Third Annual Summer Reading Celebration at Vassal Lane Upper School

Third Annual Summer Reading Celebration at Vassal Lane Upper School
Posted on 09/17/2015
Teachers and students at the Vassal Lane Upper School celebrated summer reading as a community for the third year in a row on Wednesday September 16th.

BooksLast spring, the ELA teachers at the school created a Summer Book List to share with incoming students. Teachers and students selected books to read from the list and then received copies of the books they selected before they left for summer vacation. Teachers and students were asked to read their books during the summer and to return in September ready to discuss their books in small book groups.

During the second week of school, teachers and students met and discussed their books in thirty-five small book groups. Book groups met outside on the fields behind the school on a beautiful, sunny morning.

Marlena Montanez, the eighth grade math teacher, shared her experience: “I genuinely loved the honesty with which students talked about their books. Students were confident enough to share their ideas with one another, and it was especially good to see sixth graders voicing their opinions in a group with seventh and eighth graders.”

Several Vassal Lane students enjoyed exchanging ideas about what books to read next with other members of their book groups at the end of their discussions. Book groups had a mix of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students, giving everyone a chance to get to know one another a little better outside of their regular classroom schedules and groupings.

Two popular books on the Summer Book List were Every Day by David Levithan and Wonder by R.J. Palacio. In addition, many students enjoyed two of the nonfiction titles on the Summer Book List: Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb and American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy.

Faculty members and students are looking forward to continuing what has become a beloved fall tradition at the Vassal Lane Upper School. The Vassal Lane Summer Reading Program provides a valuable opportunity to strengthen and celebrate the school’s growing community of readers.
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