Summer Reading

Get Ready for Summer!

By: Reading Rockets (2008)

Reading Rockets has packed a "virtual beach bag" of activities for teachers to help families get ready for summer and to launch students to fun, enriching summertime experiences. Educators will find materials to download and distribute as well as ideas and resources to offer to students and parents to help ensure summer learning gain rather than loss.

Finding a Great Summer Program: A Checklist for Parents

By: Johns Hopkins University, Center for Summer Learning (2008)

Use Summer Fun to Build Background Knowledge

By: Reading Rockets (2007)

Strategies for Summer Reading for Children with Dyslexia

By: Dale S. Brown (2007)

Read a dozen strategies to help your children keep the academic skills they learned last year. Support them as they read. Give them material that is motivating – and some of it should be easy. Help them enjoy books and feel pleasure—not pressure from reading. The summer should be a relaxed time where their love of learning can flower.

Summer Reading Loss

By: Maryann Mraz and Timothy V. Rasinski (2007)

Do you spend most of the fall reviewing what was taught last spring? Help prevent summer reading loss by finding out why it happens and encouraging family literacy while kids are at home for the summer.

Three Ways to Prevent Summer Slide

By: Francie Alexander (2007)

Many children, especially struggling readers, forget some of what they've learned or slip out of practice during the summer months. Try these strategies to help your reader improve her reading during the summer and beyond.

Be a Reading Role Model

By: Scholastic, Inc. (2007)

Your child walks like you, talks like you, and absorbs everything you do. So set the right example when it comes to reading. If you want your child to be a good reader, be one yourself!

Take a Break, but Bring a Book!

By: Reading Rockets (2007)

Five Free and Easy Tips for Summer Learning: Research Pointers and What You Can Do

By: Brenda McLaughlin and Jane Voorhees Sharp (2005)

Research about how much children lose ground over the summer is well documented, but kids don't have to lose ground over the summer. In fact, you can encourage your child to have a summer of fun and learning with these five free and easy things to do.

Summer Learning: A Community Conversation About Education

(2005)

Many students lose the equivalent of one to two months of reading and math skills during the summer. This learning loss can have a long-term effect on their overall academic success.

Summer Reading and Fluency: Tips for Parents from Reading Rockets

By: Joanne Meier (2005)

You've got the reading lists. You've got the books. But what else can you do to make your children better readers this summer?

Day Trips for Book Lovers

By: Mary Seehafer Sears (2005)

Not everyone lives near Chincoteague lsland off the Maryland and Virginia coastline (Misty of Chincoteague) or has a chance to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder house museum in the Ozarks (Little House on the Prairie). But books can inspire some exciting day trips.

Kids Who Read Books Over the Summer Do Better in the Fall

By: Debra Viadero (2004)

Having elementary school pupils read four or five books during the summer can prevent the reading achievement losses that normally occur over those months, a study suggests.

Lost Summers: Few Books and Few Opportunities to Read

By: Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington (2004)

Many kids lose ground during the summer months, especially those from low income families. Part of the problem is that many students don't have easy access to books. This article presents some suggestions for what schools can do.

Effective Out-of-School Time Reading Programs

By: Kirsten Miller, David Snow, and Patricia Lauer (2004)

Reading instruction does not need to stop when the bell rings. Using out-of-school time (OST) can be an effective way to boost academic skills while engaging students outside of the classroom. Education research lab McREL reviews effective afterschool and summer programs that focus on reading, and identifies the components that make them successful.

On Summer Loss

By: Johns Hopkins University, Center for Summer Learning (2004)

Research demonstrates that all students experience significant learning losses in procedural and factual knowledge during the summer months.

Making a Splash With Summer Reading

By: Walter Minkel (2003)

If you're a children's librarian who wants to promote an upcoming summer reading program at your public library, start by targeting the local schools. After all, that's where the children are.

10 Weeks of Summer Reading Adventures for You and Your Kids

By: Reading Is Fundamental (2000)

It's not hard to help your children keep their interest in reading and learning during the summer break. Here are ten weeks of suggestions to encourage your children to open books even after school doors close.

Summer Reading Tips for Parents

By: Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities (1997)

Summer shouldn't mean taking a break from learning, especially reading. Studies show that most students experience a loss of reading skills over the summer months, but children who continue to read actually gain skills.