Lower School Summer Reading

Summer Schedule for AR Testing

AR Testing for Summer Reading will be held on Wednesdays from 10:00 to 12:00 in the Middle School Computer Lab starting on June 4 . Please do not ask us to test outside of the established days & times. Due to the constant summer upgrading & maintenance of our computers--and that done by the AR website--it is not a good idea to test outside of the established times. In fact, it is very possible that a test score could be lost or unrecorded if it is taken outside of the established times. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Grade Level Links for Summer Reading:

Students Entering the First Grade

Students Entering the Second Grade

Students Entering the Third Grade

Students Entering the Fourth Grade

Summer Reading? Why?

Tuscaloosa Academy, like so many other college preparatory schools, believes that summer reading is critical to the maintenance of established reading and thinking skills for our students. Our summer reading lists present recognized opportunities for enjoyment and enrichment.

Nationally recognized authors and reading consultants concur with our thinking. Jim Trealease, author of The New Read Aloud Handbook and Hey, Listen to This, says that children who read during the summer are able to sustain their present level of reading and, in many instances, actually read at a higher level when school resumes in the fall, depending on how much they read. In Effective Teaching of Reading and How to Increase Reading Ability, A. J. Harris explains:

"The child who reads extensively is improving his reading skills in the most natural way possible. By doing a large amount of easy reading, he builds speed of word and phrase recognition and becomes a fluent reader. When he tackes a book that is somewhat challenging, he aquires new ideas and concepts and is stimulated to think and reason."

In the stretched-out days of summer, reading offers a sense of freedom and mastery - a taste of independence, a ready supply of friends, a glimpse at faraway places, and ongoing adventures of the mind and imagination.