With the school year coming to an end, preventing students from backsliding over the summer months, often called the "summer slide", is undoubtedly on the minds of teachers and parents alike.

As a teacher, I have always sent some sort of "summer packet" home with the kids. A reading log, a summer journal so the kids could write down all of their summer adventures (my way of hoping to inspire them to start a diary or journal that could serve as a reminder of the fun they had during the summer between the grade they just finished and the next...), a book list, and maybe some math review pages.

However, more often than not, the journals and activities went completely unused.

...that is, until I changed my tactics.

Get the students involved.

Teachers everywhere know that getting students to "buy-in" to an activity is half the battle. When the kids are excited about doing something, it makes everything about the activity easier. So, instead of simply introducing the summer journals to my students, I get my students involved in their creation. Rather than copying, labeling, and assembling the journals myself (and adding to the mountain of end of the year tasks to get done before the last day of school), I enlist their help.

Each student assembles their own journal. The kids cut and glue each page into their journal. They write the table of contents themself and even design their own collage-style covers using left over stickers (you know...the sticker sheets that only have two or three stickers left that always seem to find their way into a drawer that just gets fuller and fuller with each passing school year), washi tape, recycled catalogs, and magazines like Zoo News (because we live in San Diego) and left over Scholastic Magazines. The kids also bring in pictures from home to personalize their journals even more.

By turning the cover into each student's own personal work of art, the journal itself becomes inherently more valuable. The journal is special and, therefore, NOT something that is likely to get tossed on a shelf or in the trash with the rest of the papers and broken crayons coming home for the summer in the kids' backpacks.

The decorated covers also creates a fantastic opportunity for sharing. The kids LOVE to talk about all of the pictures and decorations they included on their covers. Students can share with a friend, a partner, their table groups, or the entire class building confidence and excitement. It's amazing the things you and the other students will learn by doing this activity.

Introduce each page separately.

Introducing each page separately is critical to making summer journals successful. Let's be real for a second...Students and parents ARE NOT going to spend time looking through the journals themselves. They just won't. (And, I HATE for things to go to waste.)

So, if you want the summer journals to be used, you have to explicitly introduce each page to the kids and show them how to use them.

I spend time talking about what each page says. I use it as a shared reading and an opportunity for a discussion. I start by asking the students,

What comes to mind when I say "summer learning" to you?

Chances are the kids will moan and groan, suck their teeth, and maybe even roll their eyes at you. (Mine always do.) You might even hear things like, "Uhh" or "No way!" because they are imagining that you are giving them summer homework. You're not. You're giving them ideas for activities that are enjoyable and engaging. They just happen to encourage reading and writing too. Jackpot!

Then, I tease the activity to the kids and set it up in a way that they can't wait to begin. This is my chance to challenge their thinking and it's fun, and more than a little bit satisfying, to watch their little attitudes change from "No way!" to "I like that!".

Share the "why" and get parents invested.

The simple fact about any activity from taking out the trash to summer reading and writing is that it is all about the "spin". How you introduce and get excited for an activity is key to getting your students excited too. The students (and parents) will take their cues from you. So, if you think an activity, a book, or a task is interesting and worthy of spending time doing it, you've got to share the "why" with your students and parents.

If students and parents don't see any value in what you are asking them to do, they won't do it. Plain and simple.

So, I start early and I always begin with why the activity is important. For my summer journals, I talk about helping students maintain hard won skills that they have acquired or the magic of having 2 months off to catch up on skills that were difficult. I share with parents and students the truths about the rigor of the next grade and how important it is be prepared so kids can start off on the right foot.

(And, for parents like me that love looking at keepsakes from when my boys were little, I also tell parents what a sweet keepsake the journal will become for them.)

I share the benefits of summer practice and I talk to them about how I am going to make practicing reading and writing over the summer so easy for them that they won't mind pitching in to help. I use my newsletter and email correspondence to let parents know what I am planning and recruit volunteers to pitch in making copies and solicit donations for things like spiral notebooks or compositions books and reading books for our "Gently-Used" End of the Year Book Swap party, as well as catalogs, magazines, and stickers that the kids can use to decorate their journals.

Show them that summer reading and writing can be fun & easy to include in their plans.

Showing students and parents how reading and writing over the summer can fit into their vacation plans is another important step in getting your families' support. That means I have to make it so easy that saying yes to adding a little reading and writing practice into their summer plans is a no-brainer.

So, one of the things that I talk to my families about is time and the fact that we never seem to have enough of it. Then I show them how to carve out small chunks of time by making small tweaks in their daily routines. Last, I explain to them how finding just 10-15 minutes, 5 days a week can make a huge difference over the course of 8 or 9 weeks. (I talk to the kids about this too to get them on board as well.)

For example: The coloring reading logs that I include in my summer journals give kids a chance to color one item on the page for every 15 minutes of reading they do. If students read for 15 minutes before bed or in the car while their running errands, over the course of a summer that would equal 600-675 minutes of extra reading practice!

The same can be done for writing. Recording the details of a fun summer outing like a day at the beach or a trip to the zoo for 15 minutes results in and extra 600-675 minutes of writing practice!

Help familles find fun (& FREE) activities to do.

In my area, for example, there are some great community resources that I tap into to help my families find fun (and, most of the time, FREE) activities to do around town. Remember...fun experiences make for exciting stories and engaged student writers!

I also like to include any community outreach program information or handouts that will put FREE books in the hands of my students with my summer journal.

One that I include every year is any bookstore or library give-away incentives, like Barnes & Noble's summer reading program. It's so easy. Kids read and fill out a the B&N summer reading log with the amount of books required. Then, they trade the reading log in at the store for a new book! That's it.

If you have a B&N in your area, click the button below to grab a reading log. You can copy and hand them out to your students WITH their summer reading & writing journals. Just another way to get kids excited to read AND what parent would turn down a FREE book for their child?

Another way to find resources to share with your parents is to search your area's public library website. Libraries offer all kinds of FREE activities for kids and teens, like story hour, arts and crafts, science demonstrations, and more.

Finally, if your area publishes a local magazine or newspaper there are usually listings for community events that are FREE or low cost. You can find the calendar in their publications or their website pretty easily. In my area, for instance, we have a free magazine called "San Diego Family" that has a calendar of events detailing fun, family-friendly activities like movies in the park, outdoor concerts, classic car shows, "kids bowl free" days at local bowling lanes, and free admission days at local museums.

Remember...fun activities = excited writers!

Encouraging summer reading and writing practice doesn't have to be torture and these are just a few of the ways that I help encourage my students to continue practicing over the summer. These easy-to-do tips and tricks will help parents and kids find fun ways to keep learning over break and I'd be willing to bet that your parents will thank you for helping them find summer learning opportunities that are fun, meaningful for their kids.

If you'd like to check out my Summer Reading & Writing Bucket List pack with all of the pages that I use to build my summer journals, click the button below.

How do you send your students off for the summer? Leave an example of something you do for your students to encourage them to continue reading and writing over the summer in the comments section.

I can't wait to read your ideas!

Happy reading & writing!