Summer School?

The summer slide—we've all heard about it and educators have been trying to battle it for what seems like forever. A quick Google search using the scholar filter will give 101, 000 results (in .24 seconds mind you) on research which shows that at worst students can lose a month’s worth of learning over the summer. Any teacher will tell you, without needing Google's help, that the 1^st few weeks of school seem like a necessary review of last year's material.

Research further shows that students tend to slide more in math than they do in reading.  One key reason could be that we, as families, naturally participate in more activities that promote literacy: we take our children to the bookstore or library to check out books; however, when we take them to the grocery store do we make them add up the number the cost of items in the cart and multiply for sales tax? Most attempts at preventing the summer slide involve providing students with summer reading and pounds of repetitive math practice—we were guilty last year.

However, research by the American Psychological Association shows that learning occurs with deliberate practice rather than rote repetition. To borrow a basketball example, going out and shooting the ball 100 times a day will not make me a better basketball player or shooter, unless I deliberately practice form and shooting in game situations. Likewise, rote repetition of basic facts can improve performance in the short term but won’t help with long term learning and improvement. That is part of the reason reading skills slide less than math skills—many of our students read over the summer, not just for the purpose of doing the required reading for a project but for the deliberate purpose of reading for enjoyment or for information.

Therefore to prevent loss of learning in math, we should deliberately practice it with our children. Here are 5 easy ways:

1. Play Games—multiplication war is like the traditional card game except the first person to multiply the product of the two cards wins the round. Scrabble is also a great way to combine vocabulary, addition, and multiplication. 
2. Bake cupcakes—use proportions and fractions to adjust ingredients for different numbers of people—I am happy to taste test if you need a reason to bake.
3. Map a summer trip—figure out the miles traveled, average car speed, time traveled, the gallons of gas needed, and the cost.
4. Let you kids grocery shop for the week—give them a budget and have them price items on-line to make a menu for the week.
5. Keep Pace—using a summer reading book, have your child see how many words they can read in 30 seconds (and comprehend what they read). Using that information, they can figure out how many words they can read per minute, how many words per page, how many pages in the book, and how long it should take them to read it. This can be done several time to see if they are improving their pace. 

In the next few weeks we will be sending home a list of summer reading for students entering 3^rd through 8^th grade. Students will have one required book and a list of suggested books. We will also be sending home math activities you can do as a family. My hope is that you can enjoy your time with your children this summer instead of fighting with them the last week of summer to do their packet. This way, together, we can stave off the summer slide. 

Don't forget to answer the poll question on the left side of the page to give your feedback about summer work.