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The summer reading loss is an epidemic that I think most don't even know exist. While most if not all educators know that it is important to continue reading during the summer and that without it there will be some loss. Some is the key word there. I've been an educator for 13 years and in Special Eduation for all of that and reading has been my focus in teaching for the last 4 years. Even with that experience I never knew how much loss happens in those 3 months when you add it up over time. It is truly devastating for me to think about my students and where they may be as seniors in high school without some serious intervention. While I think schools and communities are doing something to help with summer reading loss, I think that we need to make families more aware of the situation. They are our #1 intervention. No matter what amazing program, amazing app, amazing books you can put out there, without family support they won't be effective. I think that schools K-12 should have presentations to families that address this issue and show the long term affects we might get more buy in from them.

One program that I do use with students and if they use it, it does seem to help is Moby Max. This program has more than just reading. We use this program throughout the school year so that students become very familiar with how to navigate through it. It levels the students and works through gaps that they have in the learning. If they are a 7th grader but are missing some 4th or 5th grade skills, it works through those skills first before moving on to harder items. The students earn time to play games within the program as well which the kids really love.

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Summer Reading Loss is something that our community has been working on for the past few years.  The area that I work in is very rural, small, and isolated. There are high levels of functioning illiteracy among adults (and yes, these are people who hold a high school degree and cannot read). Through surveys, it was discovered that the majority of households with school infants, toddlers, or school age children do not have more than 25 children's books. The survey also showed that many parents rarely if ever read to their children. For this reason, the three local communities (all of which face the same problems) decided to hold regular events (2 times a week) at the local pool where each child could take a high quality book home. These events allowed children and parents to engage in fun crafts and sensory activities, have story time with the local librarian, and then have free swim and free lunch. Really, we've just learned to give away books at any event the school holds (parent/teacher conferences, parenting class, open house, etc.) A new project that just started is that we were able to get a grant to pay for EVERY CHILD in the three communities to be able to participate in the Dolly Parton's Imagination Library where children receive a book in the mail every month from birth to five years old. Data shows that after three years, numbers for books in the house hold have shot up!

Our school also regularly provides trainings for families on how to engage their children in conversations while reading and create a nurturing, fun time with the family.  We also share information around the importance of daily reading - and the younger the better! Data also shows that more parents are choosing to read daily to their children because this information is becoming more common place.

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In a large district like the one I work in, it can be challenging to get families to engage in reading over the summer.  There are so many factors and barriers that impact access to books over the summer.  At my daughter's school, they provide a number of resources at the end of the year that promote reading over the summer.  They provide information to library resources (read-alouds, incentive programs, etc), they give students a "Bingo" sheet with various text genre listed to encourage students to read a wide array of books.  Students can earn prizes for different levels of completion of the bingo sheet.  This past year, they sent information from Powell's Books about reading incentives.  In an effort to reduce barriers to online sources, our district identified about 200 students (a very small percentage of our population) to receive a Chromebook and personal hotspot.  I know at least 40 students in my building were recipients.  As a teacher, I used to print tons of Reading A-Z printable texts and hand them out to my students to take home over the summer.
Below is a link to the summer reading program and other activities provided through our local library system.

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Reading Programs | City of Hillsboro, OR

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Register for the Hillsboro Reads Passport Program and complete activities related to the themes presented in the Hillsboro Reads 2018 selection, American War by Omar El Akkad to earn badges. Attend events at the Library, contact your legislators, share a copy of the book, and much more!

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The summer slide is a serious issue in my current school. I looped up with my students this year, so I saw the dramatic results three months without reading can have. This issue has so many components. Lack of resources and engagement seem to be two of the largest hurdles to getting children to read over the summer. Knowing this, a school or district response to summer reading loss should be specific to that community. One school's successful summer reading program might not be exactly what another community needs. This being said, funds should be allocated to a school where school leaders, literacy specialists and community members work together to determine what would be the most effective program. For my community having school library hours over the summer, combined with our weekly food program and an open computer lab, might be a good start. Another option would be to have a community book mobile. Ultimately, a summer program should meet the specific needs of a specific community.

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The summer slide-the learning loss that occurs when students are not engaging in educational activities during summer vacation-has been a challenge for educators and parents for many years, and its existence is backed up by a solid body of research amassed over the better part of a century. Recently, researchers have focused on the fact that lower-income students suffer a significantly greater summer slide than more affluent students. According to stats from the National Summer Learning Association, low-income students lose two to three months of reading during the summer while kids from higher income families are found to make small gains, and by fifth grade, lower-income kids' summer learning loss can put them two and a half to three years behind their peers. Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University who conducted some of the summer-slide research, says, "It's a problem of monumental proportions."

Librarians, teachers, and publishers have long been on the front lines when it comes to developing ways to combat summer slide and help close the achievement gap. But a variety of factors has meant that their efforts have not always met with measurable success. "Typically, we defer to the public library when it comes to summer reading," says Suzanna Panter, former educational specialist of library services for Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia (who begins a new position as instructional facilitator for teacher-librarians in the Tacoma, Wash., public schools later this summer). "But we are not seeing the impact of these programs when the children return to school," she says. "We can't make the kids go."

And as Panter notes, even if children are motivated to participate in a summer-reading program, there are often circumstances that prevent them from doing so, especially in lower-income areas. For instance, children may not live close to a public library, or they may not have a way to get to a library due to a lack of public transit, or because their parents or guardians are working and cannot take them. And in some cases, working parents don't allow children to leave the house unsupervised during the summer. These factors came into play in Panter's district a few years ago. "We used to open the school libraries for four hours a day," she says. "But nobody came."

Schools Get Creative

Individual schools and districts across the country have implemented their own summer-reading strategies over the years with varying degrees of success. Lori Donovan, instructional specialist of library services for Chesterfield County Public Schools in Chesterfield, Va., says that in years past, programs in her district have focused on providing access to books, especially for the most at-risk children, and have included elementary school principals creating personal bookmobiles (sometimes their own vehicle) to distribute free books in neighborhoods near their schools over the summer, as well as six of the high schools allowing kids to take home five to 10 library books over the break. Both ideas have been hits. Two elementary school bookmobiles, funded by federal funds and private donations, gave away nearly 600 books over a three-month period in 2014, and one high school that has been doing summer lending for 11 years reports that it has lost only four books during that time.

Outside of school, community partnerships with faith-based organizations and outreach efforts from the public library have helped alert teens and disenfranchised readers to materials and learning opportunities available to them. "If you haven't been successful at reading, it can be very intimidating to walk into a library," Donovan says. (In the summers of 2014 and 2015, CCPS teamed up with the Washington Redskins NFL team for a K-8 reading program. Though students logged millions of reading minutes, the lack of incentives for reluctant readers and the limited appeal to students who are not football fans led CCPS to end the partnership.)

But this summer, the Chesterfield County Public Schools are instituting a new district-wide summer-reading program, spearheaded by Donovan, that is innovative in both its size and scope. "In our district comprehensive plan, which is a fluid document, we wanted to establish a literacy strand that included a comprehensive K-12 summer-reading program," she explains. Work on drafting the plan began in 2013, in partnership with the local public library system, and incorporated well-documented research about summer slide. To concretize the value of the plan, CCPS students in grades three to eight participated in a study with the State Library of Virginia and the Virginia Department of Education. The results showed that over a three-year span, students who participated in a summer-reading program performed better on standardized reading tests than students who did not take part in summer-reading programs.

However, improving test scores is not the primary goal for CCPS. "Our two main goals are, first, that students belong to a community of readers who value lifelong reading habits and, second, that they participate in the summer-reading plan to establish those lifelong reading habits and literacy skills," Donovan says. Preventing the achievement gap among students falls in line with this strategy. "If you can close the gap at the emergent-reading stage, you are not constantly playing catch-up," she adds.

Each of the 61 schools in Donovan's district was challenged to design its own plan, including an individual theme, to "implement, sustain, communicate, and celebrate summer reading" and best meet the needs of its community. "We brought in literacy specialists and specially trained librarians and teachers to help schools create a tool kit of ideas to use, too," Donovan says. Proposals were submitted to Donovan's office, and each school was given $1,500 in aid from the Chief Academic Office to get its plan off the ground. Some schools are allotting the money to keep the school library open for certain hours over the summer (and pay the librarian); others are purchasing additional books or materials.

