How to Prevent Summer Slide While Keeping Summer Fun
Summer break can be a much-needed time for students to rest, have fun, and explore their interests. We know from experience, though, that students often struggle when they return to school in the fall. While getting acclimated to a new year and transitioning out of “summer fun” mode, they go through a tricky period of expectation-setting, re-teaching, and reminders.
Even as adults, we might notice that it takes a while to get back into the swing of work after a longer break. We might have forgotten some things, and some tasks that were previously instinctive require re-learning. (I remember the minor panic of getting an email reminder to take attendance or needing to refer back to my first-year notes to figure out how to highlight and label an IEP document to send home for signatures.)
It may not come as a surprise that there is a term for students’ loss of academic gains from the school year over the summer months - summer slide, or summer loss. For some students, summer slide may not be a major concern because they recover from it quickly, and they really need a break more than anything else. For others, summer slide can make school less enjoyable and more stressful when they return, in which case, extra support over the summer can help them catch up or stay on track. For students in public schools with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), the IEP team might consider Extended School Year (ESY) services if the student has demonstrated significant learning loss or loss of critical skills over the summer. This would be different from summer school, as ESY services are special education services and summer school is available to all students.
Whatever your particular child’s needs for the summer might be, providing them with access to resources over the summer is crucial, and it doesn’t have to be difficult or boring. This could be as simple as library or bookstore excursions to help your child find books on topics they love. It could be introducing physical or computer-based math games, museum trips, and board games that involve reading and/or math. Or, it could be having them watch their favorite Youtube videos, anime, movies, or TV shows with captions (a fun way to practice extra reading!).
Tutoring support may also be a great option for students who struggled during the school year, or for those interested in a new language or skill. At Tutor Corps, we offer flexible 1:1 summer courses conducted virtually in writing, math, digital study skills, American Sign Language, French, and Spanish, as well as an online reading and writing camp! In addition to matching students with a handpicked tutor, our summer courses are tailored to each student’s individual interests and needs. We recommend signing up soon to reserve your summer tutor!
Students definitely deserve to have fun over their summer break, even if they need more academic support, so the challenge is to make summer learning fun and student-focused.