by Sydney Hamrick Rowan Public Library
Any teacher or educator can tell you
it’s an especially exciting time of the year. Our students are itching to take
a break from school, and the sweet release of summer is only a few short weeks
away. The warmer weather wakes up our students’ urges to get outside, take
vacations, and spend lazy days with friends and families without the stress of
schoolwork. While the approaching summer break is an exciting time for
students, their teachers can tell you a major concern they feel as they watch
their students leave the building for an extended period away from school: the
dreaded Summer Slide.
“Summer Slide” is a term coined to
describe the slippage in reading ability and other academic skills students may
experience during extended leave from school, such as summer break. When
students aren’t actively engaged in their normal, regular classroom routines,
the academic skills they worked hard to build during the previous school year
can show decreases when they enter a new school year. Daily practice of a variety
of classroom skills, such as reading and writing, will improve steadily over
time when a student is actively engaged in practicing them on a daily basis.
However, long breaks from regular instruction and practice threaten the loss of
that growth. Summer break sings the promises of relaxation, but also the
possibility of academic skill decline before entering new classes in August.
Never fear: As worrisome as Summer
Slide sounds, there are many ways to combat it by engaging our students’ minds
during summer break. Rowan Public Library offers a variety of awesome, free
resources and events to keep our students (as well as our patrons who may no
longer be in school) thinking and problem-solving all summer long.
Encouraging
students to continue reading lots of great books from the public library is a
fantastic way to keep those literacy skills sharp throughout the break. Rowan
County students can use their district-issued ID numbers to check out physical
books from all three branches of Rowan Public Library as well as the eBooks and
eAudiobooks from the NC Digital Library. The ID numbers can also gain them
access to the library’s computers and a variety of other online databases and
programs at no charge.
Rowan
Public Library also hosts an array of Summer Reading programs to keep patrons
of all ages engaged in exciting, meaningful learning experiences during the
schools’ summer break. The many programs are geared towards all ages and offers
a little something for everyone, from infants to adults. The opportunities for
programs for each age group also occur weekly during the summer, which is a
great way to keep minds actively engaged on a regular basis during the break.
This year’s theme for Summer Reading programs is “A Universe of Stories,”
celebrating the anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. If you’re interested in
an out-of-this-world way to combat Summer Slide, Rowan Public Library will
serve as an excellent resource for students and patrons of all ages this
summer.