In continued partnership with CCPS, the nine branches of the Chesterfield County Public Library will offer expanded programming that highlights different themes of summer learning with some connection to STEAM, e.g. astronomy, geography, music. The district-wide program kicked off with a CCPS Night at the Library event on June 7, and will conclude on August 30 with another. Throughout, students will attempt to reach a goal of reading 1,000 minutes each, and "accountability is built into it," Donovan notes. Children will be able to keep track via Bingo/Read-O cards and old-fashioned print reading logs, as well as electronically through such online educational platforms as Edmodo and Google Forms. In addition to the public library's resources, students have access to the district's electronic collection through the MackinVia platform. Incentives at various milestones include trinkets from a prize box for younger children; for the older kids, tickets entered in a raffle for bigger prizes such as movie tickets or e-readers. In September the student summer reading logs will be collected and tallied, and schools will hold end-of-the-program celebrations. "We are very excited," Donovan says. "The plans I read were really creative; people were really thinking outside the box."

On a broader scale, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, which is part of the State Board of Education, launched a statewide effort in 2013 called Give Five Read Five. The brainchild of state superintendent June Atkinson, the initiative was designed to help local districts reduce summer learning loss. Each year, parents and community and business leaders are asked to donate five new or gently used children's books to their elementary schools so that students can have five books to take home over the summer and keep. The program hinges on the number five because a Harvard research study showed that reading that many books helps students better retain their skills during summer break.

In its first year, 74 schools collected more than 123,000 books, and in 2015, more than 276 participating schools and other community groups collected and distributed almost 547,000 books. Various national and North Carolina companies and organizations also partner on the Give Five Take Five project, including Myon, a division of Capstone, and Book Harvest, a nonprofit that provides books to low-income children in central North Carolina and runs its own Books on Break program, which provides a new string backpack and 10 books (selected by recipients) to elementary students who are on free or reduced lunch.

This year, the new partnership with Myon is enabling the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to offer every student in the state summertime access to Myon Reader, the company's personalized electronic literacy tool. The top four schools collecting the most books for Give Five Take Five in 2016 (by June 17) will win a free one-year school-wide license to online literacy tools provided by Myon, Achieve3000, and Reading Horizons.

In Philadelphia and Camden, N.J., the nonprofit Springboard Collaborative partners with schools to tackle the reading achievement gap by coaching the district's existing teachers, involving families, and offering incentives (books, school supplies, and tablets) to help students in pre-K through third grade reach reading goals. The five-week Springboard Summer program is a blend of home visits, daily instruction by students' school-year teachers, and weekly family workshops. In 2014, the 1,200 students participating achieved an average 3.4-month gain in reading level.

School's Out Washington offers guidance and provides services that enable organizations to create "quality after-school, youth-development, and summer programs" for kids in that state, ages five to 18. The group's Feed Your Brain project specifically provides funding to "schools, community-based organizations, and tribes running summer-learning programs in rural areas of Washington State" so that they can combat summer learning loss and summertime hunger (providing food for students who are missing out on free or reduced lunch because school is not in session), another critical issue in lower-income communities.

On the national level, the National Summer Learning Association continues to help cities and states spread the word about the importance of providing summer-learning opportunities for children by leading Summer Learning Day (July 14 this year), a national day of advocacy. NSLA provides a tool kit for mayors to use in proclaiming Summer Learning Day in their city, and First Lady Michelle Obama created

a supportive video message for this effort last year. NSLA is encouraging use of the hashtags #KeepKidsLearning and #SummerLearning on social media.

President Obama's administration supports the summer learning mission as well. In February, NSLA partnered with the White House and the U.S. Department of Education for the Summer Opportunity Project. The vision of this initiative is that by 2020 every city and town in the country will provide summer learning and employment opportunities as well as summer meals to all youth who qualify for free or reduced lunch. As part of the project, the Department of Labor awarded $21 million in Summer Jobs and Beyond grants in 11 communities, and the White House named 16 Summer Impact Hubs in such communities as Flint and Detroit, Mich.; Los Angeles; and Jonesboro, Ark., which are slated to receive federal interagency support for learning, meals, and violence-reduction programs. The Open eBooks initiative and e-reader app, first announced in spring 2015 and launched in February of this year, is one of the federal agency commitments to the Summer Opportunity Project. Apart from the Project, in 2015, states introduced more than 175 bills that recommend statewide summer-learning opportunities.

Public Libraries on Their Marks

Public libraries have been the go-to providers of summer reading programs in communities nationwide for decades. Librarians have excelled at creating customized, often incentivized, ways to connect kids and books and stoke reading enjoyment and achievement. As a result, libraries often receive support in these efforts from local and outside sources. For more than 20 years, the Collaborative Summer Library Program-a consortium of state libraries and systems-has been providing its member libraries (now totaling almost 15,000) with a unified summer-reading theme and accompanying professional art and supportive materials so that they can provide high-quality summer-reading programs to children at the lowest possible cost. In 2015, CSLP named two-time Newbery Medalist and former U.S. national ambassador for children's literature Kate DiCamillo its first-ever National Summer Reading Champion to help spread the word about the importance of summer reading. This year, DiCamillo is reprising her role as a spokesperson for the program, which carries the theme On Your Mark, Get Set... Read! She kicked things off May 13 during a live webcast from Edgewood School in Woodridge, Ill., that was viewed by 50,000 students at 975 schools. She's currently on a 20-city national tour for Raymie Nightingale (Candlewick, Apr.), her new novel, and at her various appearances she spreads her enthusiasm for libraries and summer reading.

With the help of corporate sponsors, American Library Association divisions YALSA and ALSC offer annual grants to bolster public library summer reading programs. YALSA's Summer Learning Resources Grant, sponsored by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, awards $1,000 to each of 20 libraries to support summer-reading programs for teens. And the ALSC/Baker & Taylor Summer Reading Program Grant provides $3,000 to one library to encourage reading programs for children. Additionally, ALSC recently formed a Summer Reading and Learning Task Force to explore how the organization can fortify and expand its support of members' work on summer programs.

Scholastic's Challenge

Book publishers of every size are in step with providing summer reading support and frequently feature their titles with thematic book lists, promotions, and additional resources to encourage kids to flex their reading muscles over the school break (see "Strengthening Summer Reading," p. 52, for examples). Scholastic has taken a leadership role on this front with its annual Summer Reading Challenge, a free online reading program designed to keep kids reading throughout the summer. The campaign is officially in its 10th year, but "the Challenge as it exists today has been around since 2009," according to Sara Sinek, v-p of corporate communications at Scholastic. Launched on May 9, this year's Challenge features the theme Be a Reading Superhero and wraps up September 9.

Throughout those 18 weeks, children will log their reading minutes and earn digital rewards for meeting various challenges and milestones, including unlocking first chapters of books in the Scholastic catalogue, and, via a new twist, unlocking the personal stories of 18 Scholastic authors who share their inspirational journey in pieces titled "How I Became a Reading Superhero." Author-illustrator Dav Pilkey, creator of Captain Underpants, is the program's Summer Reading Global Ambassador and has crafted a video message for kids about the importance-and fun-that summer reading holds. He also promoted the first-ever Dav Pilkey Be a Reading Superhero Contest for K-8 educators (March 21-April 11), with one school in each state winning the prize of one Scholastic book for every student in their school to jump-start their summer reading.

At the program's end, the school in each U.S. state and territory (as well as in the District of Columbia) that has logged the most reading minutes will be named "Best in State" and featured in the 2017 Scholastic Book of World Records. By May 23, just three weeks into the program, kids nationwide had already racked up 30 million reading minutes. On the whole, according to Sinek, the Challenge is a way to "bridge school and home for students. It's a solution that meets the needs of teachers, parents, and kids."

Sinek says that a key component of the Challenge is to "get out into the community," noting that the company continues to work with governor spouses (which Scholastic sought out specifically) in more than 40 states who have signed on to be Scholastic Summer Reading Ambassadors. "They host reading events in all kinds of different ways," she says. To further expand community outreach and involvement, Scholastic is putting the pedal to the metal with the launch of the Summer Reading Road Trip. Two RVs are traveling the country, logging 10,000 highway miles between May 2 and July 31 and making stops at independent bookstores, libraries, and elementary schools in more than 25 cities, where they will host free reading festivals for kids and families. More than 50 events have been planned, and at least 100 Scholastic authors across the country are participating. According to Julie Amitie, executive director of marketing at Scholastic, "it's been lots of fun so far." She adds, "Each state has its own personality," noting that some retailers even team up with other local partners, like a farmer's market, for their events. The ripple effect continues with authors, as well. "It's been great for kids to be able to interact with authors, and the authors have been so excited to participate," Amitie says.

