During Summer break children can enjoy more unstructured time and families can go on vacations. Summer seems to be a large block of time that parents and kids can use to take a breather...But, there is a shadow that often hovers over this lengthy break - a shadow commonly called the summer slide.
Summer Slide: Is It Real?
Despite the playground-like image that the word slide suggests, summer slide refers to a student's loss of academic skills and knowledge during the summer months.[1] The research on this very real phenomenon dates back over 100 years, and confirms that differences in elementary school children’s summer learning experiences “…can impact whether that child ultimately earns a high school diploma and continues on to college"[2]
Summer Slide has Serious Consequences
According to a report from the National Summer Learning Association, it’s common practice for teachers to dedicate at least one month to re-teaching material students have forgotten over the summer[3]. Reviewing material is one thing; completely re-teaching it is quite another. Instead of continuing the educational momentum of the previous school year, teachers and students lose at least four weeks of valuable instruction time in order to relearn the same material, but beyond this - summer slide can affect students on an individual level.
Over time the negative consequences for students who repeatedly experience summer slide accumulate. According to sociologists Karl Alexander and Doris Entwisle this is a primary driver behind the expanding achievement gaps between students of lower and higher socioeconomic levels[4]. This finding was confirmed in another comprehensive analysis published by the RAND Corporation, McCombs, and colleagues in 2011, which st...
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...ducation.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Journals/spring2010/why-summer-learning/.
3. http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/keeping-kids-off-the-summer-slide.htm
4. http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/keeping-kids-off-the-summer-slide.htm
5. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec11/vol69/num04/Slowing-the-Summer-Slide.aspx
6. http://www.summerlearning.org/?page=know_the_facts
7. http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Journals/spring2010/why-summer-learning/
8. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120425094358.htm
9. http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Neurosciences/articles/The%20Brain...Use%20it%20or%20Lose%20It/
10. http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.summerlearning.org/resource/collection/CB94AEC5-9C97-496F-B230-1BECDFC2DF8B/Research_Brief_03_-_Kim.pdf
11. https://www.berksarl.org/programs/book-buddies/
Family vacations, pool memberships, and corn de-tasseling; these have been the experiences of traditional Midwestern summers. For centuries young American children have attended school during the winter months, during farming off seasons when their families could afford to be without them. Families have grown accustomed to a traditional school calendar that provides time for bonding throughout the year. Students have grown accustomed to an eight week break during the summer months where they are allowed to refresh their minds before returning for a new school year. Unfortunately, these traditional experiences and practices are now in jeopardy. In today’s race to improve student achievement, traditional school calendars have become a point of contention. Today more and more school districts and parents alike have begun to debate the pros and cons of an alternative school calendar.
Another significant reason is summer vacation needs to be longer. The primary reason for this is children need time to wind down and relax before they have to go back to school. For instance, during the summer children relax and prepare for school, if they...
Attending a year round school will help students retain the information they are taught with greater ease due to the shortness in breaks between times they attend school. An Indianapolis fourth-grade school teacher says, “In this calendar, my goodness, (it takes) two weeks at most.”, referring to the six weeks it normally takes to review the previous year’s lesson to get the students up to speed from the summer break (Johnson). If you are to add twenty days to t...
Ermak, Lisa. "Local School Districts Consider Year-round Calendar to Fend off 'summer Slide'" Holland Sentinel. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
18 Nov. 2011. Cooper, Harris. Interview. The. “More Than a Hunch: Kids Lose Learning Skills Over the Summer” months.”
The summertime is when kids play outside and do whatever they want. Some kids even go to day care or their friends’ house to do something different, “Many children go to summer camps where they learn many of important skills not covered in school” (Cooper 3). Doing work in the summer that does not interest them will make kids despise summer. It also will not let the kids do want they want to do in peace, because they will worry about the huge assignment they still have to finish, “…the backbreaking obligation to read Charles Dickens blighted June, ravaged July obliterated August” (Queenan,1). Some might argue that the long summer will make the children forget what they learned, but if the students cannot relearn what they already knew in a month or less, that means that they are not being taught correctly. In general, summer reading makes a students' summer into more school time, which is not helpful to them.
Saunders, M. (2004, September 7). Try year-round school: The lazy days of summer may hurt children who struggle in school the rest of the time. Atlanta Journal-Constitution, pp. 14A, Retrieved November 6, 2004, from Lexus-Nexus.
