Dear Student, Parent or Guardian,

The South Shore Vocational Technical High School Community is excited to present a new summer reading program for students entering grade eleven and twelve.

This program embraces 21^st century skills while highlighting SSVT’s emphasis on building a school community where all students and all staff members are working and learning together.

The students have already selected a summer reading book and have received a login and password for the MassOne Network. You, or your son/daughter should store the login and password in a safe place. The student will need the login and password several times this summer.

In addition to Internet access these are the tools the student will need to successfully complete this program.  Every student is expected to participate in this program. If the student does not have Internet access at home he/she should plan to go to their public library at least 2 times this summer. 

Over the summer the student will read the book and enter into web dialogues with the SSVT staff member who is mentoring their book. Only the members of our school community who are participating in this program can access the web dialogues. The instructions for the process are below.

At the start of the next school year the book mentor will host a literature circle/guided discussion about the book. The reader is expected to participate in this discussion. The grade rubric for this discussion is also available on the school web site.

If you have questions about or concerns about this project please feel free contact me at sbaldner@ssvtech.org or our Technology Coordinator, Crystal Paluzzi at cpaluzzi@ssvtech.org.

Happy Reading,

Ms. Sandra Baldner

English Department Chair

Student Instructions

This project requires that you have Internet access. If you do not have reliable access at home please plan to use the resources at your public library.

Time line:

In June you will select and begin to read a book.

There are a few things to do in July.

• Keep reading! You should have read about ½ your book by the end of July.
• Log on to the MassOne network and answer thoughtfully the question your book mentor posts.   Your response should be a minimum of one paragraph. Print and save your response.
• Log on to the MassOne network and respond thoughtfully and politely to what one of your peers has to say in response to the your book mentor’s post. Your response should be a minimum of one paragraph. Print and save your response. 
• Both your response to the teacher and to another reader are expected to be posted by 7/31.

There are a few other things to do in August.

• Keep reading! You must finish the book this month.
• Log on to the MassOne network and answer thoughtfully the question your book mentor posts.   Your response should be a minimum of one paragraph. Print and save your response.
• Log on to the MassOne network and respond thoughtfully and politely to what one of your peers had to say in response to the your book mentor’s post. Your response should be a minimum of one paragraph. Print and save your response. 
• Both your response to the teacher and to another reader are expected to be posted by 8/31.

The process wraps up in September.

• In early September you will participates in a guided discussion with your book mentor and the other students who have read your book. The rubric for the guided discussion is also available on the SSVT web page.
• Bring your printed on-line responses to the guided discussion. You will use them as resource for the discussion and they will be collected at the end of the discussion.

Points of Interest

1)      While they may be there earlier, book mentors are not required to post questions for July until the 14^th.

2)      While they may be there earlier, book mentors are not required to post questions for August until the 17^th.

3)      All forums will remain open until September 1^st. 

4)      All instructions will be available on the school website and passwords will be available through the guidance office.