When area schools begin another school year in August, the time will also mark some of the most frustrating few weeks for teachers who must make sure that all their students are prepared to begin learning new coursework.
During the summer months, without constant reinforcement, it is difficult for young children to retain information they have learned during the school year. As a result, many children begin a new school year having forgotten what they had learned the year before, according to Dr. Richard Bavaria, vice-president of education for Sylvan Learning Center.
“Teachers will tell you one of the most frustrating things is spending the first few weeks in school re-teaching subjects. Reading allows teacher s to hit the ground running,” said Bavaria. Bavaria said participating in reading programs or book clubs offer incentives for children to continue reading throughout the summer.
Bavaria added that parents should instill good reading habits in children to build on a much-needed life-long skill, “reading for the summer is one of the most important habits that parents can get their children started on. Its okay to take a break from school, but not from learning,” he said.
This summer, the Mayor’s Summer Reading Program, a collaborative effort with Dallas Public Libraries, is in its ninth year. Additionally, two book fairs, Tulisoma and the International Book Fair, will be held at the Central Library. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is also running a reading incentive program that will offer free circus tickets to participants when the show comes to the area at the end of July.
Reading is the best way to keep young students’ skills current during the summertime when they aren’t constantly learning, according to Bavaria and Dallas Independent School District Director of Libraries, Gay Patrick.
According to testing results from the Texas Education Agency, only 64 percent of fourth grade students passed the reading portion of the TAKS test. These scores fall behind other districts such as Fort Worth, DeSoto, Duncanville and Garland. “We have done research that shows the more children read, the better they will do on standardized testing,” Patrick said.
In an effort to increase summer reading and improve TAKS scores last school year, DISD joined forces with Dallas Public Libraries to register more children with library cards, making it more likely for children to check-out books since DISD libraries are not open during the summer. “We had a very big push for public library card sign-ups and we’ve had more sign-ups for the 2005-2006 school year than ever before,” Patrick said.
Later this summer on August 25 through 27, the Tulisoma Book Fair and Arts Festival will be held at the African American Museum and the Women’s Museum in Fair Park. The event is sponsored by Dallas Public Libraries and city councilman Leo V. Chaney.
Chaney said the festival would provide children with the opportunity to read Black authors and discuss literature. In attendance will be author Alexus Rhone who has been dubbed, “the Black Judy Blume.”
“Readers quite frankly are leaders. Statistics show if young people can read by 3rd grade, they can accomplish any objective they so desire,” said Chaney.
Beyond the summer months, there are other cultural events that challenge children to read. The “African-American Read-in” is held every February and features storytelling and author signings; this year’s read-in included appearances from actor LeVar Burton and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk.
Til Pettis, owner of Jokae’s African-American books is a sponsor of the event and donates books throughout the year to underprivileged families, “we like to encourage young people to read all year-long,” she said.
Pettis said she has donated books to organizations such as the Bethlehem Foundation. “We like to give back to the community. Reading is very important and this is our way of giving back to the community.”
Parents also have options with private institutions such as Sylvan Learning Centers for children who may have fallen behind in reading and need to use the summer months to catch-up.
During the last school year, Sylvan offered scholarships to students who had moved to the area from New Orleans to help these students catch-up academically in their new school district. The scholarship was good for 36 hours of instruction, equal to one grade-level.
The center offers prizes for good behavior and staying on task with assigned work.
For parents of children who do not need extensive help from the Sylvan Learn Centers, yet still seek a structured reading program that also offers incentives, Bavaria recommends bookadventure.com.
The site is free and Bavaria said it creates a customized list of books for children to read based on their interests, so even if the child does not like to read, they can read and learn about subjects they like. When they finish reading the book they can answer some questions about the book and win prizes based on a point system,” he said.
There are also reading programs offered at the Martin Luther King Center, Central Dallas Ministries and the Dallas Bethlehem Center. Additionally, the MLK Branch Library and Central Dallas Ministries will soon offer a storyline that children can call to hear a new story every week.
LeRoy McClure is superintendent of the Focus Learning Academy in DeSoto for children with learning differences in subjects such as reading.
“I don’t call it learning disabilities. I like to call it learning differences because these children have an average or sometimes higher IQ. But there are major discrepancies in the way they learn that determine their achievement,” he said.
McClure said children with learning differences have trouble with phonetics; sometimes they may have trouble with blending sounds and rhyming words. “Once they have mastered a strategy and method for reading and understanding the words, the majority of the children love to read because its something they have never been able to do before,” he said.
Bavaria says it is never too early or late to instill a love of reading in children. He says it is also important that parents be good role models for their children to encourage them to read.
He says children must see their parents reading for functionality and everyday use with items such as driving directions or food labels. “Reading is the basis for everything, some children come to the centers for help with math, but the problem isn’t with the math. A lot of times, if a child reads a word problem, the issue might be that they can’t comprehend what they have just read.”