Tips for a Smooth Transition to Summer School

Summer is nearly upon us and we want to make sure your transition to summer school is as easy as possible so we’ve developed a free Summer Planning & Success Toolkit, curated with our best resources, downloadables, curriculum guides, and more! It’s not too late to create an unforgettable summer learning experience.

In this guide you will find:

• Tips to achieving summer student success through credit recovery, intervention and acceleration, and enrichment
  
• Resources to fight summer literacy loss and encourage early reading and literacy development
  
• Free worksheet bundles, printable activities, and more!
  

Engaging students in the summer is never easy. As you plan for your upcoming summer school program, consider the following:

Develop a consistent daily routine

In the tight schedule of a summer school environment, a student wondering what they are supposed to be doing is not making progress. Establish a hard-and-fast routine early in the summer period and stick to it so you can avoid confusion, ambiguity, and wasted time. Encourage your students to use organizers or planners so they can stay on top of their day to day tasks and weekly assignments.

Kick things off with formative assessment

Formative assessment helps give you a better grasp of where your students’ knowledge and skills are and helps make individualized instruction for a variety of students a lot easier. Read tips to improve student achievement with formative assessment at any grade for more ideas and information.

Plan community connection time

Take time to nurture your classroom community. Even if you and your summer students will only be together a few weeks, building a strong sense of community and connection in your classroom is well worth the effort and enables students to comfortably enter academic learning. Looking for ideas to get started?

Don't forget about fun

Many students are less than thrilled to be spending their summer vacation in the classroom, so make sure to keep them excited and motivated throughout the program. Set goals, and celebrate when your students achieve them! Plan fun activities for students during the day or once per week to avoid burnout in the classroom. After all, it is still the summer break for your students!

Utilize the science of timing

Have you ever noticed that, during certain times of the day, your classroom is buzzing, students are working diligently, and everyone is getting along, while during other times of the day, things are a bit chaotic, and you find yourself having to constantly correct behavior and refocus attention? Turns out, there are scientific reasons behind why this happens. Check out these tips to optimize student performance in your summer session through the science of timing!

For more ideas on how to boost summer engagement, check out this blog for 5 ways to keep students on track during summer sessions!