To ensure that West Virginia’s students don’t fall behind while school is out of session, the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) wants your help in encouraging children statewide to keep their academic skills sharp during the summer break through the Summer Learning Reading and Math Challenge.
The WVDE and West Virginia Leaders of Literacy: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading are challenging students to read every day this summer, for at least 15 to 30 minutes. Suggested summer reading goals for students based on grade levels are:
- K-2 students: 10 books
- 3-5 students: 8 chapter books
- 6-12 students: 5 fiction books and 5 non-fiction books.
Students can sign up by going to www.Lexile.com/fab/wv/, and click on Submit your Summer Reading Pledge for a chance to help their school win a one-year, free site license to one of the following reading improvement programs: Achieve3000 (one elementary and one middle school), Capstone Digital’s myON, and Reading Horizons (one elementary and one middle school).
The five schools with the highest percentage rate of the school’s student body/population that “pledge to read” will be the recipients of the awards.
Every summer, low-income children lose about two months of math skills in the summer. These losses add up. By fifth grade, summer learning loss can leave low-income students two-and-a-half to three years behind their peers. As part of the Summer Math Challenge, resources to engage students in math skill-building activities are provided. The program’s goal is to help kids retain math skills they learned during the previous school year.
Reading and math resources are available on the WVDE Summer Learning Challenge website http://wvde.state.wv.us/summer-challenge.
