Contest: How are you mitigating the summer reading slide in your class or community?

In Lauderdale County, the summer is a devastating time. The children have nothing educational to keep their minds devoted to learning. If I had access to age appropriate resources, I would have a summer reading program and include various curriculum aligned activities to keep the children's minds actively growing throughout the summer. This program would reinforce skills that many students loose over the summer such as Phonics, Grammar, Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, and Writing. Using the books provided, the students would have hands on experience with a familiar text that can help them build the skills learned. This program would also allow students to take part in a different type of learning environment, maybe not introduced to in the regular classroom setting. Students would be able to have book discussions and present their opinions on why the author wrote the story and if he/she were successful in getting their points across. Most importantly, this program would allow the students to develop an ultimate love for reading like never before, by including the families to take part in this awesome opportunity to build a wholesome learning environment together. #contest that changes lives

The summer reading slump is real - and it drastically impacts our students who have made tremendous progress throughout the school year, only to see that progress disappear over the summer. At the end of each school year, Washington County Schools sends 2-3 books home with each student in grades PreK - 5th grade to read over the summer. "Project Summer" would be a wonderful addition to our current practice. This summer, we plan to include a STARS program (Summers To Accelerate Reading Success) into our remedial summer school. Students will come to school one day per week for 6 weeks and then attend a full week prior to the beginning of school in August. The take-home packs would be very beneficial to students as they read at home and then come to school to review their progress. Many of our students come from low socio-economic homes with very little print material available to them. As elementary supervisor, I am excited about the opportunity to partner with Scholastic to turn all of our summer readers into summer STARS - #contest to reach for the STARS

I am teaching first grade this year after 7 years teaching third grade. Each fall I would dread finding out how little my new students read over the summer. After working so hard all year, they wouldn't read a word in the summer and would lose most or all of their gains from the previous year. Our school librarian always brings a local librarian in to talk to students about the summer reading program towards the end of the year, but being a very low income school means that not all students can even get to the library to take advantage of the library. A few years ago I organized a book exchange where students brought in their old books, received a raffle ticket, and got to exchange their ticket for a "new" book that someone else had donated. This was a success, but now the PTA runs it and charges (a small amount) for each book. I would like to get just right books in the hands of our youngest readers. After seeing the joy on their faces each time I share a new book, and when I gave them a book for Christmas, I know that what these kids need are their own books: something they can practice over and over, something they can be proud of having. If I won these books I would share them with all the first grade students (about 60 kids) and inspire them to become reading machines this summer so they could come back next year and read to the new first graders. Sharing their hard work and success will be both motivation and inspiration.

Graceville is a small town but a very busy town in the summer. Two major highways run through the town also. The library holds a summer reading program on Wednesday mornings. However, the four day care centers cannot attend with their children as they have to cross the highways and they have too many small children and infants. After a lot of discussion, this year I started a program in April with the daycares, which I am going to continue right through the summer. Every two weeks I go to the daycares with a book bag filled with books on a particular theme, crafts to do, coloring sheets, and other activities. There are four different bags. When I arrive at the daycare, I spend about one hour reading stories to the children and doing a craft. The bags will be rotated between the four daycares. Then I will make up new ones with new topics. The daycare providers are so excited to have the program come to them as the children have always wanted to go, but with traffic and number of children, it was not possible to do. I am really excited too.

The summer slide is real! I encourage my kids to attend the library summer program. I tell them that I will be attending and looking for them. Sometimes that gets them there, because they want to see their teacher. I also invite them to my home for a summer party. They know about it at the end of school. I give them ideas of things to do to prevent the summer slide, and I tell them I'll check on them at the summer party. This year I am using the Bloomz app to communicate with parents. 100% of them are signed up for it and receive my messages. I'm going to continue to use it during the summer to send them reminders, activities, and things they can do with their child. I have also offered to meet with my lowest two students during the summer to help them continue to learn and narrow the gap, so they can get on grade level by the end of the summer. If I received these books, I would give them each one at the end of the year and again at our summer party. If there were any others we would use them for a #contest that they would find out about on Bloomz. I would personally deliver a book to different children during the summer. That would keep them reading for sure! #contest

As a neighbor (and pa#3no)&t82r0;so glad to have Ella’s in our community! Hopefully they will stimulate similar development along the Nebraska corridor. They exemplify what “could be”. Ella’s influence goes beyond being a gastronomic leader and visionary.

