of students writing ability as they are assigned writing activities linked to the title they have read.
FOR STUDENTS IN HONORS AND AP ENGLISH:
Honors and AP students will choose one of the grade level choice titles to read and will also read all titles from the required Honors and AP summer reading list.
Themes in the Books
Why We Have Included Graphic Novel Options
We believe that graphic novels are important for the following reasons:
Where to Get Your Book
Upper Moreland Free Public Library
Barnes & Noble Website
Amazon
Better World Books