Teachers' Tip Sheet

Encourage students to learn over summer

Students will soon be trading textbooks for beach balls. But just because they aren’t sitting at their desks, doesn’t mean that learning has to stop for two months. Following are suggestions designed to encourage students to continue learning through July and August.

• Encourage your students to keep a summer journal. This is an excellent way for them to remember how they spent their summer vacation.
• Provide your students with information about summer library programs and other summer learning programs. Display this information in your classroom.
• Encourage your students to follow ongoing current affairs. Once their interest is piqued, have them follow events as they develop by reading newspapers and magazines.
• Share your summer plans with your students. Tell them what books you plan to read, or courses you are enrolled in or trips you plan to take.
• Encourage your students to view movies based on classic or popular novels. Have your students read the book before seeing the movie and then suggest that they compare the two.
• Prepare a recommended reading list for your students. The list will show your students and their parents that you take an active interest in their learning.
• Recommend to your students’ parents that they incorporate a DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time at home.

Two months is a long time to go without exercising one’s brain. Work with your students ahead of summer break to show them that learning comes in many forms.

Do you have suggestions for Teachers’ Tip Sheet? Contact Christine Cumming at Barnett House in Edmonton ( ccumming@teachers.ab.ca ).