Richard
Allington, through his latest research, offers us some compelling ideas to think
about. He notes that the Phillips and
Chin (2004) study found that children who read at least 30 minutes daily during
the summer months had significant higher reading gains during the summer than
those who read less, even when holding demographic factors constant. In
addition, throughout the last century, study after study has noted that the
proximity of libraries to homes, the number of books available in the home, and
the supply, affordability and accessibility of printed materials available in
communities were all related and helped to facilitate voluntary reading
activity.
So how did Allington
et al’s most recent research address the possibility of summer reading loss? Book fairs were offered in 17 high-need
elementary schools. Beginning in grades
1 and 2, randomly selected children attended the book fair and selected the
books they wanted from about 500 titles.
On the last day of school the self-selected summer books were
distributed to the ‘summer books’ children.
After three summers of receiving the self-selected trade books, the
‘summer books’ children had reading achievement significantly better than the
control group from their schools who did not receive any summer books. It was the most at-risk, neediest children
who benefitted the most! The question becomes: how can we insure that these books get into
children’s hands? Perhaps also a shout-
out to our educational partners – funding for initiatives of this kind would go
a very long way.
What was
unique about Allington’s approach? The
students were the neediest beginning readers in grades 1 and 2 when the
research began. Secondly, the students
self-selected 15 books each summer that appealed to them – they were not based
on reading level or someone else’s idea of what would interest the
children.
In summary, even if summer reading
loss is deemed to be small each year, cumulatively it has an impact. Cooper at al. (1996) did the math: if summer reading loss equates to two months
over the summer for the neediest at-risk students, and the most proficient
students gain one month, this accumulation of smaller annual losses can
translate into a four-year reading achievement gap by the end of grade 12. The evidence is clear – improving children’s
access to books they actually want to read during the summer months early on in
their school career can largely disrupt summer reading loss and greatly impact
student achievement and well-being over the longer term.
By
supplying at-risk children, beginning in grades 1 and 2 with 15 self-selected
trade books each year at the beginning of the summer, summer reading loss was
largely solved.