The passion among those who work to combat children's summer learning loss is evident. And, unfortunately, statistics on resource disparities and rising poverty rates indicate that such passion is necessary, as educators and librarians must continue to create enriching, structured summer learning experiences for kids. But in the midst of these summer efforts, advocates say an instilled love of reading is never forgotten. DiCamillo's CSLP Summer Reading Champion letter of encouragement to young readers offers a reminder: "Through stories, you can enter a new world and connect with others in your school, in your family, and across the country who are also reading," she writes. "And when someone asks you what you did with your summer, you can proudly show them your reading log and tell them all about the great stories you experienced and all the heroes you met."
What Publishers Are Doing to Strengthen Summer Reading Are Publishers Influenced by Teacher and Librarian Feedback? N.Y.C. Schools' Carmen Fariña Turns a Page on E-books

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The summer slide-the learning loss that occurs when students are not engaging in educational activities during summer vacation-has been a challenge for educators and parents for many years, and its existence is backed up by a solid body of research amassed over the better part of a century.

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Make it a community school event. We do not currently have a summer reading program or expectation at my school. Individual teachers send booklists, and we pass out information from the public library.  I think if we had a school wide idea or competition this might encourage more students to read over the summer as it is an expectation of the community.  To provide more access, I plan to do a field trip to our local public library with signed permission slips to get a library card to access e-books, and audiobooks on their smartphones.  Also provide information for mobile Newsela for easy access to current news and articles of various interests.  Providing families with information about summer reading loss could help provide why it is important.  Incentives can be beneficial. Many of my reluctant readers are from lower income families.  I wonder if our PTA or school could find monies to pay for a utility bill or several for outstanding summer reading.

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Educators and researchers have long recognized what has come to be known as the "summer slide," the loss of learning that can take place during the summer months if students do not engage in educational activities. Experts say much of the reading achievement gap seen in 9 th grade students nationwide can be traced back to unequal access to summer learning opportunities during the elementary school years. Reversing the summer slide, however, can be as simple as reading more books. In a recent study, Professor Richard Allington of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and his colleagues found that "giving kids 12 books to read over the summer was as effective as summer school in raising the students' reading scores."

Teachers play an important role in helping to create a culture where reading is valued and given priority, even in the summer months. As educators, we can start with six simple action steps to encourage reading over the break:

Read, read, read. Simple as it might sound, making reading a priority in our own lives establishes the credibility necessary to inspire our students to be life-long readers. Some of my favorite reads in 2014 - 2015 include All the Light We Cannot See (Doerr), A Man Called Ove (Backman), The Book Whisperer (Miller), Unbroken (Hillenbrand), The Maze Runner (Dashner), Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein), and Dracula (Stoker). A fun way to stay accountable to your students is to have an ongoing policy or a sign in your classroom that states: Ask me what I'm reading right now.

Partner with your local public library. Libraries are wonderful resources for summer reading programs. Chances are a quick look at your local library's website will yield strong results. Ensuring all students have a registered library card, promoting opportunities for students to visit the local library during the school year through field trips, after school programs, or evenings "meet-ups", and partnering with your local library teen liaison can help build momentum moving into summer. Dominican University's Graduate School of Library and Information Studies completed a study confirming "what many librarians have long suspected: students who take part in their local library's summer reading program significantly improve their reading skills."

Check out Scholastic.com. Scholastic is leading the way in helping to build literacy by inspiring kids to embrace reading with the same excitement they show for video games, social media, and sports. Programs like Book Trust are helping students make gains by providing students living in poverty access to quality books at no cost. Getting involved is as easy as donating $1. Learn more about Scholastic's Book Trust program.

Give books as gifts. I wrote an article last year about giving pencils out to students, no strings attached, any time they ask or need one, no matter how many pencils it may cost. It created quite a stir and broke some records at Teaching Tolerance for blog hits. The same idea applies to books. As resourceful teachers, we can find ways to gather books throughout the school year. As an end-of-the-year gift, why not give a kid a book to read over the summer? Even better, get students involved in book clubs that agree to read one book during summer break. Especially for students returning to the same campus, book clubs can help maintain momentum and provide positive accountability for summer reading. Positive peer pressure works even better than teacher encouragement. Students can also get involved in classroom book exchanges, where they swap used books with each other.

Set aside time at school for sustained silent reading. Consider the obvious: Kids do what they enjoy doing. The more kids read self-selected books, the more they will develop a fondness for - and take ownership of - reading. School is one place we can set aside time for kids to read. Demands on teachers are higher than ever; however, we still have some control over what kids do in our classrooms. Simple policies like making sure students always have a book on hand and requiring them to read in class whenever they finish early can drastically increase the minutes kids spend reading each week.

Author Donalyn Miller writes extensively about "stealing minutes" in her book The Book Whisperer. Even in small stints, time set aside for reading can make a difference in kids' attitudes and affinity. Stealing minutes is as much a life skill as an opportunity. (Miller's test scores are always high despite her unwillingness to engage in test prep madness.) Teaching kids to look for opportunities to read will benefit them long after their time as students.

Create an email contact list and send encouraging emails once or twice during the summer. A summer email can remind and motivate busy families to add reading to the weekly schedule. Consider sending a couple of emails sharing with families what you are reading and encouraging/reminding them to get that library card, visit a used book store, hit garage sales, etc. for inexpensive books. You can recommend titles, provide reviews of what you are reading, and even plan a date to meet up with families at the local public library for a "check-in/check-out" (check in with each other to check out books) session. Simply communicating with families can make a big difference in how much kids read over the summer.
Chad Donohue teaches English, writing, and social studies at Park Place Middle School in Monroe, Washington. He also teaches composition and public speaking at Northwest University in Kirkland and blogs regularly for Teaching Tolerance.

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6 Ways To Use Reading to Prevent the Summer Slide - NEA Today

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Educators and researchers have long recognized what has come to be known as the "summer slide," the loss of learning that can take place during the summer months if students do not engage in educational activities.

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For a small community, we do the summer reading program in a big way.  And yet, we still are affected by the summer slide! Not every student who needs to be reading is getting to these programs. How do we best educate parents of the importance of summer reading (reading any day for that matter!)?   Get them to the reading programs with their children.  Entice them to attend by offering a grand drawing for the parents, say a new car, or, more realistically $100, at the beginning of the school year.  Any student who has read 5 or books gets to put there parent’s name into the drawing.  Perhaps summer reading programs at libraries could also offer a free meal and/or have random drawings that would offer gift certificates to local restaurants.  But some incentive to get the adults to get the children to the summer reading program.

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Should you give parents freebies like gift cards and certificates to entice them to attend school activities or to reward them when their kids do well in class?

Yes. I'm a believer now.

Critics of the idea say that it's not right to pay parents to do their jobs. But when done well, this "incentivizing" is way more than just bribing parents with Walmart gift cards.

Incentives and parent programming should go hand in hand. When offered together, they help parents acquire skills to support their child's education and even tighten the bond within fragmented families.

A good example is the free Parent University computer classes offered to families of Cleveland schoolkids through OneCommunity, a nonprofit working to spread use of digital technology in low-income areas. Participants receive 24 hours of training, a free refurbished computer and a discount on Internet service.

As parents learn to navigate the keyboard, they're also getting a lesson in how to help their child with math and reading.

Yuvonne Brooks had to laugh, remembering how a persistent staff member at her granddaughter's school nagged her until she signed up.

Brooks, who is raising granddaughter Aliyah and lives in Outhwaite Estates, a Cleveland housing project, just wasn't interested at first. But now, she has her first computer "and I'm having a ball with that thing," she said.

She is teaching Aliyah, 5, to use the mouse and keyboard, and she is sure it'll soon give her granddaughter an advantage when her kindergarten class starts using computers. Next, Brooks plans to learn to video-chat with a daughter who just moved out of state. "It was just one step into that computer room, and look how wide my world has become," she marveled.

The program's goal "is to enable low-income folks who are on the wrong side of the digital divide to get on the right side of it. We want people to have a home broadband connection. We feel it's a tool for a lot of purposes," said project director Bill Callahan of OneCommunity.

