Stop summer slide in its tracks with this summer reading challenge

We’ve been writing a lot about summer slide the past couple of weeks, but we think there’s good reason for it:

• In a 2011 analysis published by the RAND Corporation, McCombs reveals that elementary students' performance falls by about a month during the summer.
   
• The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, a collaborative effort among dozens of foundations, lists summer learning loss as one of the three major obstacles to reading proficiency at the end of 3rd grade (Gewertz, 2011). Other studies come to similar conclusions. 

We’ve been racking our brains for activities and summer reading strategies you can pass on to your students (and their parents) this summer. Thanks to Mrs. Phillips, the principal of Chets Creek Elementary School, we’re able to pass on one more called the Summer Reading Challenge.

Last week, Principal Phillips challenged the school to read 100 books this summer (for children reading chapter books, this means a chapter counts as a book). Each student received a reading chart and 100 stars. Children who return the competed chart will earn a special treat from the Principal when they return in the fall.  

Click on the picture below to download a copy of the reading-challenge chart. Please thank Principal Phillips for sharing this cool idea!