
Summer learning loss, often referred to as the “summer slide,” represents a significant and ongoing challenge for prek-12 teachers. It is characterized by the regression of academic and socio-emotional skills and knowledge that students often experience during the summer break.
You have already reviewed some common scenarios teachers may face when encountering the summer slide in Part 1 of this article series HERE (link).
As you begin planning for a return to school, not only should you consider the content students will need to learn for the school year, but you will also need to think about each student’s readiness level upon entering the classroom. What gaps might you encounter? How might you plan your beginning lessons to help address those gaps?
Addressing Summer Learning Loss with RAMP
To counteract the summer slide, consider a multi-faceted approach to understanding and supporting your students as they enter the classroom. To help you remember this, you can utilize the RAMP framework to help you ramp up learning in the classroom. In this article, RAMP stands for readiness, activities, monitoring, and partnership. Let’s explore each component of RAMP now to help you address the summer slide.
Readiness:
Ensure that you, your students, and their parents are prepared for summer learning through assessments, resource distribution, or take-home kits that lets students practice at home. This preparation helps mitigate the effects of summer learning loss by providing a strong foundation before the break.
- Conduct end-of-year assessments in April to identify students at risk of summer learning loss. Use these assessments to develop individualized learning plans tailored to each student’s needs. You can then provide those insights to their parents with specific ideas on how they can help over the summer. For example, is it recommended that students get extra tutoring? Do they need to commit to practicing reading, math, or writing a few times a month? Are there gaps that parents should be aware of for next year?
- Distribute Summer Learning packets containing reading lists, math exercises, and science project kits to all students. Ensure access to online learning platforms so students have the resources needed to continue their education over the summer. If parents have the tools early to be able to easily provide activities and work to students, they will be more likely to utilize them.
But what if you are reading this article at the beginning of the new school year, or at the end of the summer? There are still plenty of things you can do to ensure your students will have a successful school year: - Make a plan to conduct informal and formal assessments within the first days of school. You can provide post-tests from the previous grade level to assess whether students remember the content. You can provide pre-tests for your upcoming lesson to identify areas of strength and weakness. Consider thinking about the other behaviors you wish for students to exhibit and plan for observational checklists that you can use to monitor student readiness.
- Ask students to provide you with samples of their knowledge. This can be in the form of an essay about their summer if you teach them writing, for example, or you can pose a real-life problem and ask students to solve it mathematically or scientifically. Think carefully about how you will use the information you gain from these samples so that you can utilize it to further inform your upcoming lessons.
- It’s not too early to provide homework to your students! You may have a structure you follow to allow students to “ease into” the school year. This is fine! But also consider if there are opportunities for students to practice any review work at home or in any school downtime to address areas of weakness and regain some skills that may have been lost over the summer. Students simply need practice! Providing them a chance to practice what they learned last year in preparation for this school year is invaluable.
Activities:
Design and implement engaging and educational summer programs. These activities, such as reading challenges, STEM projects, and creative arts, can help maintain and develop your students’ skills and knowledge during the summer.
- Consider how you might collaborate with local libraries or even your own school librarian to create a summer reading challenge with rewards for students who read a set number of books. You could even organize virtual book clubs to encourage discussions! Imagine how fun it would be for students to bring all the books they read during the summer to the school librarian to potentially earn prizes for their hard work!
- Provide DIY science experiment kits with step-by-step instructions for home use. You may even be able to request some items from your school principal or request funding to assemble some kits. Don’t have the money to send home materials? Think about ways students can use materials from home by following the instructions you provide. You can even set up scheduled emails at the end of the school year that automatically go out to parents every few weeks to remind them to encourage their children to complete the projects.
- Include art, music, and writing activities in summer packets. Consider areas that may be of great interest to your students and will still stimulate their minds over the summer. You could even think about hosting a virtual art show for students to share their creations with the community and allow them to connect with one another virtually throughout the summer.
If you are reading this article at the end of the summer or the beginning of the school year, those recommendations above aren’t applicable. However, there are modifications you can make and present to your students early on to help reduce the effects of the summer slide.
- Easing your students into the school year can be simple with fun games and activities they can work on together- and it can double as icebreaker activities as students work together and get to know each other! What areas need focus before learning new content? Perhaps you see your students low in reading skills. Design phonics games or reading groups to allow students time to practice their skills. If math facts are lacking, consider what games you can build using manipulatives that can help introduce new concepts and review old ones.
- For older students, there is a plethora of online resources available to you so that you can keep your prep work to a minimum but still provide your students with interactive activities to help ease them into the school year. Consider nearpod.com to differentiate lessons to students or brilliant.org to help students strengthen their problem-solving skills. The possibilities for online learning and support are endless. It can also double as a resource that you return to again and again throughout the school year for students to practice what they are learning in class!
