Summer Reading Programs with Impact Heather Dieffenbach Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives January 2014

Summer Reading  Programs  Reading Logs  Prizes  Drawings  Promotions  School Visits  Media Attention  Stretched Staffing  Decorations  End of Summer Parties  Summer Reading Store  Performers  Work  More Work  Even More Work

Why?

 Summer Slide  How can reading help with Summer Slide?  How do Summer Reading Programs fit in?  What are some other benefits of Summer Reading?  What are some SRP best practices?  Summer Reading goals?  What are some challenges in running successful SRP’s?  Summer Reading in Kentucky Why?

Summer Slide

 Middle SES students make gains reading recognition tests over summer while low SES students make losses.  Summer vacations create a reading gap of about 3 months between middle and low SES students. Summer Slide

 Children make pretty much the same rate of reading skills improvement during the school year. Krashen and Shin  As much as 80% of the reading skills gap between children from low and high SES families in sixth grade can be attributed to summer slide. Hayes and Grether Summer Slide

“The single summer activity that is most strongly and consistently related to summer learning is reading.” Barbara Heyns “Regardless of other activities, the best predictor of summer loss or summer gain is whether or not a child reads during the summer. Anne McGill-Frazen and Richard Allington What can be done about Summer Slide?

The best predictor of whether a child reads is whether or not he or she owns books. Anne McGill-Frazen and Richard Allington  61% of low incomes families have no children’s books at home.  Low income families have on average 4 children’s books in their homes. What Does the Research Say?

 90% of fifth grade students devoted only 1% of their free time to reading  50% read for an average of four minutes or less per day  10% read nothing at all Fiore, Summer Library Reading Programs How Much Are They Reading?

 Children who spend about one minute per day reading score in the 10th percentile on standardized tests.  Children who spend about 11 minutes per day reading score in the 50 th percentile.  Children who spend approximately 38 minutes ready per day score in the 90 th percentile. Fiore, Summer Library Reading Programs Reading Improves Reading Ability

“More than any other public institution, including the schools, the public library contributed to the intellectual growth of children during the summer.” Barbara Heyns Where Do Library Summer Reading Programs Come In?

 The effect of summer reading on achievement was equal to the effect of summer school. Richard Allington Benefits of Summer Reading

 Make connections across our communities.  Promote the cultural resources of the community.  Expose children to culture outside of their community. Benefits: Community and Culture

 Five components of reading motivation among young children (elementary and middle school):  Interest  Perceived Control  Self-Efficacy  Involvement  Social Collaboration Benefits: SRP’s Promote Social Aspects of Reading

 Summer library reading programs provide experiences through which children, their parents, teachers, and caregivers can delight in sharing perceptions gained from literature. Carole Fiore Benefit: SRP’s Promote Social Aspects of Reading

 The schools focus on reading skills, libraries focus on enrichment, enjoyment, and sharing a LOVE of reading.  All children need to have experiences that show reading as an integral part of life, not just a skill that is needed in school. Carole Fiore Benefit: Promote a LOVE of Reading

 One of the main purposes of any Summer Reading Program is to motivate children to read.  What does the research say about reading motivation? Reading Motivation

 Extrinsic Motivation:  Studying to get a good grade  Studying in order to avoid getting a bad grade  Playing a sport to win an award or scholarship  Reading in order to win a prize or get attention from a librarian  Intrinsic Motivation  Studying to learn more about a subject that fascinates you  Playing a sport because you enjoy it  Reading to learn more about an interesting subject or because you enjoy it. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

 Incentives  Praise more motivating than prizes  Tangible rewards can increase momentary participation  Undermine the development of intrinsic motivation  Rewards related to the task do not decrease intrinsic motivation and can communicate the value of the task  Gradually decrease reward Summer Reading Best Practices: Incentives

 Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water! Summer Reading Best Practices-- Incentives

 CORI  Hands-on activities to spark interest  Immediately after activity students come up with questions they want to investigate  Teacher directs students to the appropriate books to help locate the answers CORI Research

 If possible, phase out tangible prizes with reading related rewards, verbal praise, and social recognition  If you find yourself thinking, “If I don’t give incentives, no one will come,” ask yourself what that says about the children’s real motivation and the program’s real effect. Suzanne M. Stauffer Summer Reading Best Practices

 Incentive path--What do you have to do to get the reward or “finish” the program?  Which incentive path has the best results?  Fawson:  Number of pages  Number of books  Number of minutes  Genre wheel Summer Reading Best Practices-- Incentive Paths

