Don’t forget summer reading
Each Wednesday superintendents from around our region offer insights and news on the school system.
Many thought this day would never come; school is out and summer is here!
For students, days of homework and sitting in classrooms are over. For parents, the neverending search through backpacks for assignments and completing endless permission forms is on hiatus for a few months. For teachers, lesson preparation and marking take a backseat to muchdeserved rest and relaxation. The hard work of students, teachers and parents can now be directed towards camping trips, barbecues, water fights and summer fun.
While plans are being made for engaging children in summer activities, we should not forget the importance of summer reading. As children’s first and most important teachers, families have a major role to play in motivating children to read during the summer months. This is not an easy task but there are many strategies families can employ to encourage summer reading.
While children are enjoying all their summer activities — going to the beach, parks, movies — why not encourage them to read a book about what they’re doing? If you are travelling, reading books about the location you’re visiting is a great way to enhance reading over the summer and to break up the boredom of a long road trip. Many students can suffer from “summer setback” as a result of being out of school for two months, leaving them less prepared to continue their studies when school resumes in September. Researchers at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo found that students who participated in summer reading improved their reading comprehension and vocabulary, and this improvement was larger the more frequently students read.
Summer is an excellent time to visit the local library or join in the summer programs that may be offered there. When planning summer activities with children, remember to leave some time in their schedules for reading and make sure there is a wide selection of reading material available for them. No matter what strategy is used, any opportunity to encourage reading during the summer months will pay off dividends at the start of the next school year.
Enjoy the summer and remember… it will only be a few more weeks before we start seeing the ads for back-toschool sales!
Dave Driscoll is the superintendent of Livingstone Range School Division No. 68.