I teach at an urban school in a neighborhood where libraries exist, but aren't frequented nearly enough. My students cite lack of permission to leave their home and/or working parents unable to take them to the local library. I have a difficult enough time getting my kids to read during the school year, but I think that if our school site could house a lending library box students would gravitate toward it during the long summer days. It would be a moment of "discovery" that would entice them to discover their next adventure. Also, I would love to be able to give them a subscription to Scholastic News that they could receive at home. They'd love receiving something as informative and lively as Scholastic News. This #contest could make the lending library a reality :-)

This summer I am working at the Cromaine Library as the Leader or the Boys Club - a summer reading initiative designed to prevent struggling readers (in grades 3-6) from the summer slide. We also have boys who love to read sign up for something to do, so I will have a wide range of interest and level to work with. I've designed it so that all summer we are "trapped" inside a video game and when the boys read texts (books, articles, magazines, game guides, etc.) they earn points in our game. The boys will not be competing for points, rather the points are for the whole group, so that struggling readers are not competing against advanced readers and teamwork is emphasized. Each week we'll "Level Up" to a Level with a different theme. The boys will be encouraged to check out a book related to the following week's theme. I don't yet know these kids, so, rather than plan a summer they won't be interested in, the boys. unbeknownst to them, are going to help me decide on the themes for the rest of the summer. The first week they will be character building and doing introductions and filling out interest profiles. I will use what they are interested in to plan the Level Themes for rest of the summer. In addition to Literacy activities, I will be working in STEM/STEAM activities and social studies content whenever possible. I am assuming that we will have at least a few boys interested in fantasy or medieval history, so I'm planning a week where we have special guests from the local Society for Creative Anachronism group come and give a demonstration. We may also have guests other weeks that pertain to our other Level themes. The final week we'll beat the Big Boss in an awesome #contest of wills and literacy. I cannot wait for summer!

I am an online English teacher working mostly with at-risk youth in credit recovery courses. Many of my students will openly admit they do not read or do not like to read. Motivating them throughout the school year to read is a difficult task, so keeping them interested and working during the summer can be a difficult task. The best way to keep participation and motivation high is through options. I have assembled a reading group using my class Edmodo page. The students are required to read a text of their choice that fall within the theme of the summer reading group and choose one of the "project" options. The projects range from creating posters, web pages, and Instagram accounts for characters. There are options for each type of learner and options that appeal to several different student interests. This was successful last summer as these projects can be used as points toward other assignments if completed correctly. The 50 books would help out by giving my new ideas of stories to offer my struggling readers to find something they are interested in. They would be donated to our "home base" school and put to good use. #contest #projectsummerinfullforce #29days

We're kicking summer reading off before the summer months ever get here. Our advisory teachers lead a class one-read with their students. This year's book is Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind. Students are loving it, but many advisories will not have a chance to finish it so we'll check out one-read copies to students throughout the month of May. Also in May, we'll be inviting students to read George by Alex Gino. For our reading intervention students, summer reading is even more crucial. To support these students, many who receive free and reduced lunch, we purchase each student a book. Students will have a celebration day where each student gets to pick the book they want from books we purchase at our local Scholastic Warehouse sale. Finally, even our content teachers want in on the summer reading fun. Our faculty voted to have a literacy celebration our second to last day that motivates the kids to gear up for summer reading.

#contest. I am passionate about mitigating summer slide. Here's what I do as a MS Librarian 1. Provide PD for teachers/Librarians (p. 22-40 on this slide share https://www.slideshare.net/secret/GZzbAEof5vNajv) 2. Provide all rising 6th, 7th 8th graders a postcard to say what they are reading in the summer and what's super about it 3. Work with the Public Librarians in my county to share info with kids 4. Invite Public Librarian to school to intro. summer reading program they host 5. Going to survey Ss about what THEY think about summer reading (why not ask the KIDS?!) 6. Stock a Little Free Library for the cafeteria of summer school with all the GNs, comics, bilingual, Spanish, diverse easy/fun hi-lows I can get my hands on. 7. Prepping Ss & Ts NOW for next year's author visits of Gene Luen Yang & Aaron Reynolds 8. Giving all Ts bookmarks with suggested MG titles for their summer reading on check-out day. 9. Combing twitter for new ideas to make summer reading a good experience for ALL in my school. Not just Ss 10. Keeping in touch with parents about reading over the summer on the PTA FB page and my library webpage

As a homeschool teacher the importance of books is always on the forefront of my mind. We also must have creative ways to incorporate as many times it becomes a tool for quiet time. This summer I am bringing reading to life by having us volunteer in community nursing homes to read aloud to the elderly and also bringing it to pet shelters. It's giving back with time and a gift of sharing knowledge, stories, discussions. I can't wait. We will begin at end of May.

