With schools closing and learning done online, what can be done to help students be ready for fall?

Answer 1

Summer learning loss is common and expected but it has been compounded by the distance learning that has taken place during this pandemic. To prepare for the upcoming school year, every child needs to spend some time every day in literacy activities. How this will look depends on the age of the child. There are five components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. There are fun ways to address each of these areas that can be incorporated in daily routines at home this summer. Older students who are not dependent on phonetic clues to recognize words should spend their time on fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Phonemic awareness: Rhyming, rhyming, rhyming! Being able to recognize rhyming words and create a rhyme is foundational to learning to read. Sing traditional nursery rhymes like "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," with your child while placing emphasis on the rhyming words. Have your child complete a silly sentence with a rhyming word, such as "I see a dog on a ___." It's OK if the rhyming word is a real word like, "log," or a nonsense word such as, "mog."

Phonics: Choose a phonics skills such as initial consonant sound or long vowels. Have your child sort items found around the home into groups based on the phonics skill chosen. For example, empty the junk drawer or a bin of toys and sort the items by the beginning sound of each item. Provide as much support as your child needs by taking turns or stating the name of an item while emphasizing the beginning sound. Take the activity further by writing the name of each item on a whiteboard or sheet of paper. Have your child copy the list. Consider writing each word on an index card and have your child match the words with the objects.

NOTE: Using large motor muscles helps transfer learning from short-term to long-term memory. So breaking out the sidewalk chalk and having your child write large letters and words on pavement can make literacy more fun but also help skills stick with your child. Add in more physical movement by having your child hop on certain letters or words that you call out.

Fluency: Children learn to read more fluently by hearing books and articles read aloud with accuracy and expression. Read to your child every day and also consider using audiobooks to provide models of fluent reading. Partner read with your child, taking turns reading aloud. It is very important to select reading material for fluency practice that your child can read easily without getting stuck recognizing words. Don't worry that it is "too easy." Fluency does not develop with texts that make your child focus on sounding out words instead of reading with expression and focusing on punctuation for when to pause. While children benefit from listening to expressive reading of text that are more difficult, they must have text that is not difficult when they practice reading aloud themselves.Young children who cannot read sentences or paragraphs independently may benefit from echo reading. You can read a sentence or two while pointing to the words you are reading then have your child read the same sentence(s.) If your child is still learning the alphabet and cannot recognize any words yet, just reading aloud to your child is the best way to lay the foundation for fluency instruction in the future.

Vocabulary and Comprehension: You can build your child's vocabulary and comprehension skills when you read aloud to them. Incorporate vocabulary and comprehension activities into your daily read alouds. Ask your child what certain words mean that you encounter while reading a book together. With fiction texts, one of the best comprehension activities is to have your child predict what will happen next in the story and then ask if the prediction came true after reading more of the story. Give your own predictions and opinions as well. Here are some questions that can be asked about any fiction book: https://www.hcpss.org/f/parents/tips_readingfiction.pdf

You also help your child's vocabulary through conversation. Just talking with your child throughout the day will build vocabulary knowledge. Reading nonfiction will build your child's vocabulary and background knowledge with various topics, which improves comprehension as well.

What's most important in the area of reading to prepare for the upcoming school year is just to make sure your child hears you or another adult read to them every day and to provide opportunities for your child to read and to practice reading skills in a fun way.

If you want to print out free materials for practicing reading skills, one website to check out is https://www.themeasuredmom.com/print-2/

If you are interested in online tutoring for your child in reading, I am available this summer to help your child prepare for the upcoming school year. Feel free to check out my profile.

Answer 2

Obviously my answer will vary somewhat depending on the ages of the students. I agree with the first two answers to your question, but I would add another suggestion: activities that are visual, physical, and interactive. Growing up with ADHD, I had a very hard time focusing on homework and even some enjoyable activities for more than about 30 seconds.

It took me a long time to understand that I was a visual learner, and often when trying to memorize a lot of complex information, I drew charts that made sense to me. It appealed to more of the senses - reading, speaking out loud, writing (dual benefit of muscle memory) - and I left the whiteboards in a place where I would constantly see them. I used this method to pass the Bar Exam. My brother, similarly, would test himself by pretending that he was teaching the information to a class.

I would suggest thinking up games that will turn the learning experience into something fun. Some suggestions:

1. create "game shows" such as spelling bees where the parent is also a contestant, maybe with fake buzzers. it will help get the student fully engaged and perhaps even want to study vocabulary/spelling on his/her own so that next time they can "beat" their "opponent"
2. If the student is continuing to learn a language, I would place post-its all over the place with the name of the object in that language. Seeing the words every day for the summer will make them much easier to remember. For languages, learning children's songs in that language helps or watching cartoons in that language.
3. There are many ways to keep their math knowledge on par. Maybe online shopping (especially if it's for a toy they want), and asking them what it would cost if it was 30% off? if they're a bit older, maybe how much extra it would be with the interest rate to pay for a nintendo switch over 6 months?
4. Science is easy - family projects! When my sister was studying to get into nursing school, she bought a life-sized skeleton (yes - really) to help her memorize all the bones in the body. At dinner, if you are eating meat, you can use words like carnivore, omnivore, and herbivore and ask if they know any animals of each kind.

These are just examples off the top of my head, but I think you understand where I'm heading. The more senses involved, the better!

I would also be sure to ask students lots of questions to get them thinking. I think the earlier a child learns to think critically, the much higher the likelihood of success.

I hope this was helpful, albeit a bit long-winded!!

Answer 3

Yes, a reading program for the summer! I would like to read books with your child that they enjoy. We can discuss the book together, while I informally see how they learn. We can also read out loud part of the time for practice and expression. If they have questions on vocabulary, a personalized dictionary of vocabulary words would be just the thing. Writing a a book report with two or three paragraphs, would also work on punctuation, capitalization, and paragraph formation. Younger children will want to add a picture of course! Some older ones also! If we compile the reports, we will have a nice booklet to show for our efforts at summer's end.

Answer 4

Read as many enjoyable books at home as possible and talk about them with friends and family.

Encourage the stay-at-home students to write something each day: letters, poems, stories, etc.''

Watch a few special videos and talk about them together.