Summer slump & holiday reading
“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are." Mason Cooley
image by zanzibar
The "summer slump" or "summer slide" is the decline in reading achievement children suffer just from being away from school.
It is characterised by a staircase pattern of steady upward student achievement throughout the school year, only to drop back a certain amount during the long summer holidays away from formal literacy instruction.
- Often, it is the students who can least afford to lose the reading gains they've achieved during the school year who fall the furthest behind, and the loss is not only in reading but also in maths.
- Longitudinal data shows that the consequences are cumulative, and that low-income children fall further behind than their classmates – dubbed the “Harry Potter divide” - the students who have access to books and holiday learning experiences such as travel, museum visits etc.
- It is harder to close the gap once it has opened, so the earlier the intervention the better.
- One piece of NZ research in a Decile 1 school found that some students reading at below-average levels suffered a 5.8 month summer reading slide. (An investigation of the effectiveness of a summer school reading intervention in a low decile school as a way of preventing the summer slide in reading Shanthi Tiruchittampalam, MEd thesis, University of Auckland, 2006 )
Is the "summer slump / summer slide" an issue for your students? Do you have data about end of year / beginning of year student levels, and if so what is it telling you? Is anything being done already? Consider who you could discuss this with at your school.
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Tell parents about “the summer slump”
Parents need to know what the research says - about the potential for loss in precious reading achievement if reading practice is not kept up for the 7 weeks over summer, and to a lesser extent during other shorter school holidays.
- Help parents know what they can do about summer reading - reading aloud to their children, encouraging their children to read independently, and including some literacy activities such as writing letters or postcards, reading recipes or making books.
- Send the message home through newsletters, and use other opportunities, formal and informal like parent / teacher conferences, reports, informal conversations, classroom newsletter,
- Reassure parents that "little and often" makes a difference, and that keeping it fun for the student is important.
- The Ultimate Book Guides (Ultimate First Book Guide, Ultimate Book Guide and Ultimate Teen Book Guide) are useful resources for "what to read".
- Encourage parents to manage electronic entertainment at home -"turn off the TV or Playstation" and reward reading.
- Promote the public library to parents, especially if there is a summer reading programme being offered. Establish a relationship with the public library, eg children’s librarian to visit the school, membership forms available through school, info about the library in notices to families. See Public Libraries
Keeping the resource tap turned on
Access to interesting reading material is essential - low-income children tend to have fewer books at home and live in neighborhoods with lesser public libraries. Children who have less access to books read less on their own.
- Discuss at school ways to ensure students have access to appropriate recreational reading resources at home in the holidays
- How can your school library support home reading?
Does the library issue books to students and/or their parents over the summer? - How can the school encourage public library use by families?
Is the public library running a summer reading programme that schools can promote to families? - What other avenues can be explored to get books into children’s hands during holiday times?
- Swap "take a book, leave a book" rack at the school.
What would children need at home to keep reading happening?
- Picture books, quick reads, Ready to Read from MoE, fiction and non-fiction from the library
- Books for parents to read aloud
- Booklists with suggestions – it is great if students get into a series as it helps keep reading mileage going
- Comics and magazines
- Appropriate websites or blogs
- Duffy books (saved from term time for holiday reading?)
image by vanhook
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How can the school library be involved?
- Involve the librarian and library team and ask for their input and advice
- Develop displays and booklists of the most popular titles, themes, kids' picks, and recommended series
- Relax borrowing limits to allow children enough books for reading choice and mileage
- Allow family borrowing over the holidays
- Facilitate other sources of books, - the resource room, Duffy books, magazines, swap clubs
- Develop a special book bag for borrowed books
- Celebrate returned books at the beginning of the new year, with acknowledgement of books read, cared for and returned.
image by Enokson
Helping children choose what to read
Are children, especially reluctant readers, good at choosing the “right” book, especially without their teacher or librarian there to help them?
- Teach some strategies for choosing books like browsing, previewing, and selecting skills
- What are their favourite authors, genre or subject / theme, fiction and non-fiction?
- Do they have a favourite series, format or character(s)? See Best easy readers: popular series
- Remember the importance of keeping reading fun and easy, especially for struggling readers See Bad books make good reading”
- Consider book and movie tie-ins
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In What should we read this summer? by Anne Davies in Booklinks May 2005 (Available through EPIC Masterfile), the teacher created a folder for each child. to encourage summer reading. A month before the end of the year, she started a class list of favourites. Students wrote a list of their 10 favourite books of the year – brainstorming first to recollect, looking at borrowing records from the library, classroom library review, read-alouds, books from science units etc
Each child had a folder to take home with three sections:
- Their list of 10 favourites, the class list of 10 favourites, and “Re-read an old favourite” with a class list of favourite authors brainstormed by the class
- "Try a friend’s favourite” – each child contributed a page with titles and authors of three books that they would recommend with a sentence why
- “Explore” – local library hours – discussion about using the public library
And at the back, “Don’t forget to write” – blank pages for addresses of friends, and a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the teacher.
Teachers’ own reading over the summer
What about Teachers' summer reading! To be both a reading role model (sharing what they are going to read, what they have read with their students) and to increase their knowledge of children's / YA literature.
- How about a challenge to read x children’s books a week – in term time, in the holidays?
- What will you read ? Where will you get your books from - school / public / National Library?
- Can you encourage other teachers to read children's books / share their reading? Are there expectations of teachers to be readers at your school?
- What genres / authors / series / formats?
- Would knowing about websites or review journals be helpful?
- What about keeping a reading log online, for example a LibraryThing account
- Liase with your school librarian to ask for recommendations
- See Teachers as Readers
“If we want students to develop a devotion to reading, we need to show them evidence of our devotion to it.” Lucy McCormick Calkins.
image by cmcgough
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Get evidence to inform practice
What evidence could you gather before, during and after an initiative regarding holiday reading / home reading to show what you did made a difference, and to inform future practice?
- If you develop / run a holiday home reading initiative, how will you know what to do, who to target, if it is an issue, where students are at, family response etc?
- Is there any existing data or testing of reading levels end of year / beginning of year eg STAR, BURT, PROBE, that you can compare this year to last year?
- What other evidence could you gather, eg strategies in different classes, targeted children, anecdotal reports, library statistics, feedback from public library, survey of parents / survey of students?
Share this information with others
- What are the implications of this for your teaching practice, your school and your school library?
- Is your school aware of a “summer slide” already? What are they doing about it? Is there a school-wide approach? Who do you need to discuss with?
- Consider a staff meeting / syndicate meeting to discuss the evidence / research, the data available / how to gather data…
- What can start to happen during Term 4 to set children and their families up for summer reading enjoyment and gains?
Recommended reading
Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap Karl L. Alexander, Doris R. Entwisle, Linda Steffel Olson John Hopkins University, Baltimore American Sociological Review, 2007, Vol. 72 (April:167–180)
Summer Reading Loss Maryann Mraz & Timothy V. Rasinski The Reading Teacher Vol. 60, No. 8 May 2007
Three Ways to Prevent Summer Slide by Francie Alexander - short article aimed at parents
Jim Trelease Summer Reading: Where the real damage occurs - brochure for parents
There are Reading Rockets and School Library Journal articles on summer reading as well as the Scholastic Summer reading site.
See also the pdf below.
For me, summer reading slump refers to my prone posture on the couch, reading happily.”
Donalyn Miller The Book Whisperer
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