Building effective programs for summer learning

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Abstract

Summer should never be a break in any child's intellectual development. Summer learning can come from reading books, singing songs, playing games, listening to stories, taking trips, and other kinds of fun activities. However, this kind of summer learning can be more difficult for children of low-income and other disadvantaged families since they have less access to material resources such as books and computers, and fewer enriching experiences such as family trips and summer camps. This effective practice is based on a paper by America Reads intern Peter Johnson (summer 2000), Building Effective Programs for Summer Learning, and offers suggestions for building a summer learning program that reaches the neediest kids, gets kids learning, and keeps going strong.

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Issue

Summer learning that comes from reading, singing songs, playing games, listening to stories, taking trips, and other fun activities can be more difficult to come by for children of low-income and other disadvantaged families.

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Action

According to America Reads intern Peter Johnson, steps to take when building a summer learning program include:

Reaching the neediest kids

  1. Form partnerships with schools. Teachers, tutors, principals, and counselors can all make recommendations about which students most need summer help, and can also serve as important links to children's parents.
  2. Form partnerships with other services. A good example of a program linked with other services is West Virginia's Energy Express, a summer learning program partnering with the Summer Food Service Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  3. Make the program accessible and convenient for parents. Ways to make a program more convenient include providing transportation, locating in a convenient place, scheduling the program to fit in with parents' work schedules and daycare needs, and providing meals or snacks.

 

Getting kids learning (and excited about it!)

  1. Involve parents. A study by the Los Angeles Public Library found that parents were the number one motivator for summer program participation. Successful programs stimulate parent involvement in a variety of ways from designing take-home activities to be completed as a family to hiring them as full-time employees of the program working as tutors or program administrators. Other ideas include informing parents about what their children are learning and how they are doing, inviting parents to program events and field trips, offering classes on parenting, and offering literacy tutoring for parents who themselves have trouble reading.
  2. Involve volunteers. Many successful programs get volunteers to work with kids, not only to help them master the mechanics of becoming better readers and students but also to serve as positive role models to share the joy of learning. Sources of potential volunteers include community service organizations, senior citizens' groups, libraries, schools, and national service programs. Volunteers are most effective when they have undergone high-quality training and when they have been provided with ongoing networks of support.
  3. Make learning fun for everybody. Successful summer programs almost always have more components than just reading or tutoring, and in providing other fun opportunities for learning they mirror the diverse learning experiences that high-income kids have over the summer months. Different ways of learning include art, music, dance, drama, storytelling, educational games, science experiments, writing, cooking, gardening, field trips, group reading, and more.

 

Keeping a program going strong

  1. Maintain strong partnerships. Many different entities in the community can be important providers of precious space, materials, volunteers, publicity, and funds.
  2. Foster a sense of community. Keeping the same group of volunteers and kids working together throughout the summer is an important part of a strong program. Maintaining consistency from day-to-day and week-to-week is beneficial to children's development.
  3. Constantly strive to do better. Take the initiative to form networks of summer programs, supporting each other, sharing stories of success and failure, as well as discussing new ideas for future innovations. Successful programs respond to feedback and evaluations by implementing changes to serve children better and more adequately meet the needs of their communities.

 

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Context

On average, children from low-income families usually have less access to material resources such as books and computers, fewer enriching experiences such as family trips and summer camps, as well as fewer high-quality educational interactions with their parents, whose time and energy are often consumed by the challenges of struggling with poverty.

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Citation

Johnson, Peter. "Building Effective Programs for Summer Learning."  (America Reads Program) Yale University, 2000.

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Evidence

A study of students in Baltimore, reported by Karl Alexander and Doris Entwisle (1996), found that all children make gains at essentially the same rate during the school year, and that only during the summer months do disadvantaged kids' scores fall behind. Disadvantaged kids' summer losses are especially large during the breaks between the first three or four years of school.

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Posted On

November 16, 2001

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For More Information

Energy Express AmeriCorps Program
West Virginia University Extension Service
706 Allen Hall
P.O. Box 6602
Morgantown, WV 26506-6602
Phone: (304) 293-3855
Fax: (304) 293-3866

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Resources

America Reads: Principles and Key Components (213 KB)

Source Documents

Related Practices

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Related sites

America Reads Challenge Resource Kit

USDA Summer Food Service Program

Topic Areas

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