Stopping the Slump

Narrator: While this classroom doesn’t have desks and blackboards…
…it’s still helping these kids make serious educational strides.
So what do a trip to a major stadium…
Watching a ball game…
And even riding on a merry-go-round…
Have to do with learning to read?
Let’s rewind…

Warrendale Elementary is in Detroit, Michigan — the home of seven-year-old Nikita.

Nikita attends Warrendale with her friends during the regular school year, but for the second year running, she’s also coming during the summer — and loving it!

Yolanda Devon: When I pull up, she’s happy. She comes out the door. She’s laughing. She’s smiling. It’s never a dull moment… This was summer school and she was happy. I can’t miss a day. Mom, we’re going to do this today, we’re going to read this story today. She just really enjoys everything about the BELL program.

Narrator: Yolanda is determined to help Nikita avoid the “summer slump.” Research shows that kids without educational summers return to school up to three months behind their peers — and they might never catch up.

Luckily, Yolanda has allies in the fight.

Warrendale Elementary and the national organization, “Building Educated Leaders for Life,” or BELL, have partnered to create a summer program aimed at stopping the slump.

And Yolanda isn’t the only parent excited about the partnership.

Mylah Ivory: We had parents call… did my scholar get in? Did my scholar get in? Because they knew last year… we did some outstanding things… Parents know that BELL gives them opportunities that they wouldn’t normally get during the summer.

Narrator: Dr. Jennifer Turner is an assistant professor of reading education at the University of Maryland.

Turner: Children need summer reading programs and summer reading opportunities because two-thirds of the achievement gap can be attributed to the unequal access to summer learning opportunities in elementary schools.

Narrator: BELL’s goal is to help close that gap by increasing the academic achievements of children living in low-income, urban communities — a population that is particularly at risk for falling behind during the summer.

Ron Fairchild is the head for the National Summer Learning Association.

Fairchild: What the research shows is that that gap grows tremendously during the summer months. So that we have a pattern of kids learning at about the same rates during the school years only to see the low income kids lose over two months of reading performance each and every summer of their elementary school years.

Narrator: In fact, kids who don’t have educationally rich summers will be nearly three years behind their peers by the time they reach the end of the fifth grade.

That’s why Yolanda is determined to keep Nikita on track.

Yolanda: I remember being in a summer program. And it consisted of swimming, running, jumping… Whereas, Nikita, she’s learning so much. She’s strengthening her reading skills. She’s strengthening her math skills, her interaction skills with her peers. She’s not just sitting at home in front of a television set. Or she’s not outside from 8:00 to 4:00 riding her bike or getting into trouble. She’s actually somewhere where individuals care about her future and her growth.

Narrator: And summer learning shouldn’t exclude summer fun! In fact, a child’s summer should be a rich mix of academic growth and enrichment — something that both BELL and Warrendale recognize.

Ivory: Warrendale and BELL work really well together… both see that summer loss is so important. We know that our children need other opportunities that they would not get during the summer, and then a structured program during the day.

Narrator: So mornings are spent on quality academic instruction, like writing exercises, vocabulary development, and reading strategies.

Teacher: How do we retell a story? Retell. Nikita.

Nikita: Using our own words?

Teacher: Using our own words. What words do we use?

Narrator: This structured, direct instruction is essential, especially if a child is struggling with reading. But becoming a strong reader means more than just knowing the rules of the language. It’s important to also develop a child’s background knowledge, so that students can understand what they’re reading.

Enter the Detroit Tigers and these lucky BELL students…
Because all of this fun…
…is actually making them better readers.

Turner: Children who have deep background knowledge are able to read the kinds of books that you put in front of them because they have the foundational vocabulary, they have the skills, they have the experience, and it helps them to make meaning of the text. When you read it’s much better if you know about the circus and have been there to activate that and say, oh yeah, I remember, the circus has a clown and there are elephants there and it’s under a big tent. Versus a child that’s never been to a circus and might not have that kind of background knowledge.

Narrator: And while field trips like this are only once a week, BELL and Warrendale make sure the kids’ exposure to new experiences doesn’t stop at the school’s front door.

Each afternoon the students have enrichment activities like dance, puppetry, PE, and special guest speakers.

All of this will have a big impact in the classroom.

Fairchild: Most middle and upper income kids have an incredible summer that’s chock-full of enrichment experiences. And many times, they have those experiences without even being fully aware of that. And what high quality summer learning programs do is they really give kids access to those kinds of enrichment experiences, the relationships with caring adults, exposure to people in the community that have expertise. And all of those experiences create the kind of background knowledge that kids need to be successful, both in reading, but also in other academic subjects.

Yolanda: I love all of it. I want to come to BELL and participate in some of the extracurricular activities. Everything that’s being offered to her, it’s more than what she can ever get just sitting at home.

Narrator: With so many adults determined to see her grow, it seems like Nikita is headed for a successful summer. That means she’ll be on her way to a successful school year. Just remember the BELL motto — think it, believe it, achieve it.