Reading Advantage

Summer Reading and Writing Tutoring is Essential

• On average, students lose 1 month (11%) of the prior school year’s learning over the summer.¹
• Although over the summer students see larger losses in Mathematics than in Reading, a loss to Reading skills is equally important given that these skills are used for almost every academic subject.
• The amount of loss during summer is even larger as a student advances in grade level, with the greatest loss during summers in high school (as the curriculum becomes more difficult but also more important for a student’s success in life).

For the above reasons, we believe summer Reading instruction is not just helpful but also necessary.

Purpose of Summer Reading Advantage Tutoring

1. Prevent: Counteract any