Woven into the curriculum is an introduction to "Accelerated Reader" and "First in Math" software, so parents can teach their elementary school-age students to use these skill-building programs. Parents of teens learn to navigate the Naviance software that the district uses for college and career preparation, according to Tracy Hill, executive director of family and community engagement for Cleveland schools.

Eighty parents signed up for this program, making it one of the better-attended classes offered by the Cleveland School District's Parent University series. Introduced last year, Parent University has been met with a mixed response. Some programs drew a crowd; others pulled in only a few attendees.

A new series starts Saturday, with a kickoff from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at John Adams High School, 3817 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Registration is required; call 216-858-0117 or go online to cmsdnet.net.

The district says it surveyed parents and has adjusted its lineup after getting feedback. "It's all about finding the hook for the parent, in terms of what they want and need," Hill said.

Anyone who does this kind of work in urban schools can attest that it's not easy getting parents to take part. An ex-employee of Cleveland schools, one of dozens of parent-engagement workers who lost their jobs two years ago because of budget cuts, told me that the only way he ever succeeded in drawing more than a dozen parents to monthly meetings was to give out freebies. "If something free -- generally food, clothes or supplies -- was being offered, then possibly 40 to 50 people would attend. But [it was] always the same parents and guardians," he said.

You can roll your eyes about this, or you can get solution-oriented. If giving away freebies is the best lever you've got to motivate parents to make time for something they don't usually do, then that's what you've got todo.
Grass-roots promotion, free food can be key
My suggestion is to seize the opportunity and use the incentives to bring parents into events that inform, enrich and stabilize their families' lives. One local woman who teaches classes on filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid says she wins over a lot of parents when she explains that she can help them access college money for themselves, not just their children.

At Warner Girls Leadership Academy on Cleveland's East Side, the information has evolved into its own incentive. Monthly luncheons reliably draw a crowd of mothers eager to hear the keynote speech, which is delivered by a successful local woman.

"As parents, we come for the leadership luncheons, too. It's not just for our girls," said Michelle Smith, mother of a third-grader. The speakers, she said, talk about careers, finances, relationships and other topics she finds helpful.

Smith, a single mom with a Cleveland State University degree, is unemployed but believes she's close to getting a job offer. "As parents, we sometimes need to be encouraged ourselves," Smith said. "I've been inspired to see women who were doing even more than what I've seen or know of myself."

Sometimes the problem is in the publicizing. To fill a room up with parents, you really need everyone -- teachers, staff, fellow parents and even children -- not so gently spreading the word.

And always, always, it helps to offer food. Educators from all over the city echoed this point -- providing a family meal is your best selling point when it comes to attracting busy, broke and overwhelmed parents. At Citizens Academy in Cleveland, officials know it's tough for parents to cook dinner on a school night and make it to a school meeting too, so they make a point of offering childcare and plenty of pizza and salad for everybody.

Yet cash-strapped schools can hardly afford these types of extras. Foundations, clubs, businesses and concerned individuals could have a real impact here, if they wanted to pitch in. For example, the Western Reserve chapter of Links Inc., a black women's volunteer group, funds Warner school's inspiring mom-and-daughter luncheons.

Fred Knuckles, who oversees a school-based fatherhood program at University Settlement in the Broadway area, gives out gift cards for gas and shopping to help the low-income dads he's trying to attract.

"We don't have the funds we used to, but we do give them out occasionally. When we have the money, we'll give a father a gas card. We all know families need gas to get where they need to go," Knuckles said.

"We've given dads gift cards to restaurants, so they can take their families out."

His gifts have meaning. They can help a struggling dad care for his family.

Taking a cue from Harlem program

Freebies are a trademark of the famed Harlem Children's Zone, a comprehensive program that aims to stop the generational cycle of poverty. In his book examining the Harlem effort, "Whatever It Takes," author Paul Tough chronicles how the program's recruiters tout freebies like a $100 gift card to woo parents to sign up for its Baby College training program.

I interviewed Tough recently and asked for his thoughts about the program's aggressive incentivizing. "I feel like anything that gets parents through the door is really positive for their kids," he responded.

Like many I interviewed in Cleveland for this series, Tough believes the carrot of a free gift is important at first, to get sign-ups, but from there the quality of programming should take over to keep the parent engaged.

Harlem parents at the Baby College graduation party clearly seemed proud of themselves, Tough noted. "It just felt good. It felt like they were being celebrated and respected and appreciated as parents."

Parents from low-income neighborhoods, he added, "just don't hear that message. They hear the message that they're not doing a good job, they're poor parents. That really wears you down and makes you resentful."

I mentioned that I'd talked to many Cleveland parents who dropped out of high school themselves and don't have good memories of being in school.

Said Tough: "I feel that's a big obstacle. Now they're parents; we want them to come in and feel empowered and feel engaged."

But rewiring these parents doesn't happen automatically.

Incentives play a necessary role. Bring 'em on.

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Parent programs and incentives should go hand-in-hand, to stabilize fragmented families (gallery)

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Should you give parents freebies like gift cards and certificates to entice them to attend school activities or to reward them when their kids do well in class? Yes. I'm a believer now. Critics of the idea say that it's not right to pay parents to do their jobs.

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Our tiny town, population, 1024 puts on an amazing summer reading program to help address the summer reading slide. Our tireless local librarian, Brenda, should be given sainthood! As with many summer reading programs, each summer there is a theme. Brenda works all year long to prepare activities, gather trinkets, collect books and book bags, and get donations for prizes for readers. Kids/parents track log their summer reading and get to place raffle tickets according to their amount of reading to win amazing prizes. Additionally, Brenda brings in weekly activities and entertainment to bring our little community together on the lawn of the library. One year, for the older kids, two books were being turned into movies in the fall. Brenda got donations to give each child, grade 3-8, one or both books. They got to keep the books. If they came to the library and filled out a 'book report' type form after reading, they received 3 movie ticket that could be used to see the movie when it came out in the fall (lots of donations needed). When school resumed, 9 of my 24 incoming 5th graders had read one or both books. Sometimes the grass roots efforts have just as much impact as nationwide programs.

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As a middle school teacher, one of the problems that many of my students face is lack of access to books when school is not in session. Many of them must stay home to watch younger siblings and are unable to be taken to or go on their own to the library. So, a way that I try to help with this is by providing students with free access codes to open ebooks, a large ebook collection that you or your student can register for free and be allowed to borrow ebooks to read on an Apple or Android device. It has all grade levels, accessibility features like text to speech and fonts for those who are dyslexic, and as a teacher, you can request up to 500 access codes at one time, which allows a student to access the books from a maximum of 3 devices, so they can share with the family.

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Open eBooks is a partnership between the Digital Public Library of America, The New York Public Library, and First Book, with content support from digital books distributor Baker & Taylor and login support from Clever. This effort is made possible by generous commitments of publishers with funding support provided in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Alfred P.

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One of the reading programs that we have used to motivate students is Reading Eggs. There are three different programs within the site that vary depending on age and ability level of students. I am most familiar with Reading Eggs Junior which is intended for ages 2-4 because my own toddler enjoys listening to books on the site, but we have also purchased Reading Eggs within our school. Reading Eggs Junior focuses on fun games and read a loud books to build phonemic awareness and word building for young children. Reading Eggs (ages 3-7) continues to focus on phonemic awareness while incorporating phonics and vocabulary skills. Reading eggs and Reading Eggspress (ages 7-13) address all of the skills from the other two programs as well as fluency. Students participate in self-paced lessons that focus on skills in a fun and engaging way. Online libraries are included with Reading Eggs and include 250 books. The program does cost $10 a month for parents, but there is a free online trial that can be utilized before the purchase. The program is online, so if a child's school has purchased a licence they are able to access the program without paying for it.

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As a substitute, I haven't seen if different buildings in particular have programs for the summer. However, Bend La Pine school district has a program called OverDrive Summer Read. The program gives students free access to a variety of ebooks that are available to them from June 6th through July 18th. This program is used in other places as well as Canada. This program is helpful for kids who have access to a phone, ipad, computer, etc, but they don't have easy access to a library or books of their own. OverDrive Summer Read comes with activities for the book and podcasts. There are books for young readers, but also middle/high school aged kids too.

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OverDrive's one stop shop for promotional resources, content recommendations, staff training and product information. Contact your OverDrive Team for additional assistance.