To combat some of the loss in achievement over the summer, I plan to install a Little Free Library outside of our school building. The mission behind our Little Free Library is to freely share books. Anyone in our community may take a book and maybe even give a book. Students have helped to construct and paint our Little Free Library with our school mascot and colors. Some students have donated books already-- these are books that they purchased (often at our Scholastic book fair) and read over the past school year. My students often want to share the good books they have read with others in their grade who did not have the chance to buy books of their own. Our school library will be closed over the summer, but our Little Free Library will be available for students and their family to visit any day, any time. We are hoping to stock our Little Free Library with books with all reading levels (including adult books because seeing adults reading is important for children too). Many of my students have younger siblings or family members, so I want to include children’s books at a beginning level too. Our students can certainly still practice important reading skills by reading to a younger audience. As the media coordinator for the school and the steward for the Little Free Library, I will be promoting the book selections through our social media channels and interacting with our followers, encouraging our students to write book reviews and recommendations. Our hope is that students return to school this fall refreshed from the break and eager to explore our traditional library’s collection. I hope that their reading and writing skills are kept sharp during the summer months and their attitude toward reading remains or becomes one of optimistic discovery. Thank you for this #contest Scholastic.

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I am a reading specialist and work with students with reading difficulties. Over the summer, we have book packs that they can check out and complete activities. If they read 2 books over the summer, they receive a $5.00 Target gift card. Also, I enroll them in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. I use Edmodo over the summer to check in with my readers and encourage them to read more books. I thought about creating an Instagram page for them so they could share over social media what they are reading.

I have tons of copied decodables that I've collected over the last two years. On the last day of school every student in my class will be going home with at least 50 books. Many of my students leave near each other and I'm going to suggest they spend some days in the summer having a reading day at each other's home and sharing books on that day.

School libraries transform learning. This summer, the Clifton Hills Elementary School library will be open on Tuesday afternoons for families. We'll provide engaging activities and guest readers will visit each week. Our school library will be a satellite site for the Chattanooga Public Lubrary's Make, Play, Read, Learn program. Students will be able to register and complete the program at our school library. #contest

We are going to "Read it Forward." We are making bookmarks that read "Enjoy this book, then when you are done leave it for someone to find. #ReadItForward." We hope to encourage both children and adults to share their love of reading. We plan to leave books in all different places to encouage reading. #contest

Wow! Thank you for your support in helping teachers in getting books into the hands of students! This is also my passion. I am a 5th grade Title 1 reading teacher. Students who come into my classroom have never been successful in reading. My philosophy is simply: Let them read what they want, and they will become readers. My classroom is filled with books they love--not necessarily the great works of the Newbery--That is what I read to them, so that they discover great works of literature. It is amazing how they transform over the year. However, a teacher with my philosophy has to spend a lot of money on books. I spend over $300 a month on books for my classroom library. (Thank you Mr. Schu for the inspiration.) I weed out what they are not reading. I buy each child a book to take home and keep at the beginning of the year. I celebrate perfect attendance by buying them a book of their choice from Scholastic, Barnes & Noble, etc.--whatever they want. To end the year, I have already purchased the $50 for 50 non-fiction books from Scholastic. I will also purchase the 50 fiction books for $50 whenever that becomes available. Every child from my classroom will leave the school year with at least 2 books for the summer. My school has set up for each child with a school gmail email account. I will be emailing the students each Monday during the summer: It's Monday! What are you reading? Students will be able to reply to all so that we can continue our dialogue of: It's Monday! What are you reading? that we do every Monday at school. It's one of our favorite days of the week in reading. I am also starting a middle-grade readers blog that I will be including in my emails to them. At the end of the school year, we will be celebrating our 40-book challenge (Thank you Donalyn Miller for understanding what truly motivates students to read.). This summer's challenge will be a 15-book challenge. I teach at an intermediate school. It is a school that serves 5th and 6th graders. I teach 5th, so when the students come back next year as 6th graders, they will hand in their challenge sheet (even if they don't meet the challenge) and select a book they may keep to read.

Every summer my son is involved with several reading programs. He does the reading program for Half Price books. You read a certain number of hours for 2 months and get a $5 gift card for each month. Barnes and Noble: For every 8 books you read, you get to choose a free book from titles they are offering in the program. One through the Pierce County Library system. Prizes like bookmarks, pencils, small toys, a book are some of the things you can get, also a coupon for $5 off library fines. The final prize is a ticket to the zoo. One through the Tacoma Public Library system. Last summer he got a tote bag, a bookmark, bubbles,coupon for a free pretzel, ticket to the zoo. This keeps him reading, he sets goals, he feels like he has accomplished something.

