Summer reading assignments are supposed to prepare students for the coming year, to prevent the dreaded summer loss, and — ideally — to foster a love of reading.
Yet all too often, students struggle with comprehension when they’re reading independently. Sometimes they just don’t do the reading at all.
We’ve got a new spin on how to assign summer reading that will boost students’ comprehension and create accountability — without creating more work for teachers.
This year, instead of just assigning the book and planning some kind of comprehension quiz afterward, pair the book with one of our curated vocabulary lists based on the text. Have your students practice the list on Vocabulary.com before they read the book, and they’ll be in much better shape to tackle the reading on their own.
Plus, you can easily see who did the work, and how they did — no correcting papers! Even better, Vocabulary.com will automatically follow up with students over time so they really learn the words they struggled with.
Here's how to seamlessly integrate vocabulary instruction into your summer reading plans:
1. Select assigned texts, or invite students to choose their own books. Whether you’re assigning a classic text or popular YA, we’ve got ready-made vocabulary lists for a wide variety of material to prep students for better reading. Have you considered letting students choose their own books? You could offer them a menu of titles that appeals to a range of interests and abilities (The list below would work well!).
2. Check out our high-quality, ready-made lists. Developed by seasoned educators, our lists are designed to align with your curriculum and to support independent reading. You can use the lists as they are, or copy and customize them.
3. Assign a Practice activity. When students practice the words on the list you assigned, they learn key vocabulary and preview the text before they tackle the reading. List Practice on Vocabulary.com also provides added accountability (without added work for you) when you can see at a glance which students completed their List Practice, and how well they did.
4. Leave the follow-up to us. Vocabulary.com automatically works with students until they master any words they struggled with.
Below, you'll find recommended summer reading, along with links to our curated vocabulary lists for each text. Bear in mind that these recommendations are just the tip of the iceberg. You can find more great resources on our Lists page, and we’re adding new lists every week.
High-interest Books
Track series by Jason Reynolds - Ghost, Patina, Sunny
Warcross by Marie Lu
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
Recent Award Winners
National Book Award Winner: Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
National Book Award Finalists:
Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Printz Award Winner: We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Printz Award Finalists:
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (also a Newbery Honor Book)
Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Previous Award Winners
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (2015 Printz Award)
Monster by Walter Dean Myers (2000 Printz Award)
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill (2016 Newbery Medal Winner)
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson (2017 Newbery Honor Book)
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (2014 National Book Award, 2015 Newbery Honor Book
Middle Grade Favorites
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Esperanza Rising by Pamela Muñoz Ryan
Popular Graphic Novels
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Smile by Raina Telgemeir
March by John Lewis
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
El Deafo by Cece Bell
Classics
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Compelling Nonfiction
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Outcasts United by Warren St. John
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Beloved Series
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Percy Jackson & the Olympians by Rick Riordan
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Divergent by Veronica Roth
