Month: March 2021

By Amy Soukup, M.A., Director of Education

Regular communication between family and educators is important for the most effective collaboration in supporting a student’s academic growth. Here are 5 questions you might ask your child’s teacher or educator:

1. Can you share a highlight from my child’s learning?

Many special moments occur during a student’s learning, including moments where a concept “clicks,” insightful questions your child may have asked, or a funny story that highlights your child’s personality. It can be fun and meaningful to get a snapshot of your child’s learning experiences. This can also strengthen home-school connections and spark a topic of conversation with your child.

2. How can we support academic growth at home?

While much of academic content may be most effective when delivered by a trained and skilled educator, your child’s teacher will likely have ideas on how to support and extend your child’s academic growth at home through overall tips and tricks, routines, games, or activities. You can also share what you and your family are already doing in order to create an open dialogue and invite additional feedback.

3. What members of my child’s educational team might it be helpful to get connected with?

It may be helpful for your child’s teacher to connect with any outside members of your child’s educational team such as outside specialists, educational therapists, or tutors. If your child has an in-school learning specialist, case manager, or other support professional, it may also be helpful to get outside providers connected to this person. Likewise, feel free to share relevant documentation or notes between professionals as they come up. Educators will know how to identify relevant information and ask follow up questions as needed.

4. Are there any areas of potential concern?

As your child’s teacher tracks progress and gets to know students, areas of concern, observations, or questions may begin to rise. While most teachers communicate any major areas of concern, it can be helpful to check in directly to see if there are any potential flags for concern or need for additional support or evaluation. This can allow for preventative measures before a concern becomes potentially more significant.

5. When would be a good time to discuss or share my child’s progress in depth?

Brief check-ins with your child’s teacher are helpful to stay up to date and aligned on the path of educational support, but there is only so much information that can be conveyed in brief communication, especially for busy educators. Most schools have conference meeting schedules to allow for longer conversations to discuss progress, however, you may also want to check in to see if an additional meeting would be beneficial.

At Strategies for Learning, we create an ongoing support team by working with the family, school, and other members of a child’s educational team. Our collaborative approach and periodic progress updates ensure a full understanding of the work your child is engaging in and appropriate next steps as well as having the opportunity to ask questions or raise any concerns.

Learn more about our educational services.

By Julia Baker, Ed.D. in Reading and Literacy, M.S.

Clinician At Strategies for Learning

Over the years, I have noticed that most students’ Lexile levels decrease when they return to school after the summer break. Lexile levels measure a student’s reading ability based on the Scholastic Reading Inventory test or standardized assessment. Researchers refer to the drop in Lexile levels as the “Summer Slide.” Summer reading loss or summer slide impacts academic performance; however, consistently reading during the summer break could lead to academic success (McCooms et al., 2011). Several school districts have implemented reading programs to combat summer reading loss, and as a result, have seen an increase in Lexile levels (Pitcock & Brekhus, 2016). To avoid “Summer Slide,” students need various options to engage in reading that inspires and motivates them to pick up a book. Creating opportunities for consistent practice in reading comprehension, made available over the summer, should increase reading achievements, engagement, and confidence (Roman, Carran & Fiore, 2010). Therefore, the likelihood of improving Lexile levels is achievable when students take part in reading over the summer break. If students do not have access to school reading programs, parents could implement the following suggestions to increase reading engagement and Lexile levels.

Prevent Summer Slide

1.   Lead by Example: If reading is a routine, it is a determining factor of students becoming lifelong learners. Seeing members of their family reading sets an example that reading is essential and enjoyable.

2.   Daily Reading Time: Keeping an abundance of reading material around the house will provide easier access to books. A student who reads for at least 20 minutes a day performs better on assessments.

3.   Trips to the Library: Regular trips to the library are great ways for students to explore books of interest and build quality time for reading. Regular trips to the library could also be an opportunity to create fun reading-centered activities like a scavenger book hunt. Before the scavenger book hunt, discuss books of interest. Then plan several activities in which your child can explore the library looking for those genres. Additionally, there are summer reading programs offered at the library.

4.   Summer Writing Journal: Combining fun summer activities with writing could be a way your child writes about their interest. While enjoying summer activities, your child could jot down information about those experiences then write about it later. Your child’s adventure could describe their favorite place to eat or a trip to an amusement park. To personalize their journal, have your child decorate their summer journal with a collage of pictures from magazines images.

5.   Audio Books: Listening to books is a good way for students to build listening comprehension skills. Depending on the student, audiobooks could teach critical thinking, introduce new genres, and introduce more challenging books above grade level.

These are only a few of many ways to engage students over the summer break. Overall, the objective is for students to become intrinsically motivated to read books.

Sources:

McCombs, J.S., Augustine, C. H., Schwartz, H.L., Bodilly, S.J., Mcinnis, B., Lichter, D.S., & Cross, A. (2011). Making summer count: how summer programs can boost children’s learning. RAND Corporation, 1-86 https://doi.org/10.7249/MG1120

Roman, S., & Fiore, C. D. (2010). Do public library summer reading programs close the achievement gap? The Dominican Study. Children & Libraries, 8(3), 27-31

Pitcock, S. & Brekhus, T. 2016. Cracking the code to a successful summer reading program. Education Week, Retrieved March 15, 2021, from https://www.edweek.org/education/opinion-cracking-the-code-to-a-successful-summer-reading-program/2016/04

Learn about how we can support students over the summer.

Learn about what we are doing to crush COVID and Summer Learning Loss.