I plan on helping keep the summer slide to a minimum this summer by creating a Summer Reading Club. I have made a Google Classroom and will have my students join before the end of the school year. I will have students post when they finish books and/or answer questions and/or post pictures of them reading throughout the summer. I have asked our PTO for donations of gift cards ($5-$15 to places such as Barnes and Nobel, Panera, Greaters Ice Cream, etc). For each post a student makes and/or for each book they finish over the summer, I will enter them into a drawing for a gift card. Once we return from summer break, I will do drawings the first week of school for the Summer Reading Club prizes. I'm hoping that the kids gets excited and keep reading!! #contest

Next school year I will be looping with my students. We came up with the ideas of creating a google classroom so we can stay in contact and keep working throughout the summer. The kids will be reading and communicating with me about what they are reading as well as doing frontrowed.com and reflex math to keep up with comprehension and math fluency. We will also continue to do our current events; the kids read an article from newsela.com and I create text based questions for them to answer about the articles they read. I am excited to be able to do this with my kids. I am also excited to see if keeping their brain in school makes a difference come fall 2016!

We live in a low income area and reading comprehension has been down, we are sending home reading packets. Reading packets include some reading material, calendar for parents to initial when their child reads at least 20 minutes a day. In the fall, when school starts again, those with 3/4 of the calendar full will receive a gift. We are hyping this up and even offering contact information so students and parents/guardians can contact me, the librarian over the summer. #contest

Since I teach pre-k the summer is when I strive to get my students to start off kindergarten right. I encourage them to read at least 30 mins a day, to read with their parents and siblings and to recognize as much as they can. I have them read but I also get them to draw pictures to make their own books. I try to introduce series of books so they can go on adventures with the characters

Take a peek at my plan for our 4th-5th grade building all school read El Deafo by Cece Bell! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nmyQGC4xsXCi7Cb_U3yYTLiGtB8J59sQdOLo5sT7Kbw/edit?usp=sharing #contest Thank you!!

In our home we are doing year around home school this year. Each day the children each pick a book and read for 30 mins of quiet time and during the day I have the kids read to me for 10 mins each. Reading is the number on thing in our lives. There is also in our area a number of summer reading programs that we participate in. To help the neighborhood we will also be building a book house for trading books right in our yard. The girls are very excited because they can give their books to someone else when they grow to old for them. With each season we take a look at reading levels of each child and the younger books we give to friends and family for them to read. My middle child has worked through reading issues and now is going to help another local boy that has trouble reading. I have also talked to local moms about creating reading buddies to help not only with our family but help all families in our area to help fight against summer slide. Good luck to all who enter. This is a great giveaway!

Our school is open one day a week for tutoring, comprehension work and library check out. Our librarian has encouraged our city librarians to come to the school in conjunction with the city wide summer reading program. They present story times, prizes and encourage students to continue to read. Students can hang out and read, visit with friends and help in the school garden, where they pull weeds and harvest vegetables. They are allowed to check books out to take home for a few weeks. Each of our teachers provides recommended books and material for students over the summer to fit their learning styles and individual needs. We work together to ensure students have opportunities to learn over the summer and help prevent summer slide!

The biggest challenge in our community is to put books in the hands of our students. One program that I implemented in our school was to contact our local librarian, Miss Nettie, to come visit our kindergarten classes. Miss Nettie read to all eight classes and gave each student a free book. She also explained the library's summer reading program where they receive a book when they sign up. During the school year, we are always trying to grow our students. Growth not only stops during the summer months, but reading skills actually regress. Reading is not like the old saying about riding a bike. It is a skill that needs practice to be able to maintain it. I am very excited for our kindergarteners to own a book, even if it ends up being the only one they own. Rereading is great for fluency and confidence building. My school is offering lots of summer incentives for summer reading, and I am having my own #contest. It's a simple coloring sheet of books on a shelf. There are three shelves with ten books each. After they finish reading a book, students color a book. They will receive a prize for each shelf of books that is colored when they return to school. I am also going to ask their parents to reward them as well during the summer. I would also love to organize a committee for a local book mobile. Our students are mainly apartment renters without access to books due to transportation issues. Being able to bring them books would mean so much to them and help them to continue to grow as readers. Having fifty books to jumpstart this book mobile would be awesome!

