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

Here in Montague, CA, our little town (1400 pop.) has quite a few children and not a lot of activities for them. We do have a small park, which is located right next to the library. We also have a Family Resource Center ("Hub"), and a school-sponsored Summer Camp. Our library branch coordinates with both of these organizations to provide six weeks of a Summer Reading Program. We use the CSLP programs. This year our theme is "Get on Your Mark, Get Set, Read!" The Friends of the Montague Library is the hosting organization. providing the funds for these events. I have planned 2 parties (beginning and end of the program) with a cake. Each Friday we have an event, with games, Story-Time, and crafts. In addition, we have two book give-aways during the summer reading events. There is just nothing like owning a book! Prizes are given for reading log entries, and slower readers have just as much chance to receive them as those who read quickly.

Spencer Penn Centre is a historic school complex located at Spencer, Henry County, Virginia, that serves as a educational and special events center for Spencer and surrounding communities The original school closed in 2002 and a group of ardent supporters banded together as the Spencer-Penn School Preservation Organization to preserve the structure, facilities, artifacts and history of the Spencer-Penn School. A former kindergarten teacher of the school serves as the executive director of the Centre. There will be two exciting programs running simultaneously at the Centre this summer! One of them is a summer program called "Branching Out". Within this program will be a LitCamp where children of all abilities will explore books and stories in fun ways of acting out, art, discussion and games. Literature will come alive and thus foster an appreciation and love for reading! The other program is titled "SPICE" which stands for Spencer Penn Investing in Children's Education. This is a new tutoring program that began last fall and due to its success, will continue for six weeks this summer. The purpose of SPICE is to remediate, reinforce and build upon what students are learning during the school day by engaging them in fun activities that create a desire to learn and extend the knowledge they already have. Students who participated in SPICE during the school year will have the opportunity to maintain the academic edge that the program provided for them. Both "Branching Out" and "SPICE" will help our children get a jump on that summer slump! Research shows that on average, elementary students lose about a month's worth of progress over the summer. And what's more, summer learning loss seems to have a cumulative effect; over time, the month-long losses add up to larger deficiencies that can become significant blockers to academic proficiency. (2016 Abrams Learning Trends) The reading book packs and the book collection that FACE is offering through this #contest would serve as a vital part of both of our programs. In fact, Family and Community Engagement is exactly what can happen if the Spencer Penn Centre has the privilege of winning these resources!

Reading over the summer is crucial to keep students on track for reading. However, a lot of students think reading is work, which is why they don't read at home. I have been encouraging my students all year the importance of reading, because it is not enough just to encourage it specifically for the summer. I make sure there is plenty of reading material in the class and talk about books with them. I also read aloud to my students to bring a comrade into the class room with shared experiences through reading. I know this is only a start, and by encouraging them to love to read, instead of them thinking about it as work, I hope to encourage them to read more. In fact through book discussions and reading aloud, I have had one student finish reading a series I started in class, another student wanted to read a book which was mentioned during history, and a third wants to read Ann Frank's diary after reading a short biography on her. These students might not have chosen the books they did if it wasn't for my encouragement of reading. Getting them reading and wanting to read over the summer started in my classroom, getting them to find books they enjoy and wanting to look at different genres and series. Now that the year is almost over, I know several students will not read over the summer. I hope to encourage them to read by giving them a book from scholastics. They choose the book in November, but I never told them what it was for. I'm hoping that the books they choose will encourage them to read at least one thing over the summer. In all the books I wrote a note telling them to keep working hard and have many fantastic adventures. I am also encouraging my students to go to the public library for the library competition, sometimes students need that extra incentive to read. The public library has a summer reading program that allows students to earn prizes for different books, and minutes, they read over the summer. The library also has fun activities planned to encourage community involvement. It is not one person that can change how a student feels about reading and encourage them to read. It takes a community. #contest

