I know school is winding down, and after a very tricky start
to the 2012-2013 academic year, (Sandy, snowstorms) most of us can’t wait for
the break. But hold on a second. Did you know the most important months of the
school year are the ones in-between? The
ones when your child isn’t even in school?
Yup.
June, July and August are a critical time for your child’s
learning. If you want to help your
child achieve academic success in his or her new grade level, then your job
isn’t done. It’s just begun.
If you child does not read, or “sort of reads” the assigned
summer reading, most likely he or she will loose a level or more in reading,
and will not be ready for the new school year.
For example, if your child is at a level Y in 7th grade, and
does little to no reading, he or she might fall to a level V or W at the end of
summer. This means that at the start of
8th grade, when the texts are at that harder level Y and Z, your
child will be playing catch up. Not a
great way to start the new year.
One study showed that students scored significantly lower at
the end of the summer on standardized tests than they scored on the same test
at the beginning of summer (White,
1906; Entwisle & Alexander 1992; Cooper, 1996; Downey et al. 2004). This is even more prevalent in lower income
households, where the prevalence of video games, television often overshadows
the love of curling up with a good book.
Learning doesn’t stop when school stops. Of course you want your student to be
successful academically. But you also
want your child to be successful throughout his life, and to develop a love of
learning. You want your child to be an
independent thinker who is self–motivated and who thinks critically about lots
of issues.
If you want those things for your child, then he or she
needs a variety of opportunities outside of the classroom to engage in learning
exploration and most importantly, your child needs to read over the summer. Things like visiting museums, going on a walk,
or a hike in a state park and observing nature, drawing, painting outdoors are
all ways to stimulate your child’s brain.
Older students might volunteer at a park, as my son did, or
take a course, like sailing, or help at a local camp as a counselor.
There are plenty of sources like New York Times Summer Reading
Contest (which focuses on non-fiction articles from the Times on everything
from North Korea to Justin Beiber) to help support the older students’ summer
reading. Students read the articles,
then respond to the NY Times with why and what interested them about the
article. More information, including
contest rules, can be found at:
www.learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/the-fourth-annual-new-york-times-summer-reading-contest/
For younger students, more prescriptive workbook style
summer reading support can be found at:
As a teacher and a mother, for me, the most important thing
for your child is to set aside some daily dedicated time to read. Depending on the book, and depending on the
child, 30 to 60 minutes a day would suffice.
More later on some things you can do to support your child, questions to
ask about their reading, and finally, how to know if the book your child is
reading is truly a “just right book.”
www.christinadelouise.com
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