We have been working hard to develop a summer reading program that will give our students access to the things they need during the summer this year. We have a very high rate of low income families in our school and in our community and many of our students do not have access to books or food over the summer. We are starting a summer free breakfast and lunch program To run along side our academic program that will include a math and literary camp for all the children in our community. We have students that do not have any books at home or any way to access books outside of school. We plan on also opening our school library through the summer so students can check out books on their level. We have some community members that will be coming in twice a week to read to the students while they eat breakfast and lunch. Many of our staff members will be donating their time to help these amazing children and this summer book program through scholastics would be an amazing opportunity for our students and our program as we will not be able to offer books for the Children to keep this year. We are hoping to slow down summer slide and level the playing field for our students by giving them access to the important things that so many of us take for granted. Thank you for your consideration of our amazing students! #contest

“The more things that you read, the more things you will know. The more you will learn, the more places you'll go,” Dr. Suess. Hickman County, TN is situated in the middle of Tennessee and consists of beautiful rolling hills and tons of overlooked potential. I teach 8th grade ELA within this county. The kids are teeming with the want to learn and the need to be appreciated. A large percentage of the children in this county live in poverty and a lot of kids have parents who are absent, addicts, or simply don't have the knowledge or resources to know how to lead their children. The schools within this county are all Title I schools and every student receives a free lunch. It is my goal to work with the library system in the county and start an amazing summer reading program for all school ages. I will advertise in the local paper and spread the word via my classroom and friends. I have always advocated reading and I want the children to learn the amazing world that is available to them within books. I will hold fun lectures and games at the library surrounding the books. I will work with the children to nurture their curiosity and show them how books can bring out their imagination and lead them to so many different places they never thought available. Within the community there is a wonderful passion driven man who runs a local theater. I want to work with him to help the children take these books and bring them to life for a community show which showcases the imagination that the books were able to open within the students. The worlds that the books created in their heads will be turned into a play, created and written by the children, to be performed. By making reading a more tactile experience the children will gain so much more. The children of this county experience a real “country” summer. It's a kind of existence that I don't think most children know or appreciate. A majority of kids in America grow up in the suburbs or cities. Here they go creek swimming and squirrel hunting. Wouldn't it be great to add sitting in a tree with a great book to their summer time activities? Help me make this happen. #contest

Summer is a fantastic time for children to learn through hands-on experiences in unstructured play environments. However, they also still need to practice those essential reading skills so that they don't lose any of their abilities and progress made the previous school year. In order to maintain the fun and care-free feeling that summer brings, while also working with children to practice their reading skills, my summer reading program would be a book club! Children of the same age range would meet once per week to read and discuss a book chosen by them from a list provided, Then an activity would be completed together and a snack shared, both based around the theme/topic of the book. For example, if we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar we would then go on a picnic, eat the foods in the story, and then search for caterpillars and other insects in the trees/bushes. Older groups of children would be delving into chapter books, with a certain number of pages to read between meetings. An activity might be dressing as one of the characters and telling your story, etc. In this way, the book club will be something different and exciting that the children will look forward to participating in, all the while keeping their reading skills working and growing. #contest

Summer slide is way too prevalent at our Title I elementary school and so, to combat this problem, we have developed a summer reading program for the month of July. Students will attend 4 days a week, two hours a day, to be immersed in language arts. We were blessed this year with a Reading Oasis Room (thank you Scholastic and Kiwanis!) which will be open all summer for all of our students. All of our summer school students will visit the reading room and take books home during the summer program in July. New books will be sent home with every child in June and teachers will send postcards to students to encourage them to read the book and bring it back in July to share with their classmates. We will be forming book clubs during the summer so that students can discuss the books they have read. We are basing our instruction on Teaching Readers to Think, and Russ Walsh's 10 Reading Instruction Non-Negotiables which includes dedicated time every day for Read Aloud, Shared Reading, and Self-Selected Reading. We intend to continue the joy of reading found throughout our school during the regular school year into our summer months so that summer slide is prevented and hopefully the children return reading stronger and with the enthusiasm that they left with in June. Our regular teachers will be teaching the summer program and will be immersed in professional development classes to improve their instruction. The most important way to prevent summer slide is to keep our students reading! Bringing the students back in during the summer allows us to shower them with books, discuss books, promote books, and read to them.

