Summers for middle school students in a mid-size city are a time for hanging out with friends, playing baseball, riding bikes, going to the local community centers, swimming, reading and going to the public library. What? Kids are reading and going to the library? Yes! For the last three summers middle school learners have challenged the summer reading loss, as reported by R.L. Allington and A. McGill-Franzen, and continued engaged reading through the use of e-readers and other technology. The Cyber Cafe Summer Reading Program has grown over the years with varying themes but consistent in digital reading and discussion, collaborative response projects, and communicating with authors and others online. Its success relies on great books, the collaboration of a public middle school, library, and university and the integrated use of multiple technologies.
We started with 25 e-readers, new to most, so we learned the features and functions. We read a common book, a dystopia novel, The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman and discussed it online using VoiceThread. Preservice teacher mentors from the university participated online and also met with students three times over the summer at the downtown public library. Discussion of the novel continued face-to-face and plans were made to create response projects (posters, books, leaflets, models, web games, and more) that addressed themes of peer pressure, among others. Students made predictions about the author and generated questions in preparation for a Skype session at our final meeting. With technology and the use of the library auditorium we reached Allegra Goodman, in Tel Aviv for the summer, who graciously chatted with learners exchanging ideas and showcasing response projects.
Year two we paired a science fiction, First Light by Rebecca Stead with Seymour Simon’s non-fiction Global Warming. We added color e-readers to experience the beauty of Simon’s book and search for background information while expanding the number of students participating. We discussed our readings online through Wiggio and Stixy. Unable to schedule the author for an exchange, we sought a local scientist from the university, Peter Lavrentyev, an expert on global warming who visited us in the library auditorium to share a Powerpoint presentation of his research in the Arctic and discuss issues of global warming. Seymour Simon agreed to answer our questions on his blog. Simon himself selected the exchange as one of his top five blog posts!
The program grew again in the third year with more students bringing their own digital readers. We read R.J. Palacio’s Wonder. While we contacted the author as soon as we selected her book, the acclaim she received for her novel that summer kept her so busy we were unable to Skype. She wrote us a personal email, however and encouraged us to visit the Choose Kind site where we could pledge our commitment. Through a YouTube video we learned of a real life “Auggie,” Peter who was affected by craniofacial like the main character in the novel. We contacted his mother and arranged to Skype with him from Michigan. Our learners prepared questions and exchanged precepts with Peter as he and his mom sat in their car in a campground with their laptop. Inspired by these experiences program participants returned to school in the fall and successfully launched a campaign to change their anti-bullying program to a “Choose Kind” focus.
As we move into summer four of The Cyber Café Summer Reading Program we realize kids no longer need instruction on the features of devices and many more have their own. Over the years they selected free downloads from the library and requested other e-books to build extensive digital collections on the e-readers, also used in book clubs throughout the year. They share favorite books with “lend me” features. There is great anticipation at the end of the school year for the unveiling of the summer readings from both learners and their parents who have begun to read the novels alongside their children. We will read a true crime thriller Lincoln’s Grave Robbers by Steven Sheinkin and Skype with the author as well as the curator of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
As researchers T.G. White and J.S. Kim noted, simply providing books for summer may not be enough. We have seen that technology can facilitate thoughtful reading, discussion and reaching out to others, deepening the experience of summer reading.
Denise Stuart is from The University of Akron, Ohio.
This article is part of a series from the International Reading Association’s Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).