Humanities CAO Rachel Stack Shares Tips for Encouraging Summer Reading

Posted in: Aha! Blog > Wit & Wisdom Blog > Learning at Home Family Engagement > Humanities CAO Rachel Stack Shares Tips for Encouraging Summer Reading

Rachel Stack, chief academic officer for the Great Minds® Humanities team, has some great suggestions for encouraging kids to read over the summer. She shares them in this op-ed in her hometown newspaper the Louisville Courier Journal.

“I know it’s challenging. I have two teenagers and understand the lure of phones and other tech gadgets. But we need to find ways to get children to love reading again,” Stack writes in the op-ed.

She explains how she’s encouraged her children to read in the summer months by helping them find books on topics they’re really interested in and by then connecting those topics and books to fun field trips, like museums and historical sites. She said those topics have ranged from things like great myths to the American Revolution.

Stack advises parents to check in with their kids’ teachers to find out how they can support literacy learning at home. And she says parents and educators should advocate for reading instruction during the school year that’s aligned to the science of reading, or how children most effectively learn to read. Fortunately, Stack’s home state of Kentucky is among nearly two dozen that have recently adopted policies aimed at supporting schools and districts in using such approaches.

According to the Nation’s Report Card, about a third of eighth graders in Kentucky are proficient readers, about the same as the nation.

“I know summer is a time for fun, but reading can and should be part of that fun,” Stack writes. “We aren’t where we need to be as a nation when it comes to reading, but if we work together, and apply strategies that work, we can get there.”

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Chad Colby

He has served in three state education agencies, which included time assisting New Mexico’s secretary of education with the adoption of new education reform initiatives; serving as the communications director at the Washington, D.C., Office of the State Superintendent of Education; and working as an assistant to the Florida Commissioner of Education. Chad also worked at the U.S. Department of Education from 2004 to 2009 and served as the deputy assistant secretary for media affairs and strategic communication during his final two years there. Chad is a native of Bloomington, Ill., and graduated from Florida State University.

Topics: Learning at Home Family Engagement