I run a 6 week day camp called Camp Learn-A-Lot in an urban elementary school in Akron, Ohio. Last year we had just over 50 students and we are anticipating doubling that number this summer. The students are K-5th and 100% of them are coming from homes that are living in poverty. Each day at camp we learn how to play and cooperate with each other and how to try new things but we emphasize the 30-45 minutes of reading as part of each day at camp. We have local high school students who come and read to students or the students will read to them and this year we are also offering audio books for students to listen to. The students can earn "jibbitz" for reading 30 minutes each day per week and on Fridays they are allowed to take books home to keep. We encourage parents who daily sign their child in and out to start a home library so that everyone in the house can enjoy reading all year long. On the first day of camp, we test students with a simple reading test that we can use to chart progress throughout the summer. We are also including a passport of genres for the 3rd through 5th grade students helping to expose them to different genres of books while completing their passports and earning valuable prizes at the end of the summer. Camp Learn-A-Lot is a safe place for students to attend where parents do not have to worry about the safety of their children. It is in this safe environment that children can learn and grow and escape the summer slide! #Contest

Every summer I host a reading and writing contest. Students post book reviews and writing on Google Drive. If a student posts at least 5 times he or she earns an invitation to an ice cream party in the Fall. I give out certificates for posting more than five times, for commenting on other people's posts, or reading a certain amount of books. I also give feedback on any writing submitted and help students make their posts stronger. Throughout the summer I post my own book reviews and writing and also give some writing prompt suggestions. This will be at least my 5th year running this contest. It's fun for them and for me. They recommend some great books! #contest

Hello! I am a special education teacher & I am volunteering at the North DuPage Special Recreation Association this summer. I will be bringing my Certified Therapy Dog, Zoey, and going to various NEDSRA CAMP sites with her to conduct a lesson on Therapy Dogs and give the students a chance to read to Zoey. Studies have proven that reading to a therapy dog increases literacy skills by improving self-confidence, awareness & focus. The act of reading to a dog helps children to overcome fears they might feel while reading to a human, such as judgement. I will be traveling with Zoey to 6 camps this summer to give children with special needs this unique opportunity.

The plan to keep my kids reading over the summer is simple. I am giving them a calendar with the months June, July, and August on them. For any of my kids that read at least 4 days a week for 20 minutes, we will have a lunch date at the beginning of the next school year. It would be great to win this #contest to further motivate these kiddos!

The Summer Reading Slide is an issue that my school has recently taken on as a challenge. We recently found out that in order to save costs, our district would not be able to offer summer school to our families. As an urban, Title 1 school this is a huge game changer for preventing the summer slide for our students. We had many conversations and talked with collegues from other schools about how to get books in kids' hands. We ended up developing a Summer Reading Challenge! We are asking our students and families to read 4-5 books over an 8 week period and to visit our school library at least 3 times to check out books. Each family that signs a contract to agree to our plan will receive 4-5 on level books FREE to take home and keep. These books were purchased from Scholastics with funds from a grant. In order to track reading we have asked each student to complete a summer reading calendar and to "Mail" us a quick postcard about what they are reading when they finish a book. The postcard can be dropped off at the mail box in front of our school. From the same grant, we were also able to purchase a few incentives... Prizes will be given out for each visit to the library, weekly postcard drawing giveaways and a big prize drawing at the end of the summer. This is a first for our school and we are excited to see the outcome! We will be introducing it all to families next month at a Summer kickoff Event!! #contest

I am a reading intervention teacher at a K-8 school in San Francisco. The school has a historically high achieving neighborhood-based population. In recent years parents from other neighborhoods with more struggling schools have made the effort to enroll their children here. These children often ride the bus for up to an hour each way and receive free or reduced lunch; many enter speaking little or no English and with no preschool experience. While this is the population typical of most urban schools, here children are doubly impacted because grade level expectations are already so high and supports are not always in place for them as they would be other schools with children from more diverse academic backgrounds. About 20% of our population is not meeting grade level benchmarks in reading and as they get older they become increasingly aware that they are not achieving at the level of their classmates or meeting their teachers’ expectations. There is an emotional impact when children feel this way at school, which in turn affects their academic progress. I work with students who are reading below grade level in Kindergarten through middle school, and support their teachers in differentiating classroom instruction to meet their needs. The children I work with in intervention groups are able to accelerate their reading progress; even more importantly, they feel their confidence grow as they spend time with high quality literature, in conversation with their peers in a small group setting, and feel success in reading books at their level. Summer is a challenging time for all readers to maintain the growth they have made during the school year. Many of the students at my school will enroll in academic enrichment programs or receive tutoring over the summer. Again, the students I work with feel the impact of this since they do not have access to the same programs and resources as their peers. Being able to send them home with books to read at their level and activities to keep them motivated and engaged would do a lot to address this gap. I have three goals for my students we approach the summer: 1. To build up students’ independent strategies so that they know how to select a book at their level and what to do when a word is tricky or when they don’t understand the story that they are reading. 2. Collaborate with one of the children’s librarians at the San Francisco Public Library. Our libraries have a great summer reading program which motivates children to read with progress markers and prizes, as well as free literacy and enrichment activities at neighborhood branches. 3. Hold a summer reading breakfast event for the families of students I work with (many of whom have trouble attending after school or evening activities) to share summer library resources. This would be a great opportunity to send home My Summer Book Packs for each student if we win this #contest!

