KEEPING UP LEARNER SKILLS DURING THE SUMMER BREAK 

While the extended break over summer is undoubtedly a chance for students to have some respite from the rigours of the academic year, the importance of maintaining key skills over this holiday period is also widely acknowledged. The ‘summer slide’ (researched in countries with extended mid-year breaks for decades) has more recently been recognised for its impact on Australian students. As the name suggests, this phenomenon sees students lose some of the gains they have made in skills frequently practiced at school as they are abandoned for leisurely pursuits of the holidays.

It may come as a relief to parents that recent research suggests that although this slide is common, it is not ‘inevitable’ (Kuhfeld, 2019). There are simple ways that families can engage students in key skill areas without taking away from their much-needed rest.

In 2023, Greenvale Secondary College will have a renewed focus on building reading skills across the curriculum. Over the year, we will share ideas and strategies on engaging your children in wide reading and extending their skills at home. Below are three tips on how your can get a head start in this area and encourage your children to both maintain and build their abilities in reading over the extended break.

1. CREATE ACCESS TO BOOKS AND READING MATERIALS

 It is amazing how much a having a shiny physical book in students’ hands can actually entice them to open up and start reading. Given as gifts that you have carefully chosen, curated to your child’s interests, models the value of books. Alternatively, making a trip to the local library and allowing students to make a selection based on their own passions gives them agency in their own reading to encourage engagement in the process. Accessing the English texts for the school year ahead (‘Sister Heart’ for 2023 Year 7s and ‘Once’ for 2023 Year 8s) is also a meaningful task that frontloads students for the learning ahead. We always encourage parents to read the texts as well so that students have someone to discuss with at home.

2. SCHEDULE TIME FOR READING

In the same way that families hold movie nights and other activities during this precious time at home together, creating opportunities to read together helps children and teenagers look forward to the shared time. It can be linked to existing traditions- for example, by reading a novel together in advance of watching the film version. This is also a great time to explore a range of texts that might interest your family- newspapers, magazines, non-fiction texts and graphic novels can all be shared in the same way that literary texts can.

3. USE SUPPORT STRATEGIES WHEN READING TOGETHER

As students become older and enter their teens, it can become more challenging or even intimidating for families to assist them with the learning they bring home from school. Supported shared reading is a simple way to help students extend their skills which also promotes enjoyable time together. You can have your child read aloud, or you can read silently together, stopping to discuss challenging words, check comprehension or predict what might come next in a story. When a child is reading allowed, the simple ‘Wait. Ask. Skip.’ strategy outlined on this page can build confidence in students to persist when reading become challenging.

Kuhfeld, M. (2019). Surprising new evidence on summer learning loss. Phi Delta Kappan, 101(1), 25–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/0031721719871560

Spencer, R. (2014). Preventing your kids’ summer reading slide. The Conversation. Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://theconversation.com/preventing-your-kids-summer-reading-slide-34361