For inspiration and ideas for Summer 2011-12 click here: The Amazing Read!
Most public libraries throughout Australia participate in Summer Reading Clubs and holiday activities for children aged five years and older and their families over the summer break.
Why hold a Summer Reading Club program!
- Summer reading helps students return to school in the new year ready to learn and with greater reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
- The materials are ready to use and the program is flexible to allow it to be tailored to your library environment and your clients.
- Holiday activities can be incorporated as part of the club at your library.
- Maintain or even increase library use by children and their families over the summer break.
- Create excitement in children about reading for leisure;
- By combining reading and other activities dispel the myth that libraries are boring places and that reading is only ever done alone.
- Provide reading support to families through booklists, and sharing your knowledge and expertise.
- Research like this study from the Dominican University show how summer reading programs help to close the gap
- Students from both better-off and disadvantaged backgrounds made similar achievement gains during the school year. However, during the summer the disadvantaged youth fell significantly behind in reading. (Alexander et al., 2007)
- Studies show that students’ who read more, read better; they also write better, spell better, have larger vocabularies, and have better control of complex grammatical constructions (Krashen, 2009)
- The amount of reading done out of school is consistently related to gains in reading achievement. (National Institute of Education, 1988)
- Regardless of other activities, the best predictor of summer loss or summer gain is whether or not a child reads during the summer.” (McGill-Franzen and Allington, 2003)
- More than any other public institution, including the schools, the public library contributed to the intellectual growth of children during the summer. (Barbara Heyn, 1978)
- New York Times "Summer Must-Read for Kids? Any Book"
- Tennessee Today "Fun, Sun, and Good Books: UT Experts Say Summer Reading Keeps Skills Strong":
The official website
The SRC merchandise will point children and families to the official website at http://www.summerreadingclub.org.au
Information for public libraries
For inspiration and ideas for Summer 2010-11 click here: The Amazing Read!
- YOU can add to or edit topics on the wiki; Simply contact Mylee Joseph mjoseph@sl.nsw.gov.au, ph: 02 9273 1521 or Kamara Buchanan kamara.buchanan@alia.org.au to obtain your password. You are then free to add and change your ideas on the wiki as often as you like for everyone to access!
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Credits
2011 The Summer Reading Club program is coordinated by the State Library of Queensland
2008 -2010 The ALIA Summer Reading Club program drew inspiration from the iREAD program created by the Illinois Library Association. This partnership allows us to share the creativity of library colleagues on two continents.