Most Dubai schools do not offer to their students guidance on what they should read according to their age and interests. Some schools have libraries that are mostly used for hangouts, other schools offer only textbooks. As in Dubai, the education system comprises of nearly 20 different curriculums, it is nearly impossible to unify the reading interests of all students. The private schools’ regulator, KHDA, also is not demanding from schools to provide reading lists to their students.
However, children’s reading lists are important because they can help parents and teachers to get children interested in reading. Reading lists usually provide lists of recommended books for children based on their age, interests and needs. Their aim is to provide titles which will be useful to your children and will help them improve their academic performance. Moreover, when you assign your child a particular number of books, which they have to read for a given period of time, you will help them develop their organizational skills.
There are many resources both parents and teachers can use when assigning reading lists to children. For example, The Big Book of Children’s Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Children by Nancy J. Keane is one good guide you may benefit from. It uses 100 reproducible book lists to create hand-outs for teachers and parents and covers fiction and nonfiction titles for ages 5-14. The book provides lists for standard curriculum areas, other areas of study such as character education and values, genres, themes, and read-alikes.
There are many other resources that can be helpful for you and your child and, moreover, there are reading lists for any age. The sooner you start assigning reading lists to your child, the easier it will be for them later in life. For example, when a child gets used to reading lists at the age of 5 or 6, it will be easier for them to deal with reading lists for college-bound students. Such useful guide for older students is Reading Lists for Coll Bound Students, 3 by Arco. It contains actual reading lists from over 100 colleges and universities nationwide and an annotated list of the 100 books most often recommended by leading schools. It also includes guidance for setting up your own personal reading program and a tear-out checklist to help guide your reading selection.
You may find also reading lists for the appropriate academic years on the websites of many European schools.
In conclusion, your child can benefit greatly from reading lists and there are many resources you can use when assigning one. Just remember that reading lists can be fun and don’t include only reference books to help the curriculum areas, but add something that will appeal to you child.
