Don’t Slip into Summer Slide: RPL Is Here to Help

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.