Ready, Set, Go!

A 12 Month Plan for the Sandwich

Central School (SCS) K-6 Summer
2020 reading program

Presented by: Nancy Fredrickson LM5300

 Why SCS? Why Summer?
● To prevent “summer slide” for our K-6 students. The research demonstrating the benefits is unequivocal.

● To build relationships with parents and educate them about the importance of reading in their child(ren)’s
life and their role in promoting reading to their child(ren).

● To provide opportunities for children to associate reading with FUN and family. (Yuretic, n.d)

● To reduce barriers to reading and to promote a culture of reading for pleasure.

● To collectively engage the SCS community in the promotion of summer reading.

“how can we engender a love of reading if we don’t read ourselves .../ talk about / share our reading
with students” (Skinner, 2014)!?

● To promote the school library program and the work of the librarian (Gardiner, 2014).

● To promote the work of the school to the wider Sandwich community.

 The Home Team Players
SCS Librarian - A “Wearer of Many Hats: Certified Event Planner;
Head Cheerleader; Community Liaison; Parent Whisperer/Trainer.

Samuel Wentworth (S.W.) Librarians - Public allies in our quest to promote reading.

Friends of the Library Annual Book Sale volunteers - Unsung heroes of our current
informal student summer reading culture.

Parents and Families - The linchpins to our success!

SCS Teachers & Staff - The Heavy Lifters of all things literacy related Sept - June.
Collaborative coworkers all year to pick the best books for students.
 Team Support - Keys to Our Success

School Secretary - To gather critical parent/family contact

information for summer communication, print flyers and other
paper communication to send home.

Parks and Rec Director - For logistics related to Sandwich

Beach.

Local bookstores - To generously provide book discount

coupons.

Parent Leaders - To act as program promoters, Beach Read

Aloud organizers and volunteers.
The Game Plan? Expose kids to lots of books!

1. Field trips to S.W. library in late

spring.

2. Bags of Books program for

summer reading.

3. Sandwich Town Beach Pop Up

“Beach Bins” library and weekly
beach read alouds.
First steps - “Communicate with parents early and often” (Okoh, n.d.)

Communicate an outline of summer plan to parents in early spring: Newsletters, backpack flyers, school event
announcements, parent/teacher conferences, social media.

Create a master list of email addresses, mailing addresses, and phone numbers of families and out-of-school
team members.

Gather summer communication preferences from families: Texts? Emails? Private group Facebook posts?
School instant alert system for reminders? Landline?

Send home “walking field trip to library” permission slip, send home paperwork to get library card.

Work with staff to ID student barriers to reading: families that may need personal contact prior to and during
summer events, struggling readers, poverty, home culture.

Collaborate with staff to identify and list individual student reading

preferences, reading levels, interests.

 Field Trip Goals
Kids will leave with a library card, one to four books they have checked out and an
understanding of the cooperative lending agreement with local town libraries.

Students will be familiar with scope of library resources and their location in the
library: audiobooks, Overdrive, games and puzzles, statewide summer reading
program and events, Children’s and YA sections, desktops, summer book sale and
the librarians.

Upper grades will get a lesson on Overdrive and download a story.

“Librarians don’t need to worry about eBooks or audiobooks being lost

or damaged and students can choose to take a dozen books with them
on holidays without having to sacrifice on packing space in the
suitcase.” (Softlink, 2014)
 Book Bags and Beach Pop Up / Start a Year in Advance!
“Students need a community of support to help them keep reading during the holidays” (National Library
New Zealand, n.d.).

The Friends of the Library (FOL) Annual Book Sale will be the source of half of the Book Bag books and
all Sandwich Beach library “beach bins” books.

SCS librarian connects with FOL volunteers in August 2019 to collect unsold popular titles and authors at
end of summer sale & shares customized list of titles and authors: asks FOL volunteers to pull them from
2019-2020 donations. SCS librarian arranges a pick up/drop off protocol for these donations.

SCS librarian coordinates with S.W. library to allow summer drop off of ALL Book Bag books during
summer 2020.

SCS librarian gets donated reusable bags from Hannaford.

 In-school preparation for Book Bags Spring 2020
SCS librarian collaborates with Art teacher in spring to personalize each bag.

SCS librarian plans logistics of opening school for Book Bag book exchange on
July Fourth townwide celebration.

SCS librarian plans logistics of book selection of SCS books by students and
families during annual SCS end-of-year picnic. SCS library books are half of total
in Book Bags.
 Families Take it From Here
“Parent engagement is an integral part of student academic success,
especially during the summer months” (Okoh, n.d.).
Parents and students take home a personalized book bag with eight books. Four
used, donated books and four from SCS library. All are selected by students and
families at the SCS annual end-of-the year picnic.

Book Bags include targeted information for parents/families: midsummer book

exchange options; specific parent strategies for supporting student reading;
dates/times of beach read alouds; directions for using Overdrive; Kindle check out
options at local libraries; S.W. library summer programming; contact info of SCS
librarian to share photos of summer readers.