#contest - Per Richard Allington's research, students reading as few as 6-12 books over the summer can help close the rich/poor reading achievement gap. Our plan to help mitigate the summer reading slide is to send books home with every student (K-4) in our building (to read over the summer). Each student will take a minimum of 5 books home with them when they leave us in June. Throughout the summer, we will have opportunities for students to exchange their original 5 texts for new titles to read. A calendar of activities/events will be sent home with each child to encourage parent support in reading. A reading log will be included in each child's bag of books along with writing/response to text opportunities. In addition to this, we will have a 'Bike Book Mobile' that we plan to ride around our rural community/village to try and reach more students, more often, with new titles/texts to read. A schedule will be written that gives days/times/locations for our 'Bike Book Mobile' and other meeting places to exchange texts. This schedule will be sent home in June with all K-4 students with the book bags mentioned above. We offer a FREE summer breakfast/lunch program in our district for all students ... our summer reading program will be linked to this FREE breakfast/lunch program as well. Many of our book distribution/exchange locations will be located in the same place(s) and at the same time our students can come for food. We are a Title I school with a high free/reduced lunch population ... it will be wonderful to be able to provide books (frequently), in addition to food, to our students that do not have the resources at home necessary for them to be successful readers.

This summer I will be working with youth in grades 3-8 on science and robotics in week long camps. I plan on reading a short nonfiction book about a topic related to our daily project as an opening to our day. The students will discuss in groups what they have learned and what they are eager to know more about in groups while they are eating their snack. Whole group discussion of what we have learned and comprehension questions from the story will be discussed at the closing of our lessons each day. Children are less inclined to read non fiction literature and this would motivate them to read more of it and be excited about what they are learning.

Our public library is not within walking or biking distance from our school neighborhood. To try to keep our students reading throughout the summer I teamed up with one of our business partners, a local Church. We have books that were donated to our school library to use for our "summer library." Each Wednesday students can drop by to borrow 3 books. If they like one and keep it, the next time they can take 2. At the end of the summer they can choose three to keep. Every week they get a free book mark as well as a freeze pop. Last year several families met at the park, played a bit and then biked over to the free library to choose books. We deemed it successful and are offering a 9 week summer library again this year.

I believe it is so important to motivate kids to continue reading over the summer. In order to aid in this endeavor we are hosting a Family Reading Night May 19 to encourage summer reading. Each family will receive a packet of information and flyers about all of the local area summer reading programs including the Scholastic summer reading challenge. We've also included info about Barnes and Nobles programs and an incentive chart from Chuck E. Cheese. At the reading night every student will also walk away with at least one book to kick start their reading. We will also be passing out summer reading Bingo pages including squares for things such as reading in the bathtub, reading on a road trip, reading to a sibling, and more. The students will be encouraged to fill out the charts over the summer and bring them back the first week of school. For each Bingo they will receive a prize! #contest

Teaching in the South Bronx, where there are so many other things on my students’ parents minds, literacy falls to the wayside during summer break. Thanks to Scholastic’s affordable books at varying reading levels, I give my students a gift of a new book for every holiday, birthday, and celebration. The End of the Year is no different. My students complete the year with a selection of grade-appropriate books to read over the summer and swap with their peers. I know that technology is a major motivator for my students so I have them submit their summer reading on a virtual reading log that I designed where they can track their reading and I can be their virtual cheerleader along the way! They can also compete against their peers in a race to read more and more. My students have learned to write about their reading, and they share their book reviews and readers responses on a private web page where other students can comment and ask follow-up questions about these books. I also collaborate with the two local libraries to provide incentives for my students to come to the library and take out books. They get a voucher for a free lunch date with me when they tell the children’s librarian that they are my student and they can redeem that voucher during the coming school year. This Project Summer #contest would be a huge help to support the individualized and differentiated books that my students receive. Supporting the teacher and parents, helping alleviate the reading devastation that teachers often struggle with each September.

Summer in the south is a time to soak up the sun and have a blast in a coastal county much like the one my students live in. However, it's also a time to learn. I teach Advanced Placement English IV and each year, we implement a summer reading program that helps our students combat the summer reading slide in a fun and didactic way. The novels I've selected for our summer program share a common theme: the search for self! I think, as a high school teacher, it's increasingly important not to just show students how to read but to go further and teach them how to find themselves in what they read. Our summer program includes pieces like Montana 1948, A Lesson Before Dying, Sula, Brave New World and many others. In these texts, we encourage students to grow their own identity as they see the indentities of the characters emerge! I would love to win this #contest to try to expand this program to touch more students in even more meaningful ways!

