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Beat the Heat, Read, and Repeat

A guide to your child's reading in the summer

Beat the Heat,Read, and RepeatA guide to your child's reading in the summer

Step 1: Choose an engaging and age appropriate book

Explore this LIST and pick one that is right for your child.

Some of my favorites are the following:

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Gym Candy-Carl Deuker

Groomed by his father to be a star player, football is the only thing that has ever really mattered to Mick. He works hard for a spot on the varsity team his freshman year and then tries to hold onto his edge by using steroids, with disastrous results.
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Looking for Alaska-John Green

To shake up his play-it-safe, stay-at-home lifestyle, Florida teenager Miles "Pudge" Halter convinces his parents to let him attend a coed boarding school in Alabama. There he becomes instant friends with Chip, his edgy roommate, and with Chip's friend, the sexy, daring, and impossibly beautiful Alaska Young.

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Stolen-Lucy Christopher

Gemma, 16, is on layover at Bangkok Airport, en route with her parents to a vacation in Vietnam. She steps away for just a second, to get a cup of coffee. Ty — rugged, tan, gorgeous, too old, oddly familiar — pays for Gemma's drink. And drugs it. They talk. Their hands touch. And before Gemma knows what's happening, Ty takes her. Steals her away.

Step 2: Figure out if the reading level of the book matches your child's reading level

Enter the title of the book HERE to find out the level of the book.

Step 3: Set aside a time for your child to read every day.

Whether it is 10 minutes or 1 hour, encourage your child to find a common time to read every day. In the morning, after lunch, before bed...

Step 4: Pick one reading comprehension to do per day

  • Make connections
  • Summarize
  • Visualize
  • Predict
  • Clarify/Ask Questions

Step 5: Implement making connections

Text-to-Text: Does this story relate to another story you have read? What characters from other stories remind you of X?

Text-to-Self: How can you relate to this story? Have you ever felt the way X does?

Text-to-World: How does this story relate to ‘a current event’?

Have your child fill out the graphic organizers and then spend 5 minutes discussing what they wrote.

Reading Wallet--Making Connections Clip

Step 6: Implement Summarize

What were the main ideas in this story/chapter? Can you describe what happened in this story/chapter using only three sentences? Tweet a summary of what you read today. Remember you only have 140 characters. Use graphics or pictures or memes to summarize what you read today. Fill out one of these graphic organizers.


Instruction in summarizing helps students:

  • Identify or generate main ideas
  • Connect the main or central ideas
  • Eliminate unnecessary information
  • Remember what they read

Teaching Strategies for Using Summarizing for Comprehension : Reading Lessons

Step 7: Implement Visualize

Close your eyes. Describe the setting. What does X look like? Try sketching a highly descriptive reading passage. Use a site such as Padlet, Popplet, Linoit, Voicethread or Smore to have your child make a visualization on the computer.



When you visualize as you read:

Create images in your mind based on what you read.

Use the descriptive words to help you

“make a movie in your mind”

Think about each of the five senses to help you form an image.

Afterwards, share what you “see” in your mind with others.

Reading Comprehension Strategy- Visualizing

Step 8: Implement Predict

What do you think will happen next? What do think X will do next? How do you think this problem will be resolved? Why do you think so? What did you read in the story that lead you to this prediction?

In order to make an accurate and appropriate prediction:

Use what you’ve learned from the reading to help you figure out what may happen next.

Listen out for “clues” provided by the author.

Read chapter titles and look at any pictures to help you

Strategies for Teaching Reading: Making Predictions

Step 9: Implement Clarify/Ask a Question

Encourage your child to ask questions when confused about a character or the plot. What just happened? Why did X behave that way? Listen to your child read aloud everyday. Strong fluency helps to foster strong comprehension. Talk to your child about book characters, what happened in the book, and what he/she liked best about the book.


By generating questions, children become aware of whether they can answer the questions and if they understand what they are reading. Children learn to ask themselves questions that require them to combine information from different segments of text. For example, Children can be taught to ask main idea questions that relate to important information in a text.

Reading Comprehension Strategy- Ask Questions

Step 10: Discuss, Discuss, Discuss

Before your child reads a book, ask:

  • Why did you select this book?
  • What makes you think this book is going to be interesting?
  • What do you think the book is going to be about?
  • Does this book remind you of anything you've already read or seen?
  • What kind of characters do you think will be in the book?
  • What do you think is going to happen?

While your child is reading a book, try asking:

  • Will you catch me up on the story? What's happened so far?
  • What do you think will happen next?
  • If you were that character, what would you have done differently in that situation?
  • If the book was a TV show, which actors would you cast in it?
  • Where is the book set?
  • If the main character in that story lived next door, would you guys be friends?
  • What does the place look like in your head as you read? Would you want to visit there?
  • Did you learn any new words or facts so far?

After your child has finished a book, ask questions like:

  • What was your favorite part of the book? Why?
  • Who was your favorite character? Why?
  • What was the most interesting thing you learned from the book?
  • Why do you think the author wrote this book?
  • Would you have ended the book differently? Did it end the way you thought it would?
  • Did the problem of the book's plot get solved?
  • If you could change one thing in the book, what would you change?