Donnelsville Elementary is dedicated to giving our early readers in 2nd and 3rd grade all the tools they can to be successful in school. With high stakes tests and the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, one of our major tasks is to prepare the students for the assessments they will encounter as early as the fall of their third grade year. This means our 2nd graders need to retain the skills they were taught so they can hit the ground running as soon as they enter the 3rd grade.
“Summer Slide” is what teachers refer to as the time many students lose in June, July, and the first half of August. This does not have to be the case. Many parents have their children spend time reading in the summer. This is a fantastic idea. Having the students continue reading daily in the summer will help alleviate some of the catching up they need to do as they enter the next grade.
Our teachers continually emphasize the need for reading at home. Title teachers send home paper copies of texts so students can practice reading nightly at home. Some classroom teachers use reading logs and things like Accelerated Reader (AR) to encourage reading.
On January 17th, Donnelsville Elementary, with the help of PTO and some Title 1 teachers, hosted an evening at the middle school called “Bingo for Books.” We had more than 200 students and family members attend. PTO purchased enough books so that students were able to go home with 4 books each. This was a fantastic way to add to our students’ home libraries! Students picked books they were interested in and took them home to read. We hope these kinds of activities can help encourage parents and students to read, read, read all year long.
By Jay Burkholder
Donnelsville Principal