The city of Boyd is a small rural community in north, west Texas. Two years ago our community library closed, leaving our students without access to books through out the summer months. Last summer, Boyd Elementary School kicked of the Read to Succeed Summer Learning Program. Once a week, the elementary school library is open for two hours, where registered students have the opportunity to check out books. For those who are not registered students, there is a section of "Take, Borrow or Donate" books in the library. We also invite community leaders such as restaurant owners, judge, city manager, superintendent, fire fighter, and business owners to read aloud a book or books that are related to their profession. These leaders often bring something to give to attendants that is related to their profession while they also educate our students about their job. While attending the Summer Learning Club, students pick up a learning packet each week, then return the completed packet the following week. The learning packet includes state based standards to help prepare each learner for their next grade level. Students earn prizes, stickers and an opportunity to attend an end of the year Summer Learning Program party at the end of the summer. Thank you for considering our school for the Project Summer #contest.

At Waverly South Shore School, we run a summer title reading program for at-risk students. These students are encouraged throughout the year to take advantage of the summer opportunity. We have seen great retention in our students that attend these programs but are in need of resources to better help those students succeed. These students come in 2 times a week to work on new skills and help them retain prior information. Receiving new books and book kits will give resources to our summer staff to help them promote reading in our elementary and middle school. We have also implemented K-8 rewards for students in accelerated reader that reach a certain goal. Students strive over the summer to read books to achieve the goals that have been set forth for them. The books that they read in the summer count towards their school year goals. We have numerous students read over the summer to get a head start on this process. We are also in the process of building a new library that will benefit our students K-12. This library has excited students throughout the elementary and middle school. The new technology and books that will go into this library will encourage readers of all levels to take advantage of what the library has to offer. I believe that our summer reading program will install excitement that will run throughout the year. In the last five years, our school has grown from 188 to 240. With that growth, our resources are beginning to be exhausted. With excitement of a new library, we would love to fill it with books and book kits that the students love and get them excited to read.

In an elementary school with high poverty and a large number of families whose native language is not English, it is difficult for students to always hear and have access to appropriate English reading. To help with this, I am starting a YouTube channel called "Read Alouds with Mrs. Gearing". On this channel, I will post a read-aloud every day of my school district's summer (June 9-Sept. 5). Many of my students have access to YouTube so this is a universal way for me to reach my students throughout the summer. I will also tweet out reminders on my classroom Twitter account and on my classroom's "SeeSaw" account that parents are linked to. I am hoping this effort will provide my students with quality books and examples of reading behavior at a time they may not always have access to these things. I love reading and hope to continue to encourage students to find their love for reading throughout the summer!

At my school, we are hosting a summer literacy night in May with help from our public library. We have books to give away along with a BOGO book fair from Scholastic. We have presenters discussing why summer reading is important. I will have my library open over the summer once a week to allow students to check out books and possibly get a lunch (still working that part out). We are a neighborhood school in a high proverty area so I hope we can get some of our students reading throughout the summer.

At Lake Carolina Elementary Upper, students are given the opportunity to check out 10 books over the summer. The school media center will be open every other Thursday from 8am-noon so students may exchange books, participate in a storytime, listen to a chapter book read aloud (The BFG) and take Reading Counts quizzes. Students may also register to be in the Summer Book Club to read The BFG by Roald Dahl before the movie released on July 1, 2016. The students in the club will be invited to attend a viewing of the movie with the media specialist. The book club will meet at a future date to discuss the differences between the book and the movie and complete an activity. Students will be checking out The BFG from the school. All copies were purchased through the Scholastic Reading Club. The last full week of school the students get to pick out their own personal summer reading book from the Scholastic BOGO book fair. This event is sponsored by the PTO. Over the summer, students who participate in and complete the local Richland Library Summer Learning Program will earn time to play in a game truck in September when school resumes. This reading reward celebration happens outside the lunch room so all students see! #contest

I am a first year teacher in 5th grade at Cove Creek School in Vilas, NC. This school is a Title I school so I feel like our students definitely need extra support over the summer. I am holding a Book Club for the 5th graders over the summer. We will start the book club a couple of weeks before school gets out to get us in the routine of reading and meeting to discuss our reading. I am not requiring worksheets, because I want them to read for the joy of reading. I have bought class sets of books with my own money and will be using those as our Book Club books so my students and parents won't have to spend extra money on them. My class is really excited about joining the Summer Book Club and it is the first time something like this has been introduced in our school. I hope that I have a great turn out. Each student who participates will recieve a participation certificate. I would also like to get a group photo to be put in next year's year book so these kids can get recognition for participating. #contest

