What Your Community Can Do:

• Partner across the community with organizations like libraries, book mobiles, book distribution programs, and service organizations to make sure that kids have access to a wide variety of books matched with their interests and abilities.

• Work with summer learning and summer meals providers to ensure that all programs include a variety of reading and enrichment-based activities that build literacy skills.

• Work with engaged community members, including businesses, nonprofits, local schools, and families, to plan a book drive or provide books to children in the community.

• Ask your superintendent or local principals to send home a letter to families with a recommended reading list for students, locations of libraries, and other resources for reading over the summer.

• Engage your mayor or superintendent in an effort to keep school libraries open and accessible to children during the summer months.

SUMMER LEARNING: STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

Key Messages to Use in Your Outreach:

• Low-income students tend to lose more than two months of grade-level equivalency in reading during the summer, despite the fact that their middle-class peers make slight gains, according to research.

• When the children in our community read and engage in literacy activities during the summer, they build critical or important literacy skills and can avoid losing knowledge they have gained during the school year.

• Reading at home can have a big impact on reducing summer learning loss when paired with the right supports, including access to a variety of books that match children’s interests and ability levels, and when comprehension is guided by an adult.

• Summer is an underutilized time for instructional innovation that can transform teaching and learning all year. Many programs are helping to prepare students to meet grade-level reading goals.

• Summer literacy activities should include even the youngest learners. Families can promote learning through fun activities, like reading books together, going to the library and local cultural institutions, or even reading street signs and billboards.

• Community-wide reading challenges can encourage everyone from elected officials to parents to promote reading at least 20 minutes a day over the summer months.

Summer Learning Day Ideas for Your Community:

Hold a community-wide fair or summer kickoff with a variety of summer reading resources, including suggested reading lists, library card sign-up, a local book mobile, or book giveaway.

Conduct a town hall meeting and invite your mayor, local superintendent, local providers, and community members to discuss opportunities for and barriers to summer learning in the community.

Have an elected official such as your mayor or governor issue a proclamation on the importance of summer reading for reaching third-grade reading proficiency.

Ask a school superintendent to send home letters to families about the importance of summer reading, a recommended summer reading list, or local summer reading opportunities.

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Visit summerlearning.org/GLR or email glrpartnership@summerlearning.orgfor more information.

MAKE EVERY WORD COUNT Practices, programs, and policies that expand access to books and integrate literacy skills development in order to help children continue reading and learning over the summer months.

Summer provides an ideal time to expose children to books and other activities that interest them, help strengthen literacy skills, and avoid the risks of summer reading loss. Use this tip sheet as a resource to help guide your community’s plans and actionson this strategy.