6 Ways to Stop Summer Reading Loss with Reading Eggs

A research study by the American Educational Research Journal found that over the summer months, students in grades 1-8 lost between 17-34 percent of their learning acquired throughout the school year. Rather than see any of that hard-earned literacy growth slip away, leverage Reading Eggs—Edmentum’s 3-in-1, dynamic literacy solution—to ensure continuity of learning this summer break.

To kick off your plans, start by sending home our Reading Eggs Summer Learning Parent Letter! This customizable note is perfect for helping caregivers support continued learning by overviewing the program and key features. Feel free to tweak it to incorporate incentives or fit the unique needs of your classroom.

Now, let’s dive into six ways your students can use our learn-to-read solution this summer.

1. Focus on Personalized Reading Needs

Every student’s learning journey looks different. Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress use a short placement test to determine where each student should begin working. Start or reset the test before the end of the school year to place students on their individual path to success.

Encourage your students, perhaps with performance incentives given in the fall, to help prepare for the upcoming school year. In these scaffolded activities, students build new vocabulary, reinforce phonics, and test their comprehension and fluency using authentic texts. This incremental approach creates a positive environment where even your youngest learners can excel independently.

If you haven’t yet had the chance to check out Fast Phonics—the Reading Eggs learning area for emergent preK-2 students, as well as older learners with gaps in their core reading knowledge—this might be a great area to explore to support core phonics instruction.

2. Read, Read, Read

Summer is a time for discovery and adventure. Your students can cultivate new interests by checking out over 3,000 titles in the Reading Eggs Library. Whether it’s sports, world history, animals, science fiction, or health genres that spark your students’ excitement, this comprehensive e-library has your learners covered. 

If you’re aiming to get children into the virtual Library over the summer, consider using Reading Eggspress to create custom book collections to share with your students. Easily filter books by genre, reading level, topic and more to share books personalized to each student’s needs.

3. Utilize Reading Eggs' Summer Catch-Up Program 

Grade level transitions can be difficult, especially from 2nd to 3rd grade, but they don't have to be! Support transitions to grades 1-4 this summer by implementing Reading Eggs’ 10-week catch-up program. Based on the science of reading, students gain the literacy skills they need to succeed in the upcoming grade level. For each week, students will find guidance on which fun-filled online learning activities to complete in Reading Eggs combined with carefully selected printable activity sheets to help boost reading and literacy skills. Learn more about the catch-up program in this blog post.

4. Focus on Fun

Reading Eggs, Reading Eggspress, and Fast Phonics each incorporate fun gamification features to keep students motivated. Chances are, your students were probably itching for the chance to play around all year long—now you can actually encourage that gameplay over the summer. They’ll have all the time in the world to accessorize their avatar, play games, and explore.

Eventually, your students will need more Golden Eggs (or Yeti coins in Fast Phonics), and they'll need to learn to earn through reading lessons, Library books, and quizzes. While they add to their bank of redeemable tokens, remind students to also visit fun and competitive areas such as Puzzle Park and the Arcade in Reading Eggs, or the Stadium in Reading Eggspress to sharpen key skills.

5. Keep Parents Involved

One of the best ways to keep students reading is by reading with them, or to them. Once logged in to their child’s account, parents can launch a book for a shared reading experience. This is an excellent opportunity for adults to model proper fluency, including phrasing and expression. After reading, encourage parents to spend a few minutes talking about what they just read with their child, using questions such as:

• What were the characters and setting?
   
• What was the conflict?
   
• Why do you think this happened?
   
• What was the main idea of the story?
   

6. Offer Offline Options

When technology is inaccessible, offline resources can come to the rescue! Reading Eggs, Reading Eggspress, and Fast Phonics offer a wide variety of offline resources, including phonics and spelling activities, grammar lessons, writing, and handwriting prompts. Assemble a series of printables that are just right for your class, and when the final bell rings, students will be armed with reading materials and literacy practice for the summer.

What better way to help students revisit the skills they practiced throughout the school year and preview what's to come ahead? 

Interested in similar resources for Edmentum’s other online learning programs? Check out our summer learning blog posts for EdOptions Academy, Edmentum Courseware, Study Island, and Exact Path!

This post was originally published on April 27, 2018 and has been updated.