I am a middle school special education teacher in a title 1 school district in Michigan. My students struggle on a daily basis in core academics due to their disabilities. Our school district is beginning to become a google school and we are using google classroom in our daily instruction. I would like to begin a summer book club through google classroom that will encourage my students to continue to read throughout the summer. I would love to have books that are at their level and interests to keep them developing their reading skills this summer. This club would be a great way to have group discussions while not in the classroom. Students will be engaged and hopefully learning will continue instead of halt or regress due to the summer break. It would be so awesome to be picked a winner in this #contest!

All year I have been building up to summer reading! We keep a To Be Read list going at all times in our Reading/Writing Notebooks. My students are always adding to it. I also do a literature circle unit at the end of the year that lends itself to summer reading. Right now I have a group reading "Running Out of Time" and a group reading "39 Clues: Maze of Bones". Students can then follow up in the summer with Margaret Peterson Haddix or continuing the 39 Clues series. It is always a favorite time of year for us. The books are full of cliffhangers, so they are yearning to discuss and continue reading at the end of the year. I build a community of readers all year long - this helps to continue this community into the summer!

The students and I have started a summer reading program at my school, Prescott South Elementary. Last year we choose a few students from each grade level K, 1st and 2nd to participate in the program. Parents and students signed up and agreed to read over the summer. We put a picture of the students in our local newspaper. My students have really loved the stories and the think sheets that help them remember details from the story and get some writing practice as well. They also have the journal to write in and record their thoughts about the books they have read. Last year I had 15 students in grades K-2. This year we have added third graders. We will have a total of 20 students participating and hope to add more each year if we can find funding- it would be amazing to win this #contest to have the opportunity to share books with 50 additional families. Students and parents were encouraged to return completed work and journals. The students who brought theirs back in received a free book of their choice for participating and trying. Let's stop the summer reading slide by reading with our families over the summer!!

We do a lot to help mitigate the summer reading slide in Jefferson County, Missouri, at The Parenting Network. We are a home visiting program that works with parents that have children from birth until they turn 9 years old. We complete monthly home visits with our families and each month they receive a book on their child's reading level along with an activity to do with their child. They are also encouraged to complete a literacy log with their child, doing a minimum of 4 hours a week of literacy related activities. This can be reading to them, listening to them read, writing, vocabulary games, reading programs at the library, etc. When they complete the log, they are able to earn a great book to keep in their at-home library. Winning this summer book pack through the #contest would be a tremendous help because we are a not-for-profit organization and we work with all low-income families that don't have a lot of extra money to purchase books. We also provide them with a monthly calendar over the summer letting them know about different events and programs going on at their local library. This helps them get involved in the community and be exposed to all the literacy programs that are available. We try to encourage parents to build their children's early literacy skills by showing them how fun it can be and how it can make a difference to their child. We, and our families would benefit from this tremendously.

Each Summer we hold a six week summer reading program for preschoolers through 5th grade. For several years our library holds a booth at our Cherokee County back to school health fair each August and we pass out free books, lap desks, study guides and bookmarks. I am a new Library Director and I am continuing these programs and I hope to partner with the Texas Hunger Initiative and provide daily lunches to children 18 and under at our library all summer. During those lunches we will provide entertainment, free books and information about library services. We just started our Teen Time program and those members will meet year round and help prepare materials for summer reading. After they have invested some ideas and artwork into the program we hope their sense of ownership will motivate them to volunteer during the summer reading program. #contest teens can help too!

Gramercy Park, in West Palm Beach, Florida, is a poor community with a large population of children who attend a Title I school I am a Library Media Specialist at another school but my husband and i work very closely with the Gramercy Park Coalition which is trying through a variety of avenues to enrich the lives of people in the community. Current plans include community gardens, youth sports, women's exercise club, & community yard sales. I would like to distribute the free books for a summer reading program. There are no outlets in the vicinity for these children. The public library is many miles away. There is only a small park and a basketball court for use by the kids. I know that reading is the ticket to a bright future. I love summer reading programs because kids can read whatever they want without someone else trying to influence their choice. Research shows that reading ability improves by reading - reading anything. If kids are allowed to read their choice of material they will be more likely to choose reading as a pastime. I will distribute the reading bags and then throughout the summer have "get togethers" to share their impressions from the books. Games and treats will round out the events and they will have another book to take home - possibly more donated from other sources. I would also like for the students to exchange books they no longer wish to keep with other children - learning to give back because they were given to.