As you begin to think about the end of school and summer activities, I urge you to take a moment and read the brief article below from the Marshall Memo (click  HERE to learn about the memo). Summer is a perfect time to help students build a love of reading and you can help create a powerful positive habit for your child.

  “As students approach summer vacation, they have a confession to make,” reports Sasha Jones in this Education Weekarticle: “while 77 percent agree that summer reading will help them, 20 percent report not reading any books at all over the summer.” The data came from a Scholastic poll of students and parents conducted in September/October 2018. The results showed a marked decline in summer reading compared to 2016.

Parents said they knew summer reading was important to their children’s school achievement, but many were unaware of the concept of “summer slide” – that children who don’t get academic stimulation during the summer lose ground to those who do. Interestingly, awareness of summer slide was highest among more-advantaged parents.

            Here are some of the positive actions taken by parents who put a high premium on summer reading:

• Purchasing books from school book clubs and book fairs;
• Taking children to the library;
• Taking books along on road trips and vacations;
• Building reading time into children’s summer routine;
• Putting limits on screen time;
• Finding a book series the child likes so there will be multiple books to read;
• Signing up children for a reading program through the school community;
• Shopping online or in stores for books;
• Reading the same books children are reading and talking about them.

“Students Increasingly Are Not Reading Over the Summer, Poll Finds” by Sasha Jones in Education Week, May 8, 2019, https://bit.ly/2Lwc7pK