3 Best Practices for Your Summer School Literacy Instruction

Early in my teaching career, I agreed to teach summer school for reading intervention. It was 12 days of classes and 3-hours a day of instruction. How hard could it be?

Hard. Very hard. Maybe the most challenging 12-days of my education career to that point. The days were long. The students were listless, and I was unsure that I was helping at all.

Several years later, I was helping teachers with the curriculum for those same summer school days. I tried to create a variety of rich opportunities to keep the day running smoothly. How hard could it be?

Hard. Very hard. I knew from the data which skills students needed, but there was so much content needed to fill 3-hour school days. I needed fresh new texts and strategies to keep students engaged. I needed students (and teachers!) to keep coming back after the first day.

Why summer learning?

Summer is a unique window for learning. A summer school program can be structured to accomplish multiple goals: close gaps, prevent slides, and prepare students for the next year.

While summer school has been a part of the education landscape for years, since the pandemic learning interruptions of 2020 and 2021, summer learning has never been more significant. Students often need both literacy and mathematics support. Research shows that students benefit from summer programs, especially those from low-income backgrounds.

As campuses and districts consider their summer learning options, here are three best practices to keep in mind when designing a literacy-focused summer school program.

1. Use the Right Materials: Challenging, Short Texts

One trap of summer school literacy lessons is making the texts easier. According to a 2018 study of hundreds of classrooms around the country, giving students opportunities to learn with rich, challenging, grade-appropriate texts showed better gains than only working with texts at the student's reading level.

In fact, In classrooms where students had greater access to grade-appropriate assignments, they gained nearly two months of additional learning compared to their peers. (Citation: "The Opportunity Myth" The New Teacher Project, 2018)

But teaching that challenging text is never easy and should be supported by the teacher. Tim Shanahan says, "teaching with more complex text aims to expand the role of teaching in order to maximize the amount of student learning." (Citation: Timothy Shanahan Teaching with Complex Text: Haven't You Ever Heard of the ZPD?, 2020)

Summer Scholars Student Cards Many students would struggle to read a complex text independently on the first reading. That's why using a short text works especially well for summer school. A short text allows for multiple readings. Starting with read-alouds, students can then re-enter the text to untangle sentences with teacher support. Students have less content to grapple with a short text, so finding text evidence is easier.

Using a short, challenging, grade-level text for students will make summer literary programs rigorous, but worthwhile. Students need practice and strategies for grappling with a challenging text. The small classes and extended time of summer school is a great place for this work.

Read more from TCM author Jen Jump about text complexity in her blog Aligning to the Science of Reading: 3 Considerations for Every Teacher.

2. Make learning collaborative and engaging- so they keep coming back!

According to comprehensive research on summer learning by the RAND Institute "attendance is key" for summer learning to have an impact into the next school year (2022). But how do we make summer school appealing? The same study points to programs that "had an inclusive and friendly environment, strong engagement, and positive interactions between adults and students."

One popular model is to structure summer school days with a balance of key academic content and enrichment opportunities. Summer programming can provide the perfect place for students to engage in real-world problem-solving. The extended days and smaller classes of summer are prefect for rich learning that doesn't always have a place during the school year.

While we may be working with reading and math in the morning, the afternoon gives students a chance to try new and engaging activities. Working in pairs or teams on larger projects gives students vital practice with collaboration skills.

Ideas for collaborative and engaging learning: STEAM Challenge Reader's Theater

Reader's Theatre Performances
STEAM Challenges
Problem or Project-Based Learning
Field Trips
Shark Tank-Style Innovation Challenges

In addition to developing content-area skills like reading, writing, speaking, and fluency, engaging programming gives students real reasons to collaborate. Students practice creativity, critical-thinking, and compromise. These "soft skills" are some of the most missed areas of development during remote learning.

3. Build background knowledge and experiences to take students into the next school year.

Research shows that background knowledge impacts reading comprehension. Summer school is an exciting opportunity to build students' knowledge with texts and experiences. Read-alouds of rich texts can help students build background knowledge on a variety of topics. ILA's 2018 Leadership Brief calls the read-aloud "one of the most important instructional activities" to help develop skills and knowledge.

But not all background knowledge can come from texts. Collaborative and engaging experiences in summer programs can also help students develop background knowledge in a range of areas. Imagine all the new things students can learn when they put on a production of reader's theatre script for their peers or work as a team to build a bridge out of recycled materials.

Summer Activities The longer days, the smaller classes, and the freedom of summer school can be the perfect opportunity for these learning activities.

Building rich background knowledge and experience will support students in all content-areas, including reading. Real-world learning experiences and collaboration can bring new experiences and topics to students and build academic vocabulary.

Providing opportunities for students to strategically build knowledge through carefully selected texts and activities will aid in student learning.

(28) What the Science of Reading Say About Reading Comprehension and Content Knowledge (2023)

Let us help you plan your summer school!

TCM's summer learning solution, Summer Scholars for Language Arts, is a ready-to-use solution, with

short, challenging texts to support reading comprehension
explicit phonics lessons
and reader's theater scripts for engaging and collaborative learning that build fluency

Everything is laid out in a simple, easy, teacher's guide with clear pacing specifically designed for the unique learning of summer school.

Its sister series, Summer Scholars for Mathematics, includes math lessons, real-world problem-solving, mathematical discourse tasks, and hands-on STEAM challenges to keep learning fun!

Author bio

Kim Carlton, Academic Officer for Teacher Created Materials

Kim Carlton currently serves as an Academic Officer for Teacher Created Materials, where she works with teachers in a variety of areas, including balanced literacy and writing instruction to foster her passion to help teachers infuse reading and writing instruction into their daily teaching. Ms. Carlton is a Gold-Level Abydos Writing Project Trainer where she has conducted 15 summer writing institutes for teachers and holds exclusive memberships with the Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE), the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Ms Carlton’s extensive background also includes being awarded Secondary Teacher of the Year, 2005 and published in Teacher Magazine "A 'La Carte".