Summer Reading Program

Transcription

1 Summer Reading Program for Students Entering Grade 8 Dear Parents/Guardians, Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are. Mason Cooley Your child is required to read a minimum of 4 books/magazines this summer. Our summer reading program is based upon these four goals: 1. Maintain learning gains from school year 2. Develop stronger reading skills 3. Expose children to quality literature 4. Encourage a love of books/magazines in a preferred topic The following booklist is the work of our teachers and literacy coaches. We have provided a list of books specifically selected to reinforce reading skills and encourage reading for pleasure. Most of these books are available at the Ayer and Shirley Town Libraries. The books are also available at Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, and Amazon. We strongly encourage your child to visit the local library and sign up for a free library card! Here are some ideas to support your child s summer reading: Set time aside each day for reading, model this for your child Read together as a family middle schoolers can still enjoy a good read aloud! Allow your child to choose books and topics that are of interest to them Plan regular visits to the local library Listen to audiobooks during long car trips Be sure to review and sign your child s reading assignment, due on the first day of school. The most important way you can help your child read is to be a reading role model! Should you have questions, please contact your child s principal via or telephone or contact Assistant Superintendent Hamel at Ext 1509, mbhamel@asrsd.org. Sincerely, Mary Beth Hamel Assistant Superintendent

2 Dear Incoming Eighth Grade Students, The goals of the Ayer Shirley Regional School District Summer Reading Program are for you to read throughout the summer and to enjoy reading all kinds of material. You are required to read one of the novels from the required reading list, and at least 3 more books or magazines of your choice. We have included a list of recommended titles for middle school students and are confident you will find something to read that captures your interest! When you return to school in September, you will be handing in an assignment related to the required summer reading book. This will be one of your first graded assignments of the new school year. You need to: 1) Read one book from the required list. 2) Pick a quote from your book which reflects the theme of perseverance. Then, write it word-for-word on the included assignment form. Also on the form, explain how the quote you have chosen addresses the theme of perseverance. 3) Read at least three other books or magazines of your choice. 4) Write the title and author for each of the books you ve selected on this form. 5) Get your parent/guardian signature before turning in the form on the first day of school! 6) Check out the Young Adults events at the local Library. You can sign up for a free library card, summer reading challenge, and get free passes to museums! Ayer Public Library Hazen Memorial Library ( ) ( ) 26 E. Main Street, Ayer, MA 3 Keady Way, Shirley, MA Website Website

3 Summer 2018 Required Reading: Grade 8 Instructions: Choose 1 of these books as your required novel Peak by Roland Smith After fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, he's left with two choices: wither away in Juvenile Detention or go live with his long-lost father, who runs a climbing company in Thailand. But Peak quickly learns that his father's renewed interest in him has strings attached. Big strings. As owner of Peak Expeditions, he wants his son to be the youngest person to reach the Everest summit--and his motives are selfish at best. Even so, for a climbing addict like Peak, tackling Everest is the challenge of a lifetime. But it's also one that could cost him his life. The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there. But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever. I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson This Holocaust memoir describes what happens to a Jewish girl who is 13 when the Nazis invaded Hungary in She tells of a year of roundups, transports, selections, camps, torture, forced labor, and shootings, then of liberation and the return of a few. Horrifying as her experience is, she doesn't dwell on the atrocities. There is hope here.

4 Required Book Assignment & Reading Log Entering Grade 8 (Due on the first day of school) Student name (first and last): The required reading book I choose to read is (Title of Required Book) by. (Author) Reading Theme: Perseverance When a character has perseverance, he/she sticks with a course of action in spite of the difficulties. The character has determination to persist even when it would be easier to quit. Choose a short quote from your required reading book that best represents the theme of perseverance. Write the quote, word for word, in this space. Page number of quote: Quote: Explain why this quote is a good example of the theme perseverance.

5 Describe how the main character changed throughout the book as a result of persevering through challenges.

6 List in the table below other books or magazines you read during the summer: Title Author Student Signature: Parent/Guardian Name: (please print) Parent/Guardian Signature:

7 List of Recommended Books and Magazines for Middle School Students Fiction The Absolute Value of Mike by Kathryn Erskine Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins Hurricane Song by Paul Volponi The Fault in Our Stars by John Green The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick I Funny by James Patterson Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen Here Today by Ann Martin Lyddie by Katherine Paterson Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan The Crossover by Kwame Alexander Maze Runner by James Dashner Non-Fiction Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose A Black Hole is Not a Hole by Carolyn DiChristofano The Boy Who Invented the TV by Kathleen Krull Blizzard! The Storm That Changed America by Jim Murphy Rules by Cynthia Lord An American Plague: True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy Who Was First? Discovering the Americas by Russell Freedman Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson The Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours by Jane Goodall Getting Away with Murder by Chris Crowe Hiroshima by John Hershey Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible by Leon Leyson The Elephant Scientist by Donna Jackson Who Was? series by Grosset & Dunlap, various authors What was? series by Grosset & Dunlap, various authors Profiles series by Scholastic (World War II, Peace Warriors, ) I am series by Scholastic (Helen Keller, Lebron James, George Lucas, ) When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins Magazines Discover Kids Magazine (read from cover to cover) Discover Magazine (read from cover to cover) National Geographic Kids Magazine (read from cover to cover)