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Family engagement is the key to the summer reading slide epidemic. There are so many incentive programs, library summer reading programs, and online programs, but some children continue to lack the positive reading influence over the summer months (especially in rural and lower- socioeconomic areas). We need to help foster the intrinsic motivation for reading--reading for the joy of reading, not for a pizza or prize.  The key is a reading model in the home. I believe, as educators in the 21st century, we must think outside the box, be proactive, and provide opportunities to infuse literacy into the home environment. One way is to teach students how to capture reflections, reading fun, and work samples on an on-line app, such as Seesaw. Seesaw is an on-line portfolio where students, teachers, and families can draw pictures, take pictures, share reflections, and record videos. I use this in the classroom currently with my 2nd graders and parents view their child’s portfolio entries whenever they create a new writing, reading, math, or science work sample, project, or reflection. I thought this would be a great way to extend learning, classroom connections, and family connections throughout the summer with a reading quest.  I feel it is important to connect families and provide opportunities for parents and extended family to learn strategies to enjoy reading at home. I will host a Parent/Student/Teacher Summer Reading Night where we (students teaching parents) review the on-line programs used this year including See saw, RAZ-kids, Epic, and Storyline Online. to ensure access for all.  We will review the most important strategies we learned this year and provide parents with a bookmark with the strategy ideas listed for quick access.  Families will all leave with two free books (English, Spanish or both), online list, reading strategies bookmark, and calendar schedule of our Reading Quest events to post on Seesaw. I will have questions listed on the Summer Reading Quest calendar that would fit with any story that families read together or students read on their own (i.e., Study the main character in your story. What did you notice about the character? How does he/she change throughout the story? Or What reflections do you and your family have about your story today? Or What questions do you have about your story today? What would you ask the author?) Then they can choose to post the reply on one of the days and respond to another friend or my post. I will post about my reading experiences as well. I believe that we can all learn from each other.  I was also thinking of the families that might not have access to the internet and share with them the free access at our local public library if they are not already connected with this service. I was thinking it would be fun to make one day each month (or bi-weekly) a day we meet at the library for a read-aloud or buddy reading day. Then we can post our reflections on the story. There are endless possibilities, my mind keeps thinking of options. The main goal is for parents to continue connecting with their readers in positive ways.

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My first choices to prevent summer reading loss would be summer school or getting kids to the public library, but, unfortunately, that is not always possible. Since my district won't pay for summer school, I think my plan may be to print out books from Reading A-Z (at least no one has limited my copies!). The books are leveled, there's a good variety of fiction and nonfiction and even graphic novels, and since there are so many choices, I can let the students choose books that they're interested in. Even if your district doesn't have a subscription to Reading A-Z, you could still make it happen if you time it correctly; I believe they offer a 30 day free trial, and you can download as many books as you want during that time.

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Reading A-Z: The online reading program with downloadable books to print and assemble | Reading A-Z

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Award-winning reading solution with thousands of leveled readers, lesson plans, worksheets and assessments to teach guided reading, reading proficiency and comprehension to K-5 students

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I think one of the most effective ways to combat summer reading loss is to get the whole family involved. Many of the students I work with have parents who are not literate in English or literate in general, and so there are not many opportunities to practice literacy skills when they are at home all summer. One thing my school district started last year is a family education program where a variety of classes are offered in the evening during the school year for every member of students’ families, including English literacy classes for adults. My district also offers summer school for current PreK-12 students, but I think it would be extra meaningful to offer the programming for the whole family to give students and parents an opportunity to read and learn together. If students see that their parents value literacy, even if it is difficult, they may be more inclined to persevere in developing their own literacy skills as well.

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Reading Rockets offers a rich library of classroom strategies, articles, parent tip sheets, FAQs, videos, research briefs and more - providing research-based and best-practice information for educators, parents, and others who work with young readers. Browse by the topics listed below!

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To curve summer reading loss, students need access to books.  In my SPED program at PSU, our class went on a field trip to the Children’s Book Bank.  It is an amazing organization that provides donated books to the community.  Children get a bundle of books to take home and keep. Their idea is that if books are readily available at home, then students will spend more time reading with their parents/caretakers or on their own.  This will enhance their literacy skills needed to be successful in school. Another great thing about this organization is that they provide culturally diverse books.  When our class visited the warehouse, we spent time cleaning up donated books so that they look brand new to the next owner.  The Children’s Book Bank is committed to making change in the community and I hope it can be used as a resource for students, especially in the summer.

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The Children's Book Bank Supporting Early Literacy & Changing Lives Through Books Make a Gift

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Our district has tried a variety of methods for combating summer reading loss. Summer school was cut about 10 years ago. A few years later, we started a program funded by Title I funds called Jump Start. It served students entering 1st-3rd grades and focused on reading. It was a three week program. It was cancelled due to lack of data supporting it's effectiveness. Now, we have a summer library program, and I have seen no hard data to prove it's effectiveness, but there is plenty of anecdotal data to support this program. We have a high poverty rate, and last summer, our county libraries had been closed due to county budget. Having our school libraries open was such an asset to our school community. On the days I visited at my school, all the "right" (meaning those who need it most) kids/families were there reading and using educational technology. Although ultimately I believe school should be year round, summer library programs are a sound runner up.

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School libraries open to Roseburg kids this summer | Roseburg | nrtoday.com

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When I taught kindergarten, one of the most heartbreaking things to see was student
s entering first grade at a lower reading level than what they were able to do just ten weeks prior. Something that my building did was implement Summer Library. We were able to fund two opportunities per week where students were able to come to the school library and participate in activities, read alouds, and book check out. We would have Summer Library with the Free Lunch program in mind. Doors were open from 10am-1pm and the Free Lunch program operated from 11am-12pm. Families could come and go as they needed and it provided access to books all summer long for students. I love the program available to students at the public library, but for some that is too far away and traveling is not possible. This way, students can come to their neighborhood school and participate in summer reading activities!

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​What kinds of prizes?

The first 10 hours of reading or listening earns you 10 prize drawing tickets for chances to win prizes in one of two Summer Reading Club prize drawings.

20 hours of reading or listening earn 10 more prize drawing tickets and a certificate for a free prize book to be redeemed at the carnival or at the Youth Services Ask Here Desk by early September.

Last day to turn in tickets is Thursday, August 9.

Bag 1: Summer Fun

1. Enchanted Forest, 2 passes

2. Wilsonville Family Fun Center & Bullwinkle Restaurant, 2 $20 game cards and large pizza

3. Salem's Riverfront Carousel, 10 ride passes

4. Best Little Roadhouse, 4 passes for 1 round of mini-golf

5. Northern Lights Theatre Pub: 4 free admission tickets Sun. through Thu. (7 draws)

6. Oregon Coast Aquarium, 5 general admission tickets (2 draws)

7. Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, one year Family Level membership

Bag 2: Rock Out!

1. Soprano Ukulele and Kid's Uke Activity Book (2 draws)

2. Flexible Sensitive Children's Electronic Piano Keyboard

3. Diatonic Harmonica and Harmonica for Kids book

4. Kids Electric Drum Set

5. Yamaha Soprano Recorder and Star Wars for Recorder book

6. Remo Kids Percussion Bongo Drum

7. Glockenspiel percussion instrument

8. West African Djembe drum and Mbira thumb piano

9. Band in a box! Musical instruments (from Salem Discovery Music Center)

Bag 3: Read Me a Story

1. Penguin plush and Mr. Poppers Penguins book (Patron donation)

2. Disney Descendants Wicked World Cinestory boxed set (Patron donation)

3. Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! book pack: The Good for Nothing Button!, It's Shoe Time!, We Are in an ART-ivity Book! (Patron donation)

4. Lego Elves book pack: A Magical Adventure Activity Book, Quest for the Keys, The Dragon Queen (Patron donation)

5. OBOB Friendship book pack: George, Whole New Ballgame, Wish, Real Friends (Patron donation)

6. OBOB Being Yourself book pack: Wild Robot, Waylon! One Awesome Thing, Rollergirl, Ugly (Patron donation)

Bag 4: Let the Games Begin!

