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by Katy Benson, Maxwell Library Director
Reading as few as six books during the summer can
help a child prevent summer learning loss. Children who don't
read over summer vacation, however, risk losing more than two months of reading
achievement by fall and can be two years behind their peers by the end of
sixth grade.
OCPL's eight city branches, 20 suburban libraries and two
community center sites offer children around the county access to a wealth
of books, as well as opportunities for informal learning through entertaining,
creativity-sparking, thought-provoking programs.
What is Summer Reading Loss?
Reading Resources
Reading About Reading
Websites Worth Searching
Learn More About Summer Reading Loss and Summer Learning Loss
What is Summer Reading Loss?
Summer reading loss refers to the amount of vocabulary and comprehension
lost from the end of one school year to the beginning of the next. Studies
of the effects of summer vacation on standardized achievement test scores show
that children lose the most skills in math and reading over summer.
At the end of summer, while middle-income children stay even or gain slightly
in reading achievement, low-income children lose more than two months of reading
achievement and three months of total learning achievement (McGill-Franzen
and Allington, 2001).
Poor and middle-income students show similar rates of improvement during the
school year, but because summer reading loss is cumulative, by the end of sixth
grade, low-income children can be two years behind their middle-income peers.
Reading achievement relies on access and opportunity. Studies show that low-income
kids may have fewer opportunities than more affluent classmates to practice
reading skills over the summer, because a limited budget often means fewer
books in the home, fewer extra-curricular learning experiences, and less access
to bookstores and libraries.
Fun, informal summer learning experiences, such as those
OCPL's Summer Reading Program offers, have proved to contribute significantly
toward all children's achievement in school.
Reading Resources
Your local library has great reads about reading,
including book lists, reading-related activities, guides to help you get your
child reading, and more.
If you're searching the OCPL
catalog for titles, try
some of these subject headings:
Best books
Children – Books and reading
Teenagers – Books and reading
Youth – Books and reading
Children’s libraries
Children’s literature
Oral reading
Reading – Parent participation
Reading promotion
Reading readiness
Reading – Remedial teaching
If you browse the stacks, try these call numbers:
011.62 -- Bibliographies of children’s
literature, book lists, reading-aloud tips
028.53 to 028.55 – Book lists, reading-related activities, bibliographies
372.6 – Reading aloud, literary activities, teaching language arts to children
649.58 – Parent participation in reading, remedial teaching of reading, children’s reading
Reading About Reading
How to Get Your Child to
Love Reading by Esme Raji Codell. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2003.
A delightful book combining scholarship and practical ideas with the trademark
Esme humor. Codell also has a Web
site with updated information.
The Complete Idiot’s
Guide to Reading with Your Child by Helen Coronato. Indianapolis: Alpha, 2007.
Includes everything a
parent needs to know about reading aloud to kids, from infants to intransigent
teens.
Read to Me: Raising Kids
Who Love to Read by Bernice E. Cullinan. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2000.
Explains how children
learn to read and write and why reading aloud to them matters. Chapters focus
on different age groups, what life is like at that age, how to encourage
reading and writing, recommended books, and more.
Reading Magic: Why
Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox. New York:
Harcourt, 2001.
Convincing argument for why and how to read aloud.
How to Make Your Child a Reader
for Life by Paul Kropp. New York: Broadway Books, 2000.
Research and personal experience
support principles for developing the reading habit; tips for making eager
readers, recommended titles.
The Read-Aloud Handbook (6th ed.) by Jim Trelease. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
Trelease broke new ground by compiling and analyzing
voluminous research on reading to prove the value of reading aloud to children;
includes success stories and suggested titles.
Websites Worth Searching
Learning Disabilities Online
Topics,
including reading issues, for parents, teachers
and social service professionals.
NYS Library’s Statewide Summer Reading
Program
Includes information on the current program as well as resources for parents, teachers, teens
and children. Find reading lists, blog with other parents.
Reading Is Fundamental
R.I.F. is a nonprofit
children’s literacy program that provides reading help, activities and suggestions for children of all ages.
Spanish version available.
Reading Rockets
National multimedia project giving information and resources on how children
learn to read, why some struggle, and how adults can help. Includes
latest research on reading.
Help
My Child Read
Reading resources from the U.S. Department of Education.
Targets parents of younger children with information on how to help them build
skills.
Learn More
About Summer Reading Loss and Summer Learning Loss
The Center for Summer Learning at
Johns Hopkins University both originates and is a clearinghouse for research
on summer learning and
makes a strong case for community-supported informal education opportunities
based on the Teach Baltimore experience.
How
Did You Spend Your Summer Vacation? What Public Policies Do (and Don’t
Do) to Support Summer Learning Opportunities for All Youth by
Ron Fairchild, et al., Spring
2007. [.PDF file]
Lost
Summers: For Some Children, Few Books and Few Opportunities to Read by
Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington. Classroom
Leadership 4 (August 2001).
From the Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
Bridging
the Summer Reading Gap, by Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington. Instructor 112
(May-June 2003) 17-9.
From Scholastic.
Succinctly details the effects of summer vacations
on academic achievement, especially for children of lower-income families,
and suggests educational solutions.
Highlights
of Research on Summer Reading and Effects on Student Achievement by
Anne Simon and Kelly Houck.
From
New York State
Library’s Statewide Summer
Reading Program.
Last updated: May 8, 2008
