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Summer Reading

MARCELLUS SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Brian Sevey

Connect, Empower, Ignite

Michael Free
Principal

1 Mustang Hill - Marcellus, NY 13108
315.673.6300

 Director of Health and Athletics

 

June 5, 2024

Dear Marcellus Families,

The English Department and our Administrators have been grappling with the Required Summer Reading Assignment for incoming 7th-12th grade students. After many thoughtful discussions, we have elected to forego a required summer reading assignment for our secondary students. However, we highly recommend and encourage students to read over the summer and throughout the school year. We want to promote a culture of reading across all content areas and curricula because fostering a commitment to reading has countless benefits.  

In his book Reading Reasons: Motivational Mini-Lessons for Middle and High School (2003), author and educator Kelly Gallagher shares ten {10} reasons why reading is essential:

  1. It is rewarding because it brings pleasure and knowledge.
  2. It builds a mature vocabulary.
  3. It makes you a better writer.
  4. It is hard, and “hard” is necessary.  
  5. It makes you smarter. 
  1. It prepares you for the world of work.
  2. It is financially rewarding.
  3. It opens the door to future learning.
  4. It keeps you on the path to success.  
  5. It helps you develop your moral compass. 

 

We want students to discover books they enjoy, recommend those books to others, and engage in conversations about what they are reading with others.  As English teachers, we truly hope that our students will build reading habits, and summer is the perfect time to do so. Students will invariably develop and maintain literacy skills just as they would physical or performance skills -- anything that takes practice to reach mastery.

The secondary faculty and staff will post book recommendations outside of their classrooms to help students discover books that may be of interest to them, and we highly encourage students to have conversations with staff and family about what they are reading, again, not just over the summer but throughout the school year. SORA is an excellent resource for students to acquire audiobooks if reading a physical book poses a challenge.  Students can access the app via Classlink or on the library pages on the district website, and they can link their account to the Marcellus Free Library. 

We wish you a restorative summer break and happy reading! We look forward to working with you in the fall.

 

Sincerely,

Ryann Riefler
7-12 English Content Specialist
HS English Teacher