Summer reading is so important! I worry about my students who will not read over the summer and come back and test lower than the left in the spring. Many of my students will not even speak English over the summer but be immersed in their home language. The loss in data means I have to work even harder to move them back where they ended before moving them forward to make our yearly goals. I knew something would have to be created to motivate them. How to compete with the games they spend their time playing rather than reading is the big challenge! This year I will be looping into fifth grade with my fourth graders so I needed to come up with a challenge to in courage summer reading. We have been participating in a 40 book challenge during the school year so I designed a 12 chapter book challenge for the summer. They will read and respond to the books they read this summer. It will follow the same requirements we followed during the school year. They must return their log and response journal when we return in the fall. I also have cardboard book boxes that they will decorate and take home to keep their books in. It would be awesome to have some books to put in those boxes when they leave for the summer! #contest. There will be prizes for completing the challenge including books! Happy summer reading!

The success of summer reading for my students comes from weekly contact by phone and having them read to me and talk about what they are reading. When the middle of summer comes I make a home visit to all my students and take a bag of books we can read together wherever they want (Sometimes we read among the cows, in barns,on trampolines, on hammocks, on favorite blankets, or in their favorite reading spot in their home...they choose :-) .) I leave them with a new book and hopefully another good reason to become a lifelong reader! I LOVE IT!!!!! It is a win-win for all of us! Your books would be an amazing addition to my personally funded reading commitment. THANK YOU for this opportunity to share!

I am an author of children's books. I volunteer at school as well as Bible school. I am planning to volunteer this summer for library summer reading programs. I want to read to the children, and discuss my self-publishing journey. I hope to inspire children to read and also write. I was inspired to write books by an author visiting my elementary school when I was a young girl. This #contest would be such a blessing to win so I could issue books to the children while discussing reading and writing books. I would explain to the children how I illustrated my books, and also included my own children in the process of illustrating my books. I think this would really excite and inspire the children to want to read and maybe even write. The 50 book collection would be so useful for my childrens' Christian school. It is a very small school, with a very small library with a limited number of books. This #contest would be such a blessing to our school as well! Thank you for the opportunity to enter.

Ocean Avenue School in Middletown, NJ utilizes parodies to promote a love of literacy during the summer and all year long. The entire school community works together to create a music video to launch summer reading for our students. "Dear Summer Reader" sung to Meghan Trainors "Dear Future Husband" promoted reading over the summer last year to prevent that summer slide. Here it is: http://youtu.be/aUGcNKSjaCc We pair our parodies with free book shopping so the students will have books to build up their home libraries. These books are acquired through a labor of love through book drives and points. Many teachers in our school pool their points from scholastic for this very purpose. Here are our other parodies which altogether have over 140,000 views on YouTube. http://youtu.be/zjf7H8K9r4U http://youtu.be/aXxNXLO7dE8. Be on the lookout for our latest hit to be released by Memorial Day Weekend 2016! #contest

At Riverhill School in Florence, Al, we work to prevent summer melt by providing our K -6th graders with an age and seasonal appropriate summer reading list. I also work hand in hand with our local public library's summer reading program by providing volunteer time at the library. The kids love seeing their teachers at our library modeling our expectations for them over the summer, which is to READ.

Our school gives small incentives in the new school year for students that track their reading over the summer. In my class I give my students books as a gift before winter break and at the end of the year. This way I know I am helping build their libraries and sometimes even starting one for them. If I won this contest it would help me get even more books into their hands! There is something so wonderful about owning your very own books! The students would be very thankful as well! I encourage reading every day by making reading as fun as possible. I incorporate many read alouds and encourage the students to share their thoughts on each book. I also take a reading interest survey and use that to help pick books that the students will enjoy. Sending home the Scholastic reading club flyers every month and giving access for students to buy books (and helping those that can't afford) keeps books in their hands! Thank you for the opportunity! #contest