Coupon from local bookstore for discount on book.

Sandwich Town Beach Library Pop Up and Read Aloud
“...a venerable, beloved American tradition—the right to relax with a book in the sun” (Ferman, 2012).

Books for library pop up are FOL Book Sale donations stored in “beach bins.” Donated bins are procured
by SCS librarian in spring.

Beach Bins contain a wide range of materials for kids and adults. Adults at beach read and model reading
too!

SCS librarian will resupply throughout summer. Bins are collected prior to start of school by librarian.

Read Alouds are organized and run by SCS parent

volunteers. Schedule is same day/time each week. Book
selection varies by genre and age level. SCS librarian provides a
list of recommendations to Parent Leader at end of school as well
as Scholastic article, “Reading Aloud Artfully” (Church, 2019).
 “We really focused on making reading fun, keeping it easy,
and that reading is for everyone” (Yuritich, n.d.).
The SCS 2020 summer reading plan is not meant to be graded nor is there any mechanism for recording
number of minutes read, no reading log, no journal and no reports to write. This plan is structured to build
positive emotional associations of reading with pleasure and summer leisure. The goal is to help students,
especially struggling readers, experience reading as a fun, even social activity that can be done outside of
school on their own time. That said, the program does not end when SCS opens its doors at the end of
summer. When students arrive back to school they will find copies of photos, shared all summer long with
the SCS librarian, of students, family members and staff reading or listening to books over the summer. (The
prompt for this was included in the Book Bag literature in June and repeated over the summer in
communications with families.) In addition, photocopies of the covers of books read by SCS students and
teachers will be on the walls. Students will have the option to find a photocopy of a book they read, write any
kind of “review” they want (smiley face, short paragraph, number of stars) and repost it on the wall to share.
Ideally this will prompt in-class conversations about “good” books that peers are encouraged to take out
during their next SCS library visit.
 REFERENCES
Cowan, L., Mackie, M. (n.d.). Sailing into summer reading at Manchester Street School. [Report]. Retrieved from
https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/professional-learning/stories/summer-reading-stories/sailing-into-summer-reading-at-manchester-street-school?search%5Bpa
th%5D=items&search%5Btext%5D=manchester+street+school

Church, E. (2019). Teaching Techniques: Reading Aloud Artfully! [article]. Retrieved from
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/teaching-techniques-reading-aloud-artfully/

Ferman, C. (2012). How America learned to love summer reading. [news story]. Retrieved from
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/08/11/how-america-learned-love-summer-reading/CEOArfbYLK8X16l6w6rt4O/story.html

Gardiner, C. (2014). Why Do Summer Reading? Because it makes a Difference![article]. Retrieved from
http://www.slanza.org.nz/uploads/9/7/5/5/9755821/collected_14.pdf

Okoh, A. (n.d.). Mission Possible -Summer Learning for Struggling Readers A How-To Guide for School Districts. [PDF]. Retrieved from
https://gosa.georgia.gov/sites/gosa.georgia.gov/files/related_files/site_page/Mission%20Possible-%20Summer%20Learning%20for%20Struggling%20Rea
ders.pdf

Russel, K. (2015). Use it or Lose it Countering the Summer Reading Drop. [Journal article]. Retrieved from
https://issuu.com/apnedmedia/docs/education_review_nz_teacher_2015

Skinner, J. (2014). Sail into summer reading ’- Let’'s get all aboard! [article]. Retrieved from http://www.slanza.org.nz/uploads/9/7/5/5/9755821/collected_14.pdf

Softlink. (2014). Avoiding the ’summer slide’ in reading skills with Softlink. [PDF]. Retrieved from
http://www.slanza.org.nz/uploads/9/7/5/5/9755821/collected_14.pdf

Yuretic, P. (n.d.). Summer reading at Ahipara School.[Report]. Retrieved from

https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/professional-learning/stories/summer-reading-stories/summer-reading-at-ahipara-school
Photo Credits
Team photo. Retrieved from https://images.app.goo.gl/N6crda3t6UgCyn6TA

Summer Sun. Retrieved from https://www.dcslv.org/home/the-word-summer-clip-art/

Key. Retrieved from https://www.needpix.com/photo/597395/blue-door-green-jims-card-keys-lock-orange-unlock

Bookshelf. Retrieved from https://www.needpix.com/photo/1354357/bookshelf-clipart-books-read-bookshop-library-literate-words-understand

Girl with headphones. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/vectors/search/headphones/

Calendar. Retrieved from https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=37529&picture=calendar-icons-clipart

Contacts icon.Retrieved from https://www.needpix.com/photo/560464/contact-us-facebook-message-communicate-communication-contact-internet-online-reply

Book Bags. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/images/search/supermarket/

Runners. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Runners_in_a_relay_race,_Brisbane,_1939.JPG

Beach and Book. Retrieved from https://www.needpix.com/photo/1417697/reading-beach-book-sea