The school year is almost complete and summer is just around the corner. Your students won’t have to see the inside of a classroom for a couple of months. Unfortunately, 8 weeks without practice is a long time, especially for struggling readers. Often students forget some of what they've learned over the past school year during the summer months.
Top education experts have a few tips for teachers and parents to help their students avoid the summer brain drain and make warm weather reading easy and a lot of fun!
- Explore your local library. Find out when it is open and how to get a library card. Many libraries even have free summer programs and offer online books.
- Encourage your student to read at least four to six books over the summer break. Research shows that reading just six books during the summer may keep a struggling reader from regressing. Make sure the material is age appropriate and match the child's interest and abilities. Libraries often run summer reading programs that motivate kids to read, so find out what's available in your area.
- Read daily. Encourage your child to read something every day. Parents can help identify opportunities such as the newspaper, a magazine, TV guide, recipes, arts and crafts book, read to a sibling or friend, share a comic strip, while out in the car select a billboard or ad, even a license plate. You don't have to search far. The opportunities to read are endless.
- Make it fun. Encourage parents, of students ages 5-12, to get involved in the The Scholastic Summer Challenge. It’s a free global reading program aimed at encouraging students to read throughout the summer months. Kids read books, log their minutes, and earn virtual rewards all summer Active Bodies, Active Minds.
- Activity Packs- Suggest grade level activity books or packs. These are great on the road or for parents to enforces each day to keep kids from doing more than just playing video games.
As a third grade teacher, I have created a pack for students who were in third grade and moving to fourth grade. The summer to fourth pack includes 122 pages of skills and concepts for both math and language.