I have been teaching junior high in Palatine, IL for over a decade. Once 33% low income, it is now over 70% low income. Students do not have rich text environments at home or in the classroom -- teachers had been choosing books for them and reading aloud to students instead of teaching students how to select and read their own books. This year, I started a classroom library for my 190 students (6 classes, over 30 kids in each). I bought many books with my own money and relied on donors to get others. I became a reader again, posting reviews and covers on Facebook, Twitter and my blog Ethical ELA. To help other teachers start their summer lists for themselves and students, I invited teachers and authors to put together book lists of "sure-things" for students to get teachers reading more and get more diverse books into the hands of junior high students. I am posting these on ethicalela.com. However, to keep students engaged, we have to constantly be reading and developing our classroom libraries. I want to bring more books into the classroom next year, so I thought I would enlist my students to help. I asked students to write an argument for the best social media app, and, by far, Snapchat was the one they use the most. So, I had an idea. First, I would learn Snapchat. Then, I worked with teachers across the country using Facebook (because I am still learning Snapchat) to develop a list of books I have not read,books I will read alongside students this summer for the first time. I plan to Snapchat the books and encourage students to Snapchat the books they are reading. To get books into the hands of students before/during the summer, I am going to send the list to the local library, which agreed to create a display, and I am going to take orders from students asking them to pay what they can for the books they want, but encouraging them buy different books and trade with each other over the summer. If students can't afford a book, I plan to buy it and ask them to donate it back to the classroom for the next school year. Some students already plan to meet at Starbuck's over the summer to have book groups. Donalyn Miller has been a huge inspiration to getting my classroom library up and running, to be a leader in student-choice reading. We made a lot of progress during the 2015-16 school year, and we want to keep it going over the summer and into the 2016-17 school year. Our last day this year is June 3rd, and students return August 17th. I figure if we can get students reading and chatting about books a few times a week, we will be able to keep reading alive.

I have 95% of my students signed up for ELL summer school (last 5weeks!)....am working on getting a home access code for our parents so my students can use Imagine Learning on tablets at home during the summer, having a library card signup day the weekend before we break for summer (and when they will also be having summer signup for the Reading club)....excited to see my kinderoos hang onto all of the skills they worked so hard to master this year!

Thank you for choosing to fund summer reading for children! I am a veteran elementary teacher turned first year librarian. Our district serves 3 small towns and unfortunately many of children do not have access to public library cards or books over the summer. We see the results of this “summer slide” each year when we conduct our fall reading assessments. Creating a summer reading program is a top priority for me. I would love to set up a curbside checkout cart for children to stop by and check out books this summer and am in need of books. By creating a mobile checkout cart I will be able to go to the local daycare centers, the public swimming pool parking lot, the local park, and the parking lots for all three elementary schools with free books. Children can borrow a book and exchange it the following week. Children from preschool – 5th grade would greatly benefit from the “Project Summer” grant. Thank you for your consideration. If selected, #contest will help our children prevent the summer slide.

I'm working with the Literacy Committee at my school to plan a summer reading connection where students can bring in a picture of themselves reading their favorite book in a cool spot and we'll have a school-wide bulletin board in the fall. We are only a Prek-2 school and do't want to add a liot of stresss to families so we are hoping this is a fun and engaging way to encourage students to read and then connect in the fall about what they enjoyed reading. We'll also be promoting our public library's summer reading program. They usually put out a fun calendar with events for the kids as well as many different things like book suggestions. I'll also be promoting the middle school's summer reading program as my second graders go to the middle school next year. They do a shared book that all grades 3-6 read and then discuss in the fall. I am excited for my students to experience that at their new school, they chose The Lemonade War and we're doing a Scholastic order for students that would like to own their own copy! I also will be printing out the Barnes and Noble free book reading log program for my students. Last summer Scholastic offered a summer reading online program that I signed my students up for and certainly would again if it's offered! I liked being able to login and see student activity. Last, I'll be making and passing out summer packets with ideas for reading and logs for my students to encourage them to keep up their hard work and read, read, read! #contest

