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The student news site of Colonia High School

The Declaration

The student news site of Colonia High School

The Declaration

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Assigned reading kills student’s summers

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Photo Credit: photo via flickr under creative commons license

Why do we have summer reading? Well according to schools we have summer reading so the students don’t “slip.”  The AP and honors kids to read harder books since they are in harder classes. There’s a whole plethora of reasons from the school board why summer reading is efficient and great. But from a student’s perspective it’s a complete waste of time.

Students have been reading everyday of our lives since we learned how to read. There’s no way the students are going to forget how to read at the grade level we are supposed to be at in two months. If expanding vocabulary is your argument for summer reading there are other ways to do that, for example movies. A study at Oxford University stated that Vineeta Gupta who is the head of child dictionaries says that watching movies or playing narrative games is having a positive effect on children’s writing as they expand their vocabulary, they grow in literacy and comprehension, which in turn leads them to becoming better readers.

AP and Honors kids are often hear “your in a higher level class so you have to read more books as well as higher level books.” Which doesn’t make sense because those students already achieved the grades to get into the class proving they’re smart enough. Most times kids who are able to handle the class drop out due to not doing a summer reading assignment. What kind of student really wants to start the school year off with an F. None, no student wants to start their school year with an F. But, all students want to actually enjoy their summer and relax during it which isn’t very easy when you have an assignment hanging over your head the entire time.

It also doesn’t help that most of the time we have to chose from a dull list of books. That makes it feel forced and the students are less likely to actually want to read. Therefore learning less since they’re just doing it to get it over with.

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Also how can students try to tackle these assignments without any teachers present. Administrators and teachers expect the students to read these daunting books without any assistance. So if they hit a confusing part they have nobody to help them understand and comprehend what is actually happening.

To try to make summer reading a little more enjoyable give the students the option to do it or let them chose what book they want to read.

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About the Contributor
Alivia Taveras, Spring Reporter
Alivia Taveras is a fifteen year old sophomore at Colonia High School, where she plays softball. She has been playing travel softball since she was eleven years old. Taveras is very competitive in all aspects and as a student is also very dedicated to her academics with her favorite subject being English. She is the oldest of two children, her younger brother is six years old and she has lived in Avenel for nine years. After high school she hopes to have a career in sports therapy and to go to a college out of state. Once all of her schooling is done Taveras wants to be able to travel the world.

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Assigned reading kills student’s summers