Summer Literacy Activities: More than Just Reading

It’s relatively easy to send students off at the end of the term with book lists and encouragement to read during the summer vacation. Literacy, however, involves more than just reading. In addition to providing a book list, why not share a list of possible activities that students and families might tap during the summer? You can work off the activities that you have completed as a class during the school year as well as tap these possibilities:

• Invite students to keep a journal or diary. You might begin the process by making small journals during the last days of the year for students to fill during the summer. Older students might keep blogs on one of the many free online sites. You might suggest that students write about their readings, special events, or simply day-to-day activities.
  
  
• Suggest students create their own comics with the Comic Creator or drawing their comics by hand. Students might draw favorite or missing scenes from their readings, create original comics for existing (or new) characters, and compose comics from events from their summer activities. 
  
  
• Demonstrate how students can use the ReadWriteThink Printing Press to create newspapers, brochures, flyers, and booklets. Whether they are responding to readings, films and movies, televisions programs, or personal events, students can use the Printing Press to publish their thoughts. Additionally, students can create family publications about vacations or special events, publications with their friends about hobbies or special trips, and personal publications that focus on their special interests.
  
  
• Have students create alternative book covers or CD/DVD covers for books they have read, albums they listen to, and films they have seen. Or have students create original covers for their own writing, playlists they compile, and films they make (or would like to see).
  
  
• Ask students to write letters to friends, family, and one another using the Letter Generator. Students might use the tool to compose letters to family members in other parts of the country or to share details from their vacation with friends at home.
  
  
• Tap students’ inner muses by asking them to compose original poetry about their summer activities using the Acrostic Poem, Diamante Poem, or Shape Poem tools. 
  
  
• Invite students to create their own postcards for places they visit or would like to visit using the Postcard Creator. In addition to sharing images and words on the trips they take, students can also make postcards that might be sent by characters in books they read and films they see.