#contest I'm the founder and board president of the fledgling Adventure! Children's Museum in Eugene, Oregon, a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to opening a fun, immersive, educational children's museum full of travel and adventure-themed exhibits for kids. Most of our board members are parents of young children, so the summer reading slide is on everyone's radar. We have kind of a unique way to address that this summer: our Summer of Adventure! whistle-stop tour of ten festivals, fairs, and events between May and September will include sample exhibits, fun activities, and, at every event, a scheduled story time with fun books that tie into our themes. For example, at one festival, the fairy tale theme of the event inspired us to plan to make fairy wands, ogre bogies (green slime), and a gnome toss. We'll read Sleeping Beauty and Goldilocks and other fairy tales at story time. At a Mini Maker Fair the following week, we'll have booth activities around cardboard architecture, and read aloud books about building. Kids will become immersed in the tie-in of books, exhibits, and projects that will keep them engaged and interested in reading more long after each event! Voila! Hundreds of kids in our community are listening to and reading stories all summer long. As part of our Summer of Adventure!, we're also sponsoring a writing event on June 30th where kids will share story-writing in a round table as part of our library's summer reading program. Reading and writing go hand-in-hand, and completed stories will be printed in a book and mailed to each participant. We're so excited about our Summer of Adventure!, and we'd really love to be one of your winning organizations. We would love to let some of the kids in our community head home with books to keep them engaged in reading all summer and into the fall. Thanks for offering such a great opportunity to make our participation in this summer's events extra-special with Scholastic books!

Every school across the country is concerned about the decline in reading during the summer months while students are off. In the state of Georgia we have a summer reading challenge. This challenge is to help encourage reading during the summer. Depending on the grade level the students are encouraged to read between 8-10 books. Pairing students interest to their Lexile level can help encourage students to read during the summer. By sending students home with books that interest them will help to provide students and their families with easy access to book. Lower income families may have difficulty accessing books or libraries and providing them with books can help to ease that burden.

The Summer Slump has been something that has plagued both teachers and students yearly at our school. To prevent that this summer I plan to have my students participate in the Summer Reading Challenge that you guys sponsor. I will have them read and log their books on the site. When they get back, if they return to me and show me a completed reading log I will give them a prize. I also plan to keep and maintain a kid blog so that we can hold discussions about books and make book recommendations for other students who may be interested in reading those same books. I will start them off by purchasing their first read. #Contest Entry!

#contest Our student population is drastically different from the rest of our districts so we have extra supports in place over the summer in addition to what the district offers. The district offers qualifying students the opportunity to sign up for Reading Booster programs over the summer. Parents are expected to transport students to a different elementary school and they can receive small group sessions for 1 hour a day for 3 weeks. This instruction is at their independent reading level and is used to help them get caught up. To qualify students must be reading below grade level. For our building we offer quite a few different programs to encourage students to read over the summer. First, we offer an ice cream challenge-If students read over 20 times over the summer and mark it down they can return the paper. They will then get to enjoy an ice cream sundae once they return to school. We have a local pizza place that also offers a pizza challenge over the summer. A student reads just 8 books over the summer and records the title of the book and has a parent sign the paper. When they return the paper to school during the following fall they will receive a coupon for a free mini pizza with one topping. The final way we encourage students to read over the summer is in conjunction with a group called "Project Share". This program offers a free lunch along with reading instruction time over the summer at our building. They have also tried to hold this program at a local park in the community as well --more information can be found here- http://www.projectshare.net/programs/programs_summer_feeding_program .

“I like to read to my mom and dad.” Joel, a 3rd grader, wrote at the end of the 2015 Ready to Read summer reading program. Since 2013, United Way of Midland, Inc. has partnered with 4 youth serving agencies to address the summer slide. United Way provides books, T – shirts, party and celebration items, and facilitates the overall process with Casa De Amigos, Fair Havens, Unlock Ministries, and Boys and Girls Club of Midland. All agencies serve low income minority youth. For 2015 a financial literacy component was added to one of the partner programs. Students learned about money, and then got to make their own purchases using their hard earned “Casa Bucks” from stores built by program staff and volunteers. They bought gifts for friends and family, and sometimes themselves; books, pens and notebooks for the upcoming school year, sports balls, games and goodies. The Slosson vocabulary test was used for pre and post measures, and last summer, 94% of the 113 students who completed the program improved or maintained their reading skills. This quote from 4th grader Jaden, sums it all up! “Reading inspires me.”

