Summer Learning Boxes (Fighting the Summer Slump)

As a district, one of our main areas of focus this year has been to slow the loss of learning that routinely occurs during the summer months.  Often referred to as the "summer slump," this loss results in a large amount of reteaching in August and September, a time when students are excited about learning and that could be better used to teach new knowledge and skills.  We've explored several options, most notably year-round school. While we already have a summer program in place that allows children to stay involved for an extra month in June/July, this does not reach all kids.
What we needed was something that would have the potential to affect all students as well as keep parents involved in the process.  This spring, the district tasked each campus with coming up with a means to help kids practice their skills over the summer.  Secondary campuses are using technology and LMS such as Edmodo to meet this goal.  The lower campuses, including our primary school, have gone with something a little less high tech, but hopefully just as effective: Pizza boxes (Thank you Pizza Hut) filled with summer activities and school supplies to do them with.

These personalized Summer Learning Boxes, as we call them, are filled with at least 6 books on the students reading level, language arts and math practice activities and games, and writing tools and journals.  Instructions for parents are included as well as a checkpoint sheet that helps them keep up with their child's activities.  At our level, we ask students to do the following each week: Read at least one book, do one packet of math practice/games, and write in a journal supplied in the box.  They are welcome to do more, but that is the minimum.  We have scheduled three checkpoint weeks during the summer when parents can come in and let staff check their child's work.  Each time they come during a checkpoint, they are entered into a drawing for a gift card.  To help parents and students, we created instruction videos and posted these to YouTube.

Kindergarten Summer Learning Box 








1st Grade Summer Learning Box 

How will we know if our Summer Learning Boxes are effective?  Last week, each student took two skills tests in reading and math.  We also have each student's end-of-year DRA reading level.  At the beginning of the new school year, student's will take the same tests again and scores will be compared.  It is our hope that we will see little to no loss in skills over the summer.

Will every student take full advantage of this summer learning opportunity?  I wish that were the case, but realistically we all know that some will do very little and some nothing.  Still, many will use their summer boxes effectively.  In the fall, when we have compared tests scores and look at our checkpoint data, I expect that those who took advantage of this learning opportunity will show minimal loss over the summer. Plus, they will still have plenty of time this summer to just be a kid.