As a student this message is from experience. I do not believe the way that schools teach literacy valid.  For example reading plus, AR (Accelerated Reading), and IReady, are just a waste of money and time for both the school and for students.  Though it may be a good idea it is poorly executed in a way that makes students and even some teachers envy even the idea of having to do it.  The very limited selection makes it hard for kids and teens to find a book that they would be interested in reading, which forces students to have to pick books that don’t suit them.  You may think “we’ll the world isn’t fair,” and I agree with that statement, but if you are going to force students to do something that most already don’t enjoy, at least make it fun and give some more freedom.  As better alternatives to better this problem is if schools partnered with libraries and gave each student a public library pass, or introduce some more enjoyable books in the school library.  Having a set timeframe for students to need to finish a book can make the readers feel rushed and that results in not focusing on what you are reading and forget what you even read about.  This causes potentially bad grades and then upset parents or students beating themselves down because of the bad grade which wasn’t even their fault.  Going along with the reading programs, I feel that summer reading is not necessary.  After being in school for roughly Two-hundred days out of the year we should deserve a break right?  Though we do get the privilege of summer break we don’t get to use most of it.  Summer reading is causing children and teens to do schoolwork during their well deserved break.  Think of it this way, you take off work for a week either for a break, a vacation, or any other reason, and during your week off you have to do work on your computer almost every day of your break, therefore your break gets wasted and is no longer a break.  That is how students feel about summer reading.  Thank you for your time and hopefully support.