1. Karate for Kids, Karate Party: one hour group karate lesson for 20 kids 5 yrs old and up (2 draws)

2. Salem Family YMCA, 3 month family membership (3 draws)

3. Wilson Traditional Soccer Ball, size 4

4. Franklin Junior Basketball and Scholastic Year in Sports 2018 book (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

5. Pokemon 2018 Collector's Chest Tin (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

6. Game On! 2018 and Guinness World Records 2018 Gamer's Edition (Patron donation)

7. Guinness World Records 2018 (Patron donation)

8. Seek and Find: Where's Waldo Fantastic Journey and Where's the Wookiee? books (Patron donation)

9. Kids yoga gift bag -"Om!" (from WiseMind Education Services) WiseMind Yoga canvas bag with: Mindful Moments Card Deck, Kids Teach Yoga DVD, Breathing Sphere & Yoga Mat

Bag 5: Yum!

1. Fitts Seafood, $25 gift certificate

2. LifeSource Natural Foods $10 gift card with chocolate bar (6 draws)

3. Movie Night! Northern Lights Theatre Pub: two tickets (Sun through Thu) and Roth's Fresh Markets, $20 gift certificate

4. E.Z. Orchards, pass for 2 to Harvest Fest and half-dozen donuts

5. Straight from New York, slice of pizza card in candy filled container (10 draws)

Bag 6: Discover the World!

1. Everything Kids' Science Experiments and Lego Science: Adventure in the Real World books (Patron donation)

2. Nat. Geo. Gemstone Dig Kit and Nat. Geo. Everything Rocks & Minerals book (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

3. Nat. Geo. Shark Tooth Dig Kit and Lego Deep Dive: Adventure in the Real World book (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

4. Kids Microscope set (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

5. Scientific Explorer My First Mind Blowing Science Set (from Pioneer Trust Bank) and Gilbert House Children's Museum, 2 free passes

6. Kids Stethoscope and 2 Doc McStuffins books (2 draws) (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

7. 13 Planets and Lego Planets: Adventure in the Real World books (Patron donation)

8. Klutz Make Your Own Soap Science Kit (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

9. A World of Music: gourd flute, mini-kora stringed instrument, Putamayo French Playground CD (from One Fair World)

Bag 7: Read Me a Story 2

1. Lakota Stories book pack: In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse and Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrender (Patron donation)

2. OBOB Fantasy book pack: Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, The Infinity Year of Avalon James, Nightbird, Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (Patron donation)

3. The Book Bin, $10 gift certificate

4. OBOB The Power of Stories book pack: Book Scavenger, Hana's Suitcase, In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse, When the Sea Turned Silver (Patron donation)

5. Busca y encuentra: (Spanish language books): ¿Qué se esconde dentro del mar? y ¿Dónde está Wally? (Patron donation)

6. Reader's Guide Bookstore: $15 gift certificate

7. Lego Pop-Up Book (patron donation)

Bag 8: Out and About

1. AMF Firebird Lanes, pass for 4 people/2 hours & shoes (2 draws)

2. Bush House Museum, entry pass for up to 10 people

3. Hide and Seek Rock Painting Kit (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

4. Gilbert House Children's Museum, 4 free passes (12 draws)

5. Travel Bingo en route, Where's Waldo Travel Collection and Kid's Travel Journal books (patron donation)

6. Pair of Walkie Talkies (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

7. Get Air! swag bag: T-shirt (Youth xl), flying disc, water bottle, 2 one hour jump passes

Bag 9: My Best Friend

1. Vintage Madame Alexander doll: Portrettes Rosette (Patron donation)

2. Vintage Madame Alexander doll: Melanie and Hoop Skirts and Crinoline Paper Dolls (Patron donation)

3. Vintage Madame Alexander doll: Clara Barton (Patron donation)

4. Vintage Madame Alexander doll: Anastasia (Patron donation)

5. Vintage Madame Alexander doll: Claudette (Patron donation)

6. Vintage Madame Alexander doll: Heidi (Patron donation)

7. Pet, Etc., $20 gift certificate

8. Vintage Madame Alexander dolls: Anne of Green Gables & Diana (Patron donation)

Bag 10: Build and Play!

1. Origami and Other Fun Fold Ups book (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

2. Lego Classic Creative Building Blocks Set (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

3. Lego Juniors Fire Patrol Building set (from Pioneer Trust Bank) and Fire Truck to the Rescue!, Heroes to the Rescue books (Patron donation)

4. Lego Friends Andrea's Musical Duet Building Set (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

5. Brain Flakes Interlocking plastic disc building set

6. Lego Mercedes-AMG GT3 Building Set (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

7. Star Wars Millennium Falcon Revell Build Kit (from Pioneer Trust Bank)

Last day to turn in tickets is Thursday, July 12. Winners announced Friday, July 20.

Bag 1: All About the Books

1. J.R.R. Tolkien Mass Market Paperback Box Set: The Hobbit and the three books of the Lord of the Rings series (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King)

2. Signed by the author! Falling Over Sideways by Jordan Sonnenblick (paperback)

3. Teen Tough Times Graphic Novel Pack: Speak by Larie Halse Anderson (hardcover);The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (paperback)

4. A Wrinkle in Time Two Ways: A paperback copy of the classic novel, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle paired withA Wrinkle in Time: A Graphic Novel by Hope Larson

Bag 2: More Books and More

1. Coraline Two Ways Pack: Paperback novel Coraline by Neil Gaiman with a DVD copy of the movieCoraline

2. Fantasy by Candlelight: Hardbound copy of Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor paired with a Novelly Yours brand The Dreaming Tree candle (harvest apple & night scent)

3. Pi: A Novel Journal (the journal lines are the digits of pi in teeny, tiny text!) with a gift certificate to Willamette Valley Pie Co.

4. Wires and Nerve Duology: The graphic novel adaptation of The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer, includingWires and Nerve Vol. 1 and Wires and Nerve Vol 2: Gone Rogue

5. Classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Rulebook Set: Paperback copies of the 1996 versions of the Dungeon Master Guide, Monstrous Manual, and Players Handbook

Bag 3: Places to Go

1. Voucher for two season tickets for Enlightened Theatrics in Salem (donated by Enlightened Theatrics)

2. Much Ado about Shakespeare Pack: Voucher for two tickets to an upcoming show at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2018 season (expires October 28, 2018; donated by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival) with a copy of The Shakespeare Timeline Wallbook with a six-foot fold-out full color graphic timeline of William Shakespeare's works and Much Ado About Mad Libs, Shakespeare-theme Mad Libs pad

3. Explore Willamette University Pack #1: Willamette University Nike drawstring backpack with Willamette University T-shirt and Glow-in-the-Dark WU solar eclipse T-shirt (will trade to suit size of recipient); family pass to visit the Hallie Ford Museum of Art; two tickets to an upcoming Willamette University theater production; and Willamette University imprinted waterbottle, cup, key chain, shoestrings, and mini-buttons.

4. $10 gift card to Archive Coffee (donated by Archive Coffee) (3 prizes)

5. $10 gift card to LifeSource Natural Foods with a bar of chocolate (donated by LifeSource Natural Foods) (2 prizes)

6. Slice card from Straight from New York Pizza in a candy-filled container (donated by Straight from New York Pizza) (20 prizes)

7. Western Oregon University Swag Pack: WOU-imprinted lanyard, window cling, and refrigerator magnet (donated by Western Oregon University) (2 prizes)

8. Chemeketa Community College Camelbak Chute Stainless Vacuum Insulated bottle with CCC lanyard and pencil (donated by Chemeketa Community College)

9. Chemeketa Community College T-shirt black with sparkles and pink lettering (Women's Medium with black and white-striped beanie and CCC pencil (donated by Chemeketa Community College)

10. Chemeketa Community College Supplies Pack #1: CCC binder and CCC notebook with built-in pencil pouch with two CCC pencils (donated by Chemeketa Community College)

11. Portland State University Swag Pack

Bag 4: Things To Do

1. $25 Best Buy gift card (donated by Best Buy in Salem) (2 prizes)

2. Two admission passes to the Portland Japanese Garden (donated by the Portland Japanese Garden)

3. Certificate for one month of free music lessons from the River City Rock Star Academy and a River City Rock Star Academy backpack (donated by RiverCity Rock Star Academy)

4. Four-pack of tickets to Northern Lights Theater Pub (donated by Northern Lights Theater Pub) (3 prizes)

5. Four-pack of tickets to the Oregon Coast Aquarium (donated by the Oregon Coast Aquarium)

6. Trader Joe's Reusable Grocery Bag filled with goodies from Trader Joe's (donated by Trader Joe's)

7. The Ludicrous Library-500 piece puzzle from Ravensburger

8. Love This Live Inspirational Quote Coloring Book and Crayola Twistables Set

9. Libraries Rock! spiral-bound journal with Libraries Rock! Pen (2 prizes)

10. Libraries Rock! paperback coloring journal with set of Mini-Colored Pencils and Sharpener (2 prizes)

11. Libraries Rock water bottle with Libraries Rock! pen and buttons

12. $10 Jamba Juice gift card (2 prizes)

13. Zombie Poster Pair: medium-sized "Warning: This area has not been checked for zombies" poster + larger "Caution: Zombies ahead" poster

​ Last day to turn in tickets is Thursday, August 9. Winners announced Friday, August 17.

