The Assignment
Dear Students,
The 2024 Summer Reading assignment encourages you to read a choice book and complete two tasks. The assignments are intended to keep your skills sharp by reading and thinking critically during the summer months.
​
Step One: Choosing Your Book:
We have provided you with grade-specific reading recommendations below. While we encourage you to choose texts from our recommendation list, we really want you to read books you find interesting. Feel free to read authors, genres, and series-books you enjoy! We also encourage you to read as much as possible. The more you read the better off you'll be!
​
Step Two: Completing the Assignments:
Specific details about each assignment are included above.
Your parents, regardless of your age, are welcome to take an active role in your reading life. Parents may learn more about the titles you select and help you choose books on Good Reads (www.goodreads.com), Common Sense Media (www.commonsensemedia.org), and School Library Journal (www.slj.com). These sites contain synopses, reviews, and recommend discussion questions for many, many titles. Parents may even enjoy reading the same books and discussing the themes of each with you.
​
Books are available at the Roxbury Public Library, local bookstores, or internet booksellers (Amazon, BN.com). Audio versions of many of the titles are also available through the Roxbury Public Library. The Roxbury Public Library also offers a youth summer reading program that includes access to books as well as prizes for reading! More information about this program can be found here.
​
More details and rationale about this assignment can be found in Dr. Seipp's letter to families.
​
Note: Parents, you might enjoy this collection of resources to best support your child's reading and writing development at home.
​​
​
​
Attention English 1 Honors, AP Seminar, AP Literature, and Expository Writing Students!
You will find your REQUIRED summer reading assignment is different. You can find it here!)
The Basics
What you need to know:
​
The recommended summer reading assignment is designed to perfectly integrate with your Roxbury Google account. While this site is available to the public, the assignment's hyperlinked Flipgrid pages are only available when using a Roxbury domain. (If you have difficulty signing in, please email Mr. Schmidt at eschmidt@roxbury.org).
The Benefits
​​​
-
Research shows that students who participate in summer reading are more literate than those who don’t. (Don’t you want to be smarter in August than you were in June?)
Dear EMS and RHS Students,
Unfortunately, due to Microsoft’s recent purchase of Flip (previously known as Flilpgrid), as of July 1, 2024, no new content can be uploaded to the site. Because of these changes, Flip can no longer host our summer assignment.
The good news is you can still demonstrate your reading and completion of a summer assignment. You may:
-
Still record and share a Book Talk
-
Create a digital One-Pager to summarize and analyze (samples and templates here)
-
Share a collection of “Jots” (aka ideas on post-it notes)
-
Journal about plot, character, and theme development (this sample is long but you can get ideas here)
-
Write a well-developed answer to one of these questions related to a theme you find interesting.
Please note, you only need to complete one assignment (of your choice) to earn credit. You may still read a book from our suggested list or select a choice book of your own.
If you were able to finish your assignment prior to the July 1st closure of Flip, you can still share your recorded “Book Talk” with your ELA teacher when school begins.
Please keep in mind that all assignments are due at the start of the school year. Additionally, English 1 Honors, AP Seminar, AP Literature, and College Writing assignments are unaffected by these changes; those assignments remained unchanged.
​
If you have additional questions or concerns please contact Eric Schmidt at eschmidt@roxbury.org or ext. 1293.