Forward Thinking
R.I. initiative helps students prevent ‘summer slide’
Research shows that during summer break, children can lose up to two months of math and reading skills, as their developing minds are not typically engaged during the summer months, according to Joseph Morra with the United Way of Rhode Island.
Those nine to 10 weeks, he said, are “prime time for them to slide back and lose skills.” But Morra, the senior project manager of expanded learning with the United Way of Rhode Island, believes he has the antidote to the dreaded summer learning loss, and that is the Hasbro Summer Learning Initiative.
The United Way of Rhode Island and the Pawtucket-based Hasbro have partnered together this summer on the Hasbro Summer Learning Initiative, or HSLI, program across the Ocean State. There are 14 HSLI programs dotted around
Rhode Island, in cities including Woonsocket, Cumberland, Central Falls and Pawtucket.
On Wednesday, the program at John F. Deering Middle School in West Warwick offered middle school students an education in a vast array of subjects ranging from crime scene investigation and urban forestry to theater and cooking. All of these classes, officials said, promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and lateral-thinking skills.
“We took the idea of giving youths the opportunity to learn not in a school-based fashion. It’s more informal but we’re not throwing formal education out the window,” Morra explained.
In an effort to curb the typical summer learning loss, the initiative’s participants instead average gains of 30 percent in math and 22 percent in reading, as the program fuses service learning with an educational curriculum that helps students advance their academics while making a difference in their community.
“The gains are awesome,” Morra said. “They come back ready to go and that’s beneficial, as it allows the teachers to jump right into the new year’s curriculum.”
In addition to in-class learning, the group of students in West Warwick also have been participating in a series of service learning projects, all of which connect to promoting kindness, officials said. A series of “Kindness Stones” were painted with colorful pictures and inspirational messages, and will be scattered throughout West Warwick once complete. A “Kindness Mural,” meanwhile, is being painted in the school and will complement the one painted just outside the building’s main entrance.
The theme of kindness is pivotal at this age, officials explained, as bullying can be an issue for many middle school-aged youths. That’s why they’ve produced several different ideas that associate with the theme of kindness.
Among the students participating on Wednesday were 12-year-olds and future seventh-grade students Guinevere Ludka and Nikolas Frechette. They were participating in the crime lab and said they enjoyed the fun that came with the HSLI program.
“I’m not into
‘ math- math,’” Nikolas said of standard math.
“But we play games here, which sometimes have math.”
Frechette said he first joined the HSLI program in fifth grade, and since then it’s “helped a lot.” Where it’s helped, he said, is both inside the classroom and outside of it, as he’s not only improved his reading ability, it’s also offered a way to get to know the layout of the middle school.
The six-week program is 35 hours per week, totaling 210 hours of education during a time of year when youths may be lounging in front of an air conditioner or soaking up the sun on the beach or in a pool.
Charlotte Boudreau, a senior youth development director with the YMCA of Greater Providence’s Kent County YMCA, said that if children are engaged during the summer months, there’s “very little chance” for behavioral issues. The children’s schedules as part of the YMCA’s BLAST (Bringing Learning and Service Together) Summer Learning Program are both “jam-packed” and “pretty structured,” Boudreau said.
For example, on Wednesday, in addition to classes in performing arts, crime lab, environmental science and cooking, children were participating in sports, math, literacy and service learning over the morning and into the early afternoon.
“It’s very STEM-rich...” Boudreau said of a typical day in the program. “They’re really exploring, they’re not just sitting in a classroom … It’s structured all day to help them come September. STEM and math and literacy are interwoven into what the teachers are teaching.”