Bag 5: All About Those Books

1. Signed by the author! The Secret Sheriff of the Sixth Grade by Jordan Sonnenblick (hardcover)

2. The Diabolic Duology: The Diabolic and The Empress by S.J. Kincaid

3. Dust Lands Trilogy: Blood Red Road, Rebel Heart, and Raging Star by Moira Young

4. Women's Voices Book Pack: Secrets for the Mad: Obsessions, Confessions, and Life Lessons by Dodie;Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Penelope Baglieu

Bag 6: Even More Books and More

1. Harry Potter Journaler's Pack: Harry Potter Hogwart's Lined Journaling Notebook; Harry Potter-themed pencil pack in a black cotton pencil pouch decorated with the Hermoine Granger quote, "When in doubt, go to the library," and paperback copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in a blue "Don't let the Muggles get you down" cloth tote

2. Doctor Strange Two Ways Pack: A copy of the graphic novel Doctor Strange: The Way of the Weird with a DVD copy of the movieDoctor Strange

3. I Read Banned Books Pack: Banned Books Mug paired with copies of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain andThe Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

4. $10 gift card to Big Five Sports with a copy of the non-fiction book Sneakers by Rodrigo Corral, Alex French, and Howe Kahn

5. "Books fall open. You fall in" decorative heavy satin wall-hanging

6. Reading by Candlelight: Copy of the graphic novel Piper by Jay Asher and Jessica Freeburg paired with a Spireside Candles miniature wax burner with Hansel and Gretel scented wax

7. The Secrets of the Eternal Rose Series: Venom, Belladonna, and Starling by Fiona Paul

8. Marvel Comics Classic Pack: Night Thrasher: Four Control, Vol. 1, No. 3 and Vol. 1, No. 4; Silver Surfer, Vol. 3, No. 86; Spider-Man, Vol. 1, No. 7 and Vol. 1, No. 16 with a large Marvel Universe wall poster

Bag 7: Places To Go II

1. Voucher for two tickets to an upcoming show at Pentacle Theatre (donated by Pentacle Theatre)

2. Voucher for two tickets to a Oregon Symphony Association in Salem concert in the 2018-2019 season (donated by the Oregon Symphony Association in Salem)

3. Explore Willamette University Pack #2: Willamette Unviersity Nike drawstring backpack with Willamette University T-shirt and Glow-in-the-Dark WU solar eclipse T-shirt (will trade to suit size of recipient); family pass to visit the Hallie Ford Museum of Art; two tickets to an upcoming Willamette University theater production; and Willamette University imprinted waterbottle, cup, key chain, shoestrings, and mini-buttons

4. $10 gift card to Archive Coffee (donated by Archive Coffee)

5. $10 gift card to LifeSource Natural Foods with a bar of chocolate (donated by LifeSource Natural Foods) (2 prizes)

6. Slice card from Straight from New York Pizza in a candy-filled container (donated by Straight from New York Pizza) (20 prizes)

7. $30 gift card to The Duck Store (donated by The Duck Store in Eugene)

8. Western Oregon Unversity Swag Pack: WOU-imprinted lanyard, window cling, and refrigerator magnet (3 prizes)

9. Chemeketa Community College Camelbak Chute Stainless Vacuum Insulated bottle with CCC lanyard and pencil (donated by Chemeketa Community College)

10. Chemeketa Community College Athletic Department 3/4-sleeve gray and white T-shirt (Women's Small) with CCC black lanyard (donated by Chemeketa Community College)

11. Chemeketa Community College Basketball T-shirt short-sleeved gray T-shirt with red lettering (Men's Large) with gray and black Chemekta Storm baseball cap (donated by Chemeketa Community College)

12. Chemeketa Community College Supplies Pack #2: CCC binder and CCC notebook with built-in pencil pouch with two CCC pencils (donated by Chemeketa Community College)

13. Portland State University Swag Pack

Bag 8: Things To Do II

1. Yamaha Electric Guitar in soft-sided gig bag with Teton brand amp (donated by Willamette Valley Music Company)

2. One-year AAA Roadside Assistance and Membership (donated by AAA of Oregon)

3. Four-pack of tickets to Northern Lights Theater Pub (donated by Northern Lights Theater Pub)

4. $25 Best Buy gift card (donated by Best Buy in Salem) (2 prizes)

5. On-the-Go Game Pad: The Paper Cure for Restless Minds - Games of Tic-Tac-Toe, Hangman, Dots & Boxes, Fortune Teller, and Categories all in one handy pad! With Libraries Rock! Pen

6. Four-pack of tickets to the Oregon Coast Aquarium (donated by the Oregon Coast Aquarium)

7. Love This Life: Inspirational Coloring Book for Girls paired with a set of Twistables colored pencils

8. Libraries Rock! spiral-bound journal with Libraries Rock! pen

9. Libraries Rock paperback coloring journal with set of Mini-Colored Pencils and Sharpener

10. Libraries Rock water bottle with Libraries Rock! pen and buttons

11. Mosiac Stepping Stone Kit with three pattern options

12. $10 Jamba Juice gift card

13. Bonjour Paris Coloring Book with 40 Parisian designs paired with a set of Twistables colored pencils

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The first 10 hours of reading or listening earns you 10 prize drawing tickets for chances to win prizes in one of two Summer Reading Club prize drawings. 20 hours of reading or listening earn 10 more prize drawing tickets and a certificate for a free prize book to be redeemed at the carnival or at the Youth Services Ask Here Desk by early September.

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Many things come to mind when I think about ways to remedy summer reading loss. Keeping kids engaged and convincing them of the benefits of practicing reading.I think accessibility is the most important. Many families and students may not know the ways they can stay connected to books during the summer months. If their local library does the summer reading program they can enroll in that program where they track their reading, and then at the end of the summer they turn in their minutes and receive a prize. Then they have some accountability and some incentive to read. If students need help accessing the content there are many great resources available. If they receive special education support they can use BookShare (which reads the book for them), there is also Epic! which has a whole library of books online that students who are reading level K-5 can access. If students have access these resources and have incentive to read they will be able to increase their reading fluency, vocabulary,  and exposure to print.

https://www.bookshare.org/cms/

https://www.getepic.com/

https://multcolib.org/summer-reading

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Reading loss is huge, especially in low income populations, where books can be sparse in the home. This is even more so when students come from non-English speaking homes, at least with my students many families cannot read with their children or help them when they struggle because of the language barrier. One of the ways my district is combating the summer reading loss for our ELL/Migrant populations is summer school, while this doesn't work for all students and is specifically focused on a the ELL/Migrant population it helps in a variety of ways. It gives the students a safe place to be for 4-5 days a week, for 4 or 5 weeks (our program has done both lengths of time). It provides the students with a more hands on school experience where they get to enjoy and participate in many of the things they don't during the school year or can't because of funds. (Field trips and Science Projects) Most of all it provides the students with structured reading throughout the day that they wouldn't get otherwise.

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Willamette Migrant Services - SIS / Migrant Summer School

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The Migrant Education Summer School serves approximately 350 migrant students (ages 3-22) every summer. All migrant students are eligible for summer school services. Students receive targeted instruction in reading and math by highly qualified teachers. The Migrant Summer School Program partners with the Macy's Share Program to provide free educational resources for the students.

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When I watched the Allington video, I was astonished with information he presented on summer reading loss for students, especially lower income students. I believe that parent education is so important, as well as, providing free resources. Parents are their children's number one advocate for their education and learning. If the parents knew how important it is for their children to read and to be read to everyday they would find time to do it. The librarian says the goal is 20 minutes of reading a day. The Forest Grove School District is providing parent workshops for free through the READY for Kindergarten program. They give the parents free teaching materials and activities to work with their children. The information is helpful and accessible for all parents. I also believe in the summer reading programs the public libraries provide.

