by Terry Heick
With so many things to do and a later loss of academic structure, most research shows that children read less in summer. How much less depends (you will read this word a lot in this post) on age, income level, geographic region and other factors.
And how much you think you think that a student’s success scores are falling due to the summer break also depends on your point of view. But suppose that you are in favor of carrying out academic success and the results of improved tests which seem to reflect. What should you know?
Well, first of all, a look at research. As with many education subjects, you can find very variable search results to support an equally wider variety of interpretations and take -out dishes. Do you want to finance a 1: 1 program? Somewhere there is research to support him. Against this idea? There are probably data somewhere that agree with you. But in general, research on summer reading loss says one of the two things:
Summer tends to reduce academic results
What it has an impact and how depends on the content zone, the income level, age, and more.
The problem of non -transferable knowledge: when students learn unused things
For example, in “ The effects of summer holidays on the results of success tests: a narrative and meta-analytical journal ”, research concluded that “the loss of summer was equaled about a month on an equivalent scale at the level of notes, or a tenth of a typical deviation from the scores of spring tests. The effect of the summer break was more deformation for reading and most of the dedication for the calculation of mathematics and spelling. ”
But complicate general declarations on seasonal changes on educational performance and literacy are socio-economic concerns. The authors of the above study revealed that “significant difference was also found for the income level on the effect of summer holidays on reading recognition scores, low-income students showed a significant loss of reading recognition during the summer while intermediate income students have shown a significant gain. DGLES said that intermediate income students gained around 2.3 months of reading recognition during the summer, while low -income students lost around 1.5 months. ”
And the school level? Other studies have shown that younger students (for example, in kindergarten) often have better scores in the fall than spring, while older elementary students (for example, 4th and 5th year) inversing this trend. “Summer back” is therefore not a simple problem, complicating efforts to make simple recommendations.
Rethink “loss of learning”
In 2014 Post for Edutopia, I provided basic recommendations, the start of digital reading clubs to send high interest sms or even stay in contact as often as possible with students by e-mail or on social networks. The usefulness of these ideas depends on the age of your students, their access to technology, whether on vacation, your free time, and more.
One of the most universal learning models in any context is to meet a new idea, then put this idea in action, whether through the transfer near or far. A daily reading model, then doing something following what was read can provide an easy framework for authentic learning outside the class.
Read Robert Frost? Extract a theme from “good fences make good neighbors” and do something With that.
Say hello to a neighbor.
“Unroll” a metaphorical wall between you and an old friend or a family member.
Paint on a wall that transmits Frost’s message.
Create a song that is the opposite but the same in the theme.
Put a “fence” to set a healthy border in a relationship.
In other words, read something worth reading, think about what you have read, then use this reading to inform your behavior in the real world in a way that is authentic and useful.
The problem of non -transferable knowledge
If what a student learns has very little “transferability” to his life (and note here, I do not want to say transfer in the sense of applying something that you have learned in a New and unknown contextBut rather take something you learned here and apply it there)There are important costs and consequences. And note, this type of transfer is not as simple. To really use what has been learned, you have to think a student about what has been learned, have an idea of the usefulness of this knowledge and demonstrate vision or imagination or creativity to put it to use.
It is a lot, and it contrasts marked with the vision of traditional “long-tailed” university university for the creation of standard creation and the design of the curriculum, where the value of what is learned is low at the start and is perceived to increase over time as students are preparing to enter universities or “labor”.
The roots of each student are in their community – their families, their digital networks and their privileged communities. Summer is a time when students have more an opportunity to be closer to these roots. The reduction in “ loss of summer ” could start by helping them to see what they should win during this period far from the class by looking for and using information to improve their essentially native situation. Placement based on the place. Autonomous learning. Manufacturers’ education. Open projects. Personal challenges.
But why limit this thought in summer? The authentication of the work that students do in class is essential – and not only for students to improve their academic results, but we can therefore know that academics are really portion them.
A school only succeeds in the extent that it is able to change the arc of students’ lives and the conditions of their communities.
– Terry Heick (@terryheick) July 5, 2016
An underlying hypothesis of the school
The goal of the school is not to become good at school. If the students do not regularly transfer the skills and understanding of the class to the real world, not only will their school return suffer, but we may want to ask serious questions about what students learn and why.
If teachers work to death in literally to pull Students through a set of knowledge that is hardly recognizable for students in their daily life, could the artificiality of this knowledge play a factor in the challenge of helping all students master it?
The underlying hypothesis of any program body should be that it deserves to study and the real work of understanding. So what happens when knowledge is not particularly transferable? When it is only closely useful and completely impersonal? When the students are trained to transfer, but can’t it because the Sweet Spot of this knowledge is the class itself? When what they learn is not richer, easier or more safe or more convincing?
It would be a big problem, right?