The summer vacation students on a traditional schedule receive could be very beneficial since summer gives time for the students to attend camps or other activities that would allow them to learn. The camp may not be like the learning in school, but students would be able to get a different style of education while having fun. Lynn-nore Chittom and Jeff Klassen, two authors who wrote about year-round vs. traditional schooling say, “Critics also cite year-round school as an obstacle to summer enrichment programs such as youth camps, and note that the balanced calendar model can hurt students and industries dependent on short-term summer employment” (Chittom). If students are going to school all year with only some short breaks, when would they have time to go to camp? Even if their camp is during one of their breaks, the students would have homework to complete, thus eliminating the educational effects of the camp on the student. Also, teen...
Ideally, extending the school schedule into the summer equals more learning. Because students are not dedicated to their studies, often they do not retain the information they learned over the school year during summer vacation. According to the article “Will Longer School Year Help or Hurt US Students” Smyth notes that, “Proponents argue that too much knowledge is lost while American kids wile away the summer months apart from their lessons” (Smyth). Smyth argues that students clearly do not retain their lessons over the period of their summer break. However, opponents of the extension of the school schedule say, “summer breaks are needed to provide an academic respite for students’ overwrought minds, and to provide time with family and the flexibility to travel and study favorite subjects in more depth” (Smyth). Smyth’s observation not only protests taking summer away from families but also describes summer as a time needed to rest student’s minds.
Although this may be true and the students may be increasing their intelligence, the absence of a true summer can be a negative for all concerned. Summers off have long been a light at the end of the tunnel for teachers after an intense school year. And students need time to relieve themselves from a constant social setting where bullying and harassment can be hard to get away from while still at school (Pros and Cons of Year Round School). Summers are very beneficial to everyone. Teachers and students get a break, but also parents get more quality time to spend with their
After a long summer, the time has finally come for Sam and his classmates to return to school. Sam dreads going back to school, because he knows that the first weeks of school mean long, boring reviews. Despite the fact that Sam and his friends do not like to study topics they have already learned, they need to review because most students forget what they learned over the three-month break period. Many students can relate to Sam, wasting two weeks or more at the beginning of the school year. Parents, teachers, and students across the United States believe a better option exists that will waste less time. Many suggest the idea of a year-round school schedule. Almost all schools should adopt a year-round schedule because of the many advantages including higher academic
Every summer children lose valuable information. When school is back in session, students spend months trying to recall everything that was forgotten over those few weeks off. The arrangement of days in the academic year does play a role on how students perform in school, but not so much on the expenses. Therefore, schools should implement Year-Round education because it more affordable and is better for the children in the long run.
When certain texts are read, different messages can be taken from it. Also, more arguments and ideas can be branched off of that one particular theme. The poem of “Summer” by Walter Dean Myers plays out a very happy scene of the overall joy of summer. This poem shares all the happiness that occurs and can occur throughout and during summer. Memories come rushing back to many who read this and reflect back on their childhood summer days. Yet, one issue that could be branched of this poem and could be noted is the increasing problem of children now days not having such an enjoyable and memorable summer. Kids all over spend their time differently and have many reasons why they do not play outside during summer more often than a few years back. It makes those who have good summer memories of being outside sad that children now aren’t enjoying summer outdoors as much as they could. In “Summer” by Walter Dean Myers, an argument that could be talked about would be that which of children not playing outside in summer as much as before and the main problems that led to this occurring is that technology is a huge distraction, some environments are scary to be in, and just pure laziness.
3..2..1.. summer the yearlong torturer of another school year is over and summer has begun but what do we forget during our break, students traditionally return to school to repeat the process of acclimating to new teachers, new classmates, and a new classroom. Students struggle to remember lessons and assignments they have not been taught for months. The summer learning loss, many schools have implemented year-round schooling. The Association for Year-Round Education reported that in 2007 that 3,000 year-round schools enrolled more than 2 million students in the United States. But does the research show that year-round schooling really pays off? Students in year-round schools do as well or slightly better in terms of achievements than students in traditional schools.
These negative effects include cuts in funding for art programs and sports that have little popularity. The reason this is important is due to a students ' ability to create a social structure outside the classroom. Going through high school, counselors always say to participate in school, both in the classroom and out as it will help with the students ' grade. But due to these program cuts, students ' have fewer choices in after-school programs which correlate back to their grade. The reason for this is closely related to why many people exercise to relieve stress. An archive from John Holloway states that when a student does participate more outside of school, their grade point average goes up. Holloway gathered research from other sources stating, "adolescents who participated in structured activities supervised by positive adult role models were more likely to make personal investments in their schooling that might, in turn, motivate them to excel academically" (Holloway par. 9). It gives the students a reason to get up and go