Stop the Summer Slide: Make Summer Reading Fun and Easy This Year

by Suzanne Loring

Image Courtesy of The Horton Group, www.hortongroup.com

Summertime brings with it long lazy days at the beach, hot fudge sundaes and ice cream cones, baseball games and BBQs. Forgotten are the days of getting up early, studying for tests, writing papers, and for many children, reading. As books and writing settle naturally to the back of children’s minds over vacation, so too does their education.

According to studies done by the John Hopkins University Center for Summer Learning, all students experience summer learning loss when they are not engaged in educational activities. In some cases, children score lower on standardized tests given at the end of the summer than on the same test given at the end of the school year. This loss of skills is often referred to as the “Summer Slide.”

One of the best ways to combat the effects of the Summer Slide is to read with your children. It helps keep their reading skills from slipping and can even improve them. In “Bridging the Summer Reading Gap”, University of Florida professors Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington state that “children who read as few as six books over the summer maintain the level of reading skills they achieved during the preceding school year. When children are provided with 10 to 20 self-selected children's books at the end of the regular school year, as many as 50 percent not only maintain their skills, but actually make reading gains.”

Thursday Thoughts: Great Literacy and Learning Links From the Past Week

BRAIN TEASER:

Play along: Quiz yourself and see if you would choose the healthiest snack available to you- Which School Snacks Meet New Federal Rules?

INTERESTING NEWS AND COOL LINKS:

The Right Approach to Reading Instruction. The student-led approach to reading and writing known as balanced literacy is making a comeback in New York City schools. But critics say students need closer instruction from teachers and more work on phonics and facts. What is the right approach to improving student literacy? New York Times Opinion Pages, July 3, 2014

Could Text Messages to Parents Help Close the “Word Gap”? The program gives parents a digital tap on the shoulder via text messages reminding them to interact with their kids to boost literacy—and close that ever-widening word gap. And, it’s working… New America Ed Central, July 3, 2014.

Not a huge fan of the title, but the tips inside it are worthy of a read. How to Trick Your Kids Into Reading All Summer Long. Don't bother taking away the iPad or setting minimum page counts. Instead, find sneaky ways to leave your children alone with books—and then see what happens. The Atlantic, July 2, 2014.