 Choice improves motivation. “The research has absolutely nothing good to say about forcing hard reading on kids. Why should we be surprised? If adults preferred hard reading, The Economist would be flying off the shelves of 7- Elevens.” Richard Allington Summer Reading Best Practices-- Choice

 Richard Allington:  The experimental treatment group, which received the summer books for three consecutive summers, reported more often engaging in voluntary summer reading and had significantly higher reading achievement than the control group. Summer Reading Best Practices--Participation Over Time Makes SRP’s Even More Effective

 Students gained several points on standardized reading tests in the fall after reading as few as five books over the summer. James Kim  California—5 Book Summer Challenge Summer Reading Best Practices— 5 Books

 Schools as participants: No Child Left Behind Summer Reading Achievers pilot program in Connecticut gave its schools cash incentives if 60 % of their students turn in a summer reading journal.  Teacher collaboration: In one Illinois district, children win prizes by leaving messages on the school’s answering machine, reading from books or summarizing them. Summer Reading Best Practices— School Collaboration

 Postcards with teacher—80% send at least one postcard  Teachers giving away books and guided reading lessons in parks— 72% of the second graders retained their skills Summer Reading Best Practices— School Collaboration

 Service Reading  Sponsors pledge money for the amount of time a child spends reading  Have children choose a different cause every year  Heroes theme 2015  Great for teens and tweens Summer Reading Best Practices— Altruism

Why set goals and objectives for Summer Reading Programs? Summer Reading Program Goals

 Preschool  School-Age  Teens  Adult--Parent/Caregiver Different Goals for Different Ages

 Build positive attitudes about reading.  SRP games  Providing links to reading at programs  FUN—easy to participate and complete  Boost dialogic reading  Encourage book sharing and not just amount read  Encourage quality of interactions—not number of books  Encourage daily reading to child  Incorporates daily reading activities  Calendar format Preschool Goals

 Maintain reading skills over the summer  Encourage reading 5 books  Build or maintain intrinsic reading motivation  Give books and praise—not trinkets  Encourage free choice in reading  Target struggling readers  Collaborate with schools  Target at risk kids—take program to them School Age Goals

 Motivation to read declines as students enter middle school.  Teens have many other options for summer activities and more freedom.  Teens are forming their view of themselves and world around them.  Teens may have school summer reading requirements. Teens and Summer Reading

 Build or maintain reading motivation  Have a social aspect to the program  Creative format  Work with busy schedules  Opportunities for online participation (tracking online or by app, Tumblr, etc.)  Help teens build their image of themselves as readers  Provide them with a chance to meet with other readers—use fandoms  Let them use their school required reading Teen Goals

 Encourage parent/caregiver to read to child  Allow adults to count time they spend reading to someone else  Encourage opportunities for child to see parent/caregiver reading  Give adults extra credit for reading alongside someone else  Encourage daily or frequent reading Parent/Caregiver Goals

Programming Goals  Promote the cultural resources of the community.  Expose children to culture outside of their community.  Foster a community of readers  Celebrate reading  Bring people into the library  Raise awareness of library  Informational programming—teach something  Promote library collection  Entertainment—the library is a fun place  Early literacy  Give kids safe options for activities  More…

 Lack of research to guide us  Doing research on this topic is difficult  Preaching to the choir  Struggling readers are not good at choosing appropriate books Challenges to Summer Reading Success

 More girls than boys participate in summer reading programs  Access to collections in low SES areas--transportation  Working parents/modern schedules  Cultural inversion--Ogbu Challenges to Summer Reading Success

 What percentage of children in your county participate in your Summer Reading Program?  What percentage would you consider to be “successful?” How do you define “success”?

 8%  Less restrictions in program design  Stated goals and objectives  A marketing strategy  Evaluation methods  Trained children’s specialists How do you define “success”?

 Average percentage of children reached by KY Public libraries is 9.26%  Child population is decreasing  Look at the percentage of children participating, not the number of children who participated (especially when comparing participation from year to year) Kentucky Summer Reading

 How do children and teens participate in the SRP?  What influence does the SRP have on participants’ reading outcomes?  Do children and teens of different backgrounds experience the program and its outcomes differently?  What is the long-term impact of participation in the SRP on children and teen reading outcomes? Virginia Study:

Heather Dieffenbach KDLA ext. 287 Questions and Comments