My 5th grade students actually asked If we could start a reading club this summer so they could keep reading and sharing their reading discoveries. We have decided to meet weekly at the public library to discuss things we are reading and make recommendations to each other. A few local businesses have agreed to offer Reading Rewards for students that participate in at least 6 of our Reading Club meetings. We are also inviting our 4th graders to join us to get foster excitement about reading over the summer. I know I am anxious to get our program underway, and I am so thankful for the 5th grade leaders that have shone like diamonds this year!

I am collaborating with our local library to do a nine week program to encourage kids in grades Pre-K to 6 to read over the summer. Activities will include a variety of activities such as giving digital book reviews you Aurasma, creating their own "Choose Your Own Ending" story using Twine, and learning about the history of their community. I am very excited to be teaming up with a great group of people to encourage summer reading!

I'm always fearful of the "summer slide" and the steps backwards my kids could face being out of school for nearly three months. In an attempt to mitigate the summer reading slide, I have had to step out of the box and rely on my creativity! My 6-year-old son, 3-year-old daughter and I put together a "summer bucket list" every year and I always incorporate learning activities. The key is to make them fun...the type of fun that they don't even realize they are learning! One of the items we have included is the "story walk" located at some of our local parks. They have kids storybooks on plaques along the walking trail. As you walk, you stop by the plaques and read pages of the book. The kids are super excited and pairing reading and excercise makes this momma excited too! We also plan to get involved in a couple reading log challenges to win prizes. One is at our local library and the other is at Barnes and Nobles. What better motivation than a sweet summer prize! We attend library programs all summer long, which encourage reading and the kids are free to check out books of their choice. These are just s few tricks I have up my sleeve, but my goal is to keep learning fun and creative.

#contest I'm always fearful of the "summer slide" and the steps backwards my kids could face being out of school for nearly three months. In an attempt to mitigate the summer reading slide, I have had to step out of the box and rely on my creativity! My 6-year-old son, 3-year-old daughter and I put together a "summer bucket list" every year and I always incorporate learning activities. The key is to make them fun...the type of fun that they don't even realize they are learning! One of the items we have included is the "story walk" located at some of our local parks. They have kids storybooks on plaques along the walking trail. As you walk, you stop by the plaques and read pages of the book. The kids are super excited and pairing reading and excercise makes this momma excited too! We also plan to get involved in a couple reading log challenges to win prizes. One is at our local library and the other is at Barnes and Nobles. What better motivation than a sweet summer prize! We attend library programs all summer long, which encourage reading and the kids are free to check out books of their choice. These are just s few tricks I have up my sleeve, but my goal is to keep learning fun and creative.

My students come from a poverty stricken agricultural community. Here many of them struggle with English as the second language, single parent homes or even group homes. Their basic needs are not met, and they are faced with a world of can’t. Despite their hurdles, all 34 of my 4th graders come to school with smiles and eager to learn. My students include those with special needs, bilingual children, and those that are gifted. One common factor is their clear love of reading, which was not the case at the beginning of the school year. One of my priorities for my class this year has been making sure we have all the books needed to interest even the most reluctant reader. Unfortunately our school library has outdated materials and a very minimal selection. This is where Scholastic has been integral in building life long learners in our classroom. Often the birthday book coupon is the only new book my students get to have as their own. In our classroom we have books ranging from first grade to eighth grade. We have used the AR reading program and they continue to amaze me with their motivation and reading stamina. All of our books are labeled and sorted for check out. Over summer only a handful of my students will be able to join me at a summer school program. For the rest of my class they will have no access to books or learning materials. With the supplies provided through this opportunity all of my current students and their siblings will now have access to literature and activities to keep their minds active over summer. While they may never leave their neighborhood the books provided can help them travel the world through an author's message. Summer can be a tough time for my students who will not have the routine and safety of our classroom. Students will be able to check in with me through the summer program with the materials in the book backpacks. It will make it easy for students to check in and ask for more work, or ask questions about their reading. My students now have the skills to participate in book talks, fish bowl discussions, connect authors across genres, and incorporate technology. We use Padlet to take notes, create book commercials, and even make characters come alive with apps like ChatterPix. They will have access to these tools in order to support their summer reading, but they need something to read. You can’t build readers without text. The idea of having a backpack full of supplies to keep and use would amaze my 4th graders and leave a lasting impact on their educational experience. Support a child’s love of reading and create a critical thinker. #contest