Helping To Counter The Summer Learning Loss

 

We are getting to the time of year again when schools break for the summer.  The kids head out for around three months and when they return, there is a noticeable drop in scores when tested in the fall. It is often much lower than it was in the spring.  As teachers, we know our students do not want to do "Homework" over the summer. 

These nice long breaks up instruction, leads to learning loss, and requires teachers to spend quite a bit of time at the beginning of the next year to review so students end up where they needed to be on the first day of school. In addition, students suffer a 17 to 34 percent decline in learning over the summer without some sort of support.

Although we don't teach over the summer, we can send home suggestions of things students can do to help them reduce the drop they experience during their holidays.  It doesn't matter whether you are talking elementary or secondary students, we can still send home information with the students and to the parents suggesting ways students can keep up their skills.

One way to share information is to send it home via the school newsletter, Facebook pages, or other ways your school communicates with parents.  So let's look at ways to help students enjoy math over the summer.

First, it is suggested that parents take time to point out where math is found everyday.  If everyone is watching a basketball, baseball, or other sporting game, take time to talk about the stats.  How are they calculated, what do they mean, and how can you use them to tell which player is better.  Look at having a student cook regularly.  Let them choose the recipes, figure out the budget, learn to double or cut recipes in half, and more.  Expand this to understand sales tax, discounts, calculating sales prices, etc as the kids are shopping.  Or if someone is planning a project like installing fencing, redoing the paint, etc parents can take time to talk about how you go about figuring out the amount of supplies, shopping for the materials, and more.  

Second, Find books that deal with math such as those on Sir Cumference, or find math mysteries on Amazon, graphic novels such as the Japanese ones that talk about how certain math is done.  Look around, the books are there and parents can read them with their children if they are younger, and let the older students read them by themselves but ask all children to write a book report or book review on the story.

Third, make a list of math games recommended to help students practice various skills.  It is important to send the list rather than make a general suggestion because not all online games are designed to help students practice skills. Some games look as if they have a math flavor but really do nothing.  Don't forget to include a few card games such as cribbage, or sites with games such as Kahoot or Jeopardy.  If you want, prepare a list of possible games and assign them to students for the summer so they can play them.  I enjoy the games which require students to translate word problems into equations, or have them practice a skill.  

Finally, send home problem of the day calendars giving students one problem a day to practice and don't forget to send the answers home so students can check their work.  Don't be afraid to send home links to activities they can do at home involving mathematics.

If students do something math oriented every day for 15 minutes, they will do a lot towards retaining their level of math over the summer. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.