Summer school the term that makes all students cringe. It's a dirty word in the academic world. Yay or nay, is it effective or just another money pit? The simple answer is it depends. Summer school should be cohesive and complementary to the previous semester or school year of the student. Too often summer school lacks direction and vision and winds up being ineffective and insignificant. In the article, "Summer School: Unfulfilled Promise," it urges for academic change. Bottom line, summers schools aren't cutting it; they're a joke.
The section "Year Round School" on page 17 caught my attention. It stated that year round school "may be a promising option for policy-makers who are seeking ways to narrow achievement gaps between successful and failing students." During the summer break, students lose much of what they have learned the previous year, some even regress. As a math teacher, I face the challenge every time we have a break, my student forget what they have previously learned. If they forget things over one/two weeks I know that they lose a lot more over a two month break. I like the recommendations for state policies on page 18. My favorite, of course, is the year round school; summer school should not be an afterthought, but rather it should be used as a time for growth and enrichment. Another recommendation that I liked was emphasizing math and reading. Those are the weakest skills of our student and if we want to tighten the gap we are going to have to work to include those skills in the courses that are taught in summer school.
I look forward to the summer school in Holly Springs. My vision for summer school is to have it be motivative, inclusive, integrated, and fun. In order for any summer school to be sucessful there have to be a few things set in place. Summer school must be organized, have clear expectations and standards, and, lastly, have passionate and invested teachers. I believe I have designed a cohesive and inclusive course. I expect all my student to succeed and will do my best to make sure that that will happen. Success for my summer school students will be defined as mastery of more that 85 percent of the objectives covered. In order to ensure the success of my students I have planned the course so that it is comprehensive, continuous, and encompassing. I have also been sure to focus on the objectives covered in the MCT2 for 7th grade math. By focusing on those objectives I am making ensuring that they get the most effective instruction. In order to measure or identify this sucess there will be a pretest and post test given to the student. The pretest and post test will be the same. This will measure their growth. Overall, I look forward to this summer in which I will be implamenting my own curriculum and pacing guide.
Sources:
"Summer School: Unfulfilled Promise." Southern Regional Education Board. (2002): 3-19.
I live in the port city, Greenville, MS and I LOVE it! I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but in the Delta. The culture is so rich here. There are a few museums in the area (25 mile radius). In fact they just opened up the B.B. King museum in Indianola, MS. That's about a 30 minute drive, not too bad considering some people have a daily commute longer than that. My community...
