Summer Reading Antidote to Summer Learning Loss

 by Linda L. Cornwell

              Teachers are right to worry about the amount of learning students lose over the summer. Summer learning loss is particularly pronounced for at-risk and low-income students. Studies of Title I students show that over the summer at-risk and low-income students lose a significant amount of the limited reading gains they have made during the school  year compared to their more affluent peers, who show small but continued growth during the summer months. The cumulative effect results in widening the learning gap between low-income and high-income students over time, despite the positive effect of instruction during the school year. The effect of summer learning loss holds true regardless of the standardized test used to measure the loss or grade level tested. (Prospects, 1997.)

    The value of summer reading is well known.  In Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling, Barbara Heyns states reading is the single most effective summer activity in regards to summer learning.  Heyns concludes that children who read as few as six books during the summer months gain or maintain reading skills achieved during the preceding school year, while students who do not read during the summer may fall back as much as a grade level in their skills.

      Why does summer reading serve as an antidote to summer learning loss?  The answer is simple: Practice makes perfect.   When it comes to reading,  practice contributes to the development of accurate, fluent, high-compensation reading.  Studies consistently show that regard­less of how the volume of reading was measured, there exists a powerful relationship between the volume of reading and reading achievement. (Allington,2001.) The evidence that researchers suggest that the simplest of all solutions for fostering improved reading is encourage and challenge children and young adults to read. (Education Week,1999 .) Kids who read, succeed!  

. The research on summer learning loss and the research on the volume of reading on reading achievement provide a strong rationale for summer reading programs.  Summer is an ideal time for students to practice reading skills.  Books can be good companions while enjoying the sun at the beach, riding in the back seat of a car, staying up late at night, or baby-sitting for younger siblings.  They can be taken in a picnic basket or tucked away in a backpack.  Teachers and librarians need to promote the idea that books and reading are as much a part of summer as working on a tan, hanging out at the mall, and eating ice cream.  So, what can you do to encourage students to read over the summer?  Here are some suggestions for promoting summer reading:  

  1. Other demands on students' time (summer camps, swimming lessons, summer jobs, etc.).

  2. The sources students will use to access appropriate and engaging reading materials.

  3. The incentives and activities you will use to encourage participation.

  4. How you will publicize the program.

  5. How you will manage the program.

Because of Winn-Dixie

by Kate DiCamillo. 

                                                                Candlewick, ISBN:0-7636-0776-                                        

     India Opal, a motherless preacher's daughter, is lonely in her new Florida home until a scraggly, endearing stray mutt enters her life and together they win over the town.

Gathering Blue

by Lois Lowry. 

 Houghton Mifflin, ISBN:0-618-05581-9.   

     Readers will once again find themselves transported  to an alternative civilization where a young person is entrusted to pass on its history and its future-in this companion book to The Giver.  

Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books

by Gary Paulsen. 

Delacorte,  ISBN-0-385-32650-5.  

      Paulsen tells the real-life stories behind the events in the Brian Robeson books, just as they happened to Paulsen.  He takes readers on his first hunting trips, recounts special memories such as his encounter with a moose, and shares both his wonder of nature and his mishaps and mistakes. 

Nory Ryan's Song

by Patricia Reilly Giff. 

Delacorte, ISBN 0-385-32141-4.  

     When the potato blight destroys an Irish community's sole source of food, Nory and her family must draw on their inner strength to survive.  

Touching Spirit Bear

by Ben Mikaelsen. 

 HarperCollins, ISBN 0-380-97744-3.  

     In an attempt to avoid going to prison for his brutal attack on a classmate, Cole Matthews agrees to an alternative sentence, which results in his being banished to a remote Alaskan Island.  Left on the island to survive for a year, Cole's plan to escape and beat the system is thwarted when he encounters the Spirit Bear of the title and is changed forever.

  Summer reading does make a difference.  Students who read over the summer are better prepared to learn when they return to school in the fall.  This year, make sure trial your students are among those who return to school in the fall ready to learn because they read over the summer.  

Allington, Richard.  What Really Matters for Struggling Readers:   Designing Research-Based Programs.  New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, 2001.  
Education Week.  February 16, 1999, p. 16.  
Heyns, Barbara.  Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling.  New York: Academic Press, 1978.  
Puma, M.J., et al.  Prospects: Final Report on Student Outcomes.   Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Planning and Evaluation Services, 1997.  

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