Maintaining Energy Into June
June is nearly here! While the school year is concluding, this can be a great time to switch things up and re-energize your classroom.
To prevent the end-of-the-year autopilot phase, keep your classroom engaged, and move forward until the very last day, check out these five ideas from International Literacy Association.
Then, for a quick reminder of how you can continue supporting your EL students, visit this top ten list from Diane Staehr Fenner.
How to Promote Reading Over Summer Break
As summer approaches, teachers may wonder how to promote student reading over the break.
This may seem even more challenging for teachers of EL students, who might have less access to reading materials.
One way for students to continue to use and develop their listening and comprehension skills over the summer is through audiobooks. These can act as a model and allow students the opportunity to listen to and practice new words as they are read aloud. With audiobooks, students can continue to develop reading skills as they follow along with the narrator, pausing to look up words or asking questions and engaging with the text.
Other benefits to audiobooks include availability--public libraries have access to a wide variety of audiobooks, usually easy to check out and free! Another benefit is that even if a student can’t make it to the library, there are sites (such as Storyline Online , Storynory,Kids Learn Out Loud or Audiobooks for Free) where students can download audiobooks for free onto a computer or audio device, so they can take reading with them anywhere they go!
The more time spent during the school year introducing audiobooks, the better off your students will be when it comes time to transition to independent use of audiobooks during the summer. Make sure to highlight and pre-teach reading strategies, such as stopping to look up words or rewinding to listen for clarification. Also, modeling where students can locate audiobooks in the library and how to check them out is critical, as well as sharing a list of grade-level appropriate books likely available in audio format.
For more information about how audiobooks can be a powerful resource for learning, check out these short articles from Reading Rockets.
Reading Rockets also shares a list of audiobooks by grade level for recommending to students! Check it out here!
If you are looking for ideas of how to incorporate audiobooks into your classroom lessons, but aren’t sure where to start, consider reading through some of the sample lesson plans available from the Scholastic website here.
Preventing Summer Slide
Research conducted since the early 1900s regarding the impact of summer break on students’ academic gains consistently emphasizes that students who do not engage in educational activities during the interim score lower on standardized tests after returning to school than prior to the break. Findings from one study even suggest that students might lose as much as two months of grade level equivalency in math skills over the summer!
These losses might be further amplified for EL students, so providing students and parents with resources and activities to continue academic growth over the summer is a great way to help combat the "summer slide."
For some valuable starting points on summer reading, check out this great resource list (has suggestions for materials in Spanish as well).
This blog post gives some additional tips to share with parents for promoting summer reading!
Finally, check out this list for 11 more ideas to prevent summer slide in ELs.
And remember, encouraging and embracing reading and other activities in students' home languages is critical for their cognitive growth and development!
Resources
Cooper, H., Charlton, K., Valentine, J. C., & Muhlenbruck, L. (2000). Making the most of summer school: A meta-analytic and narrative review. Monograph Series for the Society for Research in Child Development, Ann Arbor, MI.
Cooper, H., Nye, B., Charlton, K., Lindsay, J., & Greathouse, S. (1996). The effects of summer vacation on achievement test scores: A narrative and meta-analytic review. Review of Educational Research,66, 227-268.
Downey, Douglas B., Paul T. von Hippel, and Beckett Broh. 2004. “Are Schools the Great Equalizer? Cognitive Inequality During the Summer Months and the School Year.” American Sociological Review,69, 613–35
Downey, Douglas B., Paul T. von Hippel, and Melanie Hughes. 2005. “Are ‘Failing’ Schools Really Failing? Using Seasonal Comparisons to Evaluate School Effectiveness.” Presented at the American Sociological Association, Education Section, August, Montreal, Canada
Entwisle, D. R., & Alexander, K. L. (1992). Summer setback: Race, poverty, school composition, and mathematics achievement in the first two years of school. American Sociological Review,57, 72-84.
Heyns, B. (1978). Summer learning and the effects of schooling. New York: Academic.
White, W. (1906). Reviews before and after vacation. American Education,10, 185-188.
Combat Summer Slide
Research conducted since the early 1900s regarding the impact of summer break on students’ academic gains consistently highlights the fact students who do not engage in educational activities during the interim score lower on standardized tests after returning to school than prior to the break (Cooper et al., 1996; Cooper et al., 2000; Downey et al., 2004; Downey et al., 2005; Entwisle & Alexander 1992; Heyns, 1978; White, 1906). Findings from one study even suggests that students might lose as much as two months of grade level equivalency in math skills over the summer (Cooper, 1996)!
These losses might be further amplified for EL students, so providing students and parents with resources and activities to continue academic growth over the summer is a great way to help combat the "summer slide."
For some valuable starting points on summer reading, check out this great resource list (has suggestions for materials in Spanish as well).
This blog post shares more tips to share with parents for promoting summer reading!
And remember, encouraging and embracing activities and reading in students' home languages is critical for their cognitive growth and development!
Resources:
Cooper, H., Charlton, K., Valentine, J. C., & Muhlenbruck, L. (2000). Making the most of summer school: A meta-analytic and narrative review. Monograph Series for the Society for Research in Child Development, Ann Arbor, MI.
Cooper, H., Nye, B., Charlton, K., Lindsay, J., & Greathouse, S. (1996). The effects of summer vacation on achievement test scores: A narrative and meta-analytic review. Review of Educational Research,66, 227-268.
Downey, Douglas B., Paul T. von Hippel, and Beckett Broh. 2004. “Are Schools the Great Equalizer? Cognitive Inequality During the Summer Months and the School Year.” American Sociological Review,69, 613–35
Downey, Douglas B., Paul T. von Hippel, and Melanie Hughes. 2005. “Are ‘Failing’ Schools Really Failing? Using Seasonal Comparisons to Evaluate School Effectiveness.” Presented at the American Sociological Association, Education Section, August, Montreal, Canada
Entwisle, D. R., & Alexander, K. L. (1992). Summer setback: Race, poverty, school composition, and mathematics achievement in the first two years of school. American Sociological Review,57, 72-84.
Heyns, B. (1978). Summer learning and the effects of schooling. New York: Academic.
White, W. (1906). Reviews before and after vacation. American Education,10, 185-188.
Creating A Welcoming Start To The Academic Year
As students return to the classroom and this next academic year gets underway, the first several weeks of the year can be critical to establishing a sense of community in your classroom and school. For many students and families, the start of a new academic year is accompanied by anxiety and nerves, especially if students are entering new schools and new environments, and the way you welcome students back into your classroom can often set the tone for the rest of the school year. Entering the academic year armed with intentional lessons and ideas for how to welcome students back can go a long way in helping to establish a lasting, positive atmosphere. As students return to school, what tools, resources, and plans do you have in place to ensure that they feel supported, engaged, and welcomed?
Resource
For a great toolkit with many resources for creating a welcoming environment for EL students and their families, check out this resource list from Colorín Colorado.