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Attend a READY! Parent/Caregiver Workshop

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If educational professionals agree that summer vacation is a hugely counter-productive part of the school year, why haven't we gotten rid of it?
I find it infuriating that we even have to have this discussion. Just one more antiquated feature of the US school system.
It leaves educators like us scrambling and brainstorming these band-aid fixes to a totally unnecessary problem.
I have worked at public libraries for five years and so if I had to pick a Summer Reading Loss strategy, I would have to give kudos to the children's librarians who create incentives for summer reading. Is it effective? You can read my peers' responses on this Padlet and hear about counties where the libraries were underfunded and the summer reading program was lacking.
I would rather advocate for a shift in society's misplaced compartmentalization of schools as 'the places where learning happens'. In fact, humans are constantly learning. Our brains are constantly processing experiences and we learn good things and bad things, things that empower us and things that discourage us. The sooner we teach our children to be lifelong learners, and take ownership of their educational process, the sooner the summer reading loss will disappear.
I would like to see us empower students to be self-directed, so that they don't need to be 'in school' to be doing reading and learning.
John Holt, Instead of Education: Ways to Help People do Things Better.

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One idea for preventing summer reading loss that I am a big fan of is summer reading programs, (summer school.) I have participated in summer school teaching for the past 6 years in through Newberg and West Linn/Wilsonville school districts and Clackamas ESD. Each year I am so moved by the growth I see in students. Class sizes are generally much smaller than during the regular school year and students and staff are able to slow down and really connect. Great effort is made to ensure these programs stay enrichment focused and do not fall into remediation. As teachers we work to connect kids with books that truly spark their interest and are a good fit. Generally there is some grumbling at the beginning of the summer school term but by the end staff and students both are making plans to see each other again at next years program. Students are boosted along their way to the next grade with lots of support.
Cobb, M. (July 25, 2017). 6 Ways to Help Kids Combat Summer Reading Loss. Retrieved from www.unitedway.com

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Having taught in a title I school in the Southside of Chicago, many of the students in my classroom had limited access to a computer or the internet over the summer and the local neighborhood library wasn’t the refuge of books it should have been.  It is with that experience in mind that I think one way to help combat this loss is to give children access to books at home.  This involves money.  Donors Choose is a great organization for the public community to connect to teachers and classrooms in need.  For teachers, it is free.  Even better, it's an easy, pain free process. You figure out the items you need, the amount, and cost, and then, write a small grant proposal, grant writing experience not necessary.

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DonorsChoose.org lets you share your classroom needs with a thriving community eager to help. Supporters have brought teachers' ideas to life in more than half of all U.S. public schools.

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We have all had students who have come into the beginning of the school year behind where they were at the end of the previous year. This goes for any subject but in particular reading. We learned that most kids who are falling behind are the ones who are below the poverty line, these kids usually have parents who may work odd hours and cannot be around to read a story a day. Read aloud for kids are very important in keeping them up with their vocabulary and comprehension skills. The program Epic! is a reading app and website where children have access to many up to date books. It is a digital library including videos over different subjects. With Epic! books can be read aloud from picture books to novels. This allows kids to choose what they want to read and have a person read it teaching them prosody, pace and accuracy. It is free for your students if you create a teacher account and give them login information. Teachers are also able to see what kids are reading.

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Free for educators! Give students unlimited in-class access to the best books & videos on Epic

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While I agree that one size does not fit all, and one program will not solve the concern of summer reading loss, for fluency practice in students at second to fifth grade reading levels, Read Naturally is a great program. It has set reading passages that get increasingly difficult which they must record words per minute and errors in a cold read and progressive rereadings. They graph their progress and focus on their positive growth. There are mini-lessons embedded that ask for close reading and comprehension tasks throughout to target other areas of reading instruction affected by fluency. My favorite part of this program for summer is that it is very structured, quick and predictable. Students know what to expect and have a lower affective filter with the practice.

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Approaching reading especially in the summer seems almost like an impossible task. One has to be agile about how to make it seem to students that they are not working when in fact that’s exactly what they are doing. It should be something engaging and that sparks students interest so that summer reading does not feel like a chore for our students who would rather be enjoying their summer vacation. I always tell parents to participate in the public library’s reading program. They do all sorts of neat activities but one of my favorites is the summer scavenger hunt. It also helps that it’s an incentivized program. Let’s face it, students need some sort of motivation to get them started and especially, to keep them going. The scavenger itself consists of bringing in 3 different household items and answering 7 questions. What’s so nice about this program is that it can be done independently but it’s mostly programmed to be done as a family. The questions range in complexity, making it suitable for all grade levels. Some of the questions really tap into a children’s schema and makes them ask those questions, what do I already know about this, what am I confused on and where do I find this information. It makes the student want to know more about the particular item and/or topic. This runs for 10 consecutive weeks, and each week a child has the possibility of earning a prize. If they participate all 10 weeks without interruption they are entered for the grand prize at the end. In the past, children have earned musical instruments and even tickets to the blazers game.

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As I've mentioned, I love me some edtech, and I wanted to include edtech in my response to summer reading loss. For that reason, I recently reviewed the Reading Rewards iOS app, and I think there are some great ways it can be used to support student reading over the summer. The feature that I think has the most potential is the "request reward" option because it allows parents/guardians to offer an incentive for their child based on his/her/their reading. By offering an incentive, it has the potential to involve them in what their kids are reading and how often they are reading. I do concede the point that extrinsic motivation techniques are not always the best route, but I do think they can be useful when encouraging a reluctant reader to read. I linked the review I wrote.

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Reading Rewards is an incentive-based app that uses a rewards system to encourage users to spend time reading and logging the time they spend reading into this app. To begin, users will need to download and register with the app. (Users must be 13 or older to use this app.) As they register, users will need to enter in their birthdate and choose an avatar. Once completed, users will be able to access the app's different sections.

The "My Stats" section shows the user's name, when they joined Reading Rewards, how many minutes they have logged reading, the last book read, and additional information.

The "Log" section allows users to input their reading activities into the the app. To do so, users will need to tap the "+" button on the top right of the screen. They will then have the option to search for the book. Next, users will need to input when they read the book, the minutes they spent reading the book, how many pages they read, any comments they may have, and if they did or did not finish the book.

The "Connect" section gives users the opportunity to reach out to other users they may know who are using this app. To reach out to them, users will need to tap the "+" button on the top right of the screen and search for them by name. Names that match the search term appear, and users can then invite them. In this section, users can also join groups, send messages to one another, and view blog entries by groups.

The "Rewards" section provides prizes for users based on how many minutes they spent reading. (The app converts the minutes to miles.) Users can purchase a prize, if they have enough miles, by clicking the "buy" button next to the prize. In addition, users can click the "Request Reward" option, and it asks users to enter in the email of a parent or guardian. By doing so, the app sends the parent an email explaining that their child requested a reward, and it offers them ideas of potential rewards (e.g., movie night, choosing dessert, etc.). In that email, it also provides directions for parents/guardians to download the app and input a reward.

The "More" section provides access to the app's newsfeed, allows them to pick a new avatar, toggle on/off notifications, modify settings, change password, and logout.

Instructional Ideas for Reading Rewards

1. During the school year, teachers can have students download this app on their device or a device they can access at school. Next, teachers can make silent sustained reading part of their regularly scheduled day or week. At the end of each silent sustained reading period, teachers can have student update their reading log using this app.

2. During breaks and over the summer, teachers can encourage students to continue reading and logging their time spent reading using this app. When they return to school, the students' new teacher can have them continue using this app.

3. Teachers can share this app and their plans to use it with parents/guardians at an open house event and/or during conferences. During that explanation, teachers can encourage parents/guardians to register with the app and use it to monitor their child's reading by using the "request reward" feature in this app. Teachers can further encourage parents/guardians to ask questions about the books their children are reading. Plus, they can read the same books as their child, which can lead to wonderful conversations.

Screenshots

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Reading Rewards: An Incentive-Based Reading Log System at Your Finger Tips review - App Ed Review

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Reading Rewards is an incentive-based app that uses a rewards system to encourage users to spend time reading and logging the time they spend reading into this app. To begin, users will need to download and register with the app. (Users must be 13 or older to use this app.)