As the summer months wind down, some students are staring down a looming deadline: finishing their required reading assignments. But are students missing out on potential summer learning if teachers skip the assignments, and instead simply encourage more pleasure reading? Researchers offer suggestions for how schools can approach summer readingThe benefits of summer reading are related to a research-tested truism: The more kids read, the better readers they become. But most of the research on the effect of summer reading doesn’t distinguish whether children are reading books they picked or books that were assigned. “Students who read books that match their interests tend to read more, finish more books, and engage more with what they’re reading.