- Build a tutorial program at your school or in your classroom that can begin immediately once school starts. Invite students to participate on a Saturday morning, after school, or during a lunch or other break to help them review old content and strengthen skills needed for a successful year. Consistent exposure to concepts and varied opportunities to practice knowledge is the best way to help reduce any learning gaps and ensure students are ready and prepared for the school year.
Monitoring:
Track your student’s progress and adjust support strategies as needed. Incentivize participating in this monitoring so that you can engage all students in utilizing learning experiences throughout the summer. It might be a good idea to connect with the next grade level’s teacher(s), if you know them, to make a plan for how you both can keep the lines of communication open for your students and to share student progress through the monitoring methods you plan to utilize.
- Provide parents with an opportunity to contact you over the summer. Allow for zoom call schedules or other check-ins so parents can feel they can discuss progress and challenges with their children.
- Utilize online resources or apps throughout the summer to collect data on students as they work. For example, assign khanacademy.com activities at time points throughout the summer, or ixl.com quizzes and activities to not only allow students to continue to engage with content but to provide you with an idea of their progress throughout the summer.
- Provide incentives for students to check in with you on their progress over the summer. You can coordinate with their next grade level teacher to plan for prizes they can accumulate when they return to school.
For ideas on addressing the summer slide once students are back in the classroom in the fall, you can still build in early monitoring systems to help immediately evaluate students’ progress levels and determine areas that need extra support throughout the school year.
- Meet with the prior year’s teacher in the first week of school to help understand student strengths and weaknesses. You can also attempt to evaluate their performance at the end of the last school year and compare it with an assessment in the beginning of the school year to determine if any learning loss occurred. While your school or district may provide standardized pre- and post-tests at a whole school level, keep in mind that those assessments may not be provided at the very beginning of the school year, so you should think about how you can evaluate your students early on, possibly even before those standardized tests have taken place.
- Plan progress monitoring checklists to be used on day 1. The first can be used as a form of pre-test that you can use to compare how students “catch up” in the first few weeks of school. In addition, consider how you can track participation and engagement in class activities. Since the summer slide is due to students not engaging in academic content during the summer, you want to be certain that your students are engaged and actively participating in learning from the moment they enter your classroom in the new school year.
Partnership:
Leverage community resources and collaboration with parents to support summer learning. When you make a partnership plan for the individuals that your students will be interacting with over the summer, you can be sure that they will have the support they need to practice and engage in stimulating activities throughout the summer. Most students will not be self-motivated to practice. Engaging the partnership of their parents and the community provides a better chance at success.
- Partner with local businesses and organizations to sponsor educational activities and provide resources. Utilize community centers for group activities and learning sessions. You may even be able to discuss a plan within your own school where students can occasionally come to participate in activities or events “sponsored” by the science department or the library. Providing a space for students to be able to easily connect with content during the summer will make it more likely they are engaged. For students who may be likely to participate in summer camp programs, you can compile a list of intellectually stimulating camps that you recommend they engage in and provide this information to parents toward the end of the spring semester.
- Build a plan for parent collaboration and engagement. An engaged parent is more likely to ensure that their child is learning. Form parent-teacher committees to gather input and plan summer activities. Parents should be actively involved in the implementation process to strengthen the home-school connection and enhance the effectiveness of a summer learning program you offer to them. Request permission to connect with parents over the summer. From mailing materials to their home half-way through the year to offering a phone or zoom check-in, you can show your parents you are engaged in their child’s growth and learning and they can be too!
For those of you who are looking for simple partnership ideas at the beginning of the new school year to help address the summer slide, you can still utilize partnerships with the community and parents as an effective way to accelerate student learning at the beginning of the year.
- Work with your building principal to determine if there is on-campus space available for evening or weekend workshops for families, or just your students, to engage in activities. You can plan for a Saturday morning workshop, tutorials, or after-school activities for students to participate. You can also plan events for parents and students to come together to learn about content students can work on at home. Providing these opportunities early and immediately can give your students the best chance at success!
- Design a parent engagement program that you utilize throughout the school year. Plan newsletters that explain the content students are working on each week but also include resources or supplemental activities that students can work on at home. Plan phone calls home early in the school year to address any issues immediately, then plan check-ins throughout the school year as well.
Conclusion
As you plan for the back-to-school season and work to ensure your students are ready for learning in your classroom, consider the strategies discussed in this course to help ease your students into the new school year while supporting any areas of weakness they may experience as a result of a long summer. Implementing these ideas will take some effort! While you are busy planning for all the required content students need to know for this year, you will need to take time to really think about areas where the summer slide has affected your students. Make a plan to begin interventions immediately, the first week of the new school year, to ensure all your students.