Summer Learning Loss for Disadvantaged Students

All young people experience learning losses when they do not engage in educational activities during the summer. Research spanning 100 years shows that students typically score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they do on the same tests at the beginning of the summer (White, 1906; Entwisle & Alexander 1992; Cooper, 1996; Downey et al, 2004).

Most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months. Low-income students also lose more than two months in reading achievement, despite the fact that their middle-class peers make slight gains (Cooper, 1996).

More than half of the achievement gap between lower and higher income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities. As a result, low-income youth are less likely to graduate from high school or enter college (Alexander et al, 2007).

Parents consistently cite summer as the most difficult time to ensure that their children have productive things to do (Duffett et al, 2004).

Source: summerlearning.org

RIF's link to "What Can Families do to Keep Children Reading During the Summer?"

www.readingoverthesummer.com

Helping Parents Avoid
Summer Learning Loss for their Children

While some parents may NOT be motivated to "read with their children" over the summer, they might be excited about playing a Reading Game with their kids.

Playbooks, Inc. is happy to provide a free mini version of the newly launched Take Center Stage™ game for Mini, the Super Watermelon for teachers to send home with students. This entertaining game with its healthy theme of learning about the nutritious value of watermelon is ideal for parents and their kids to read and play over the summer.

Take Center Stage™ is a new hilarious stage acting game with Reader's Theater. Parents and their children, or kids and their friends, read a script together and then play the game where they get to “over-act” scenes and lines from the story with funny expressions and character types, similar to the improvisational actors on the TV show, "Whose Line is it Anyway?"

These over-acting opportunities are prompted by "Take the Spotlight™" cards, one of 4 decks that help players earn points to be the winner of the game. The game also has other fun and educating features that keep everyone engaged from beginning to end with 3 other decks that quiz them on story comprehension, retention, character education, cross-curricular topics, and even present funny plot twists.

Give parents the opportunity to read aloud with their children in a new and engaging way and provide extra practice for your students to read at home. Offering this free activity to parents can help them realize how much fun "reading with their children" can be and put them on a positive path toward reading together with their children at home on a long term basis.

You can provide this game free to your students in 2 ways! For those families with computers and printers, simply print the flyer below and send it home with these students. You or your school can print the story and game for those families without computers.

                
     Click here for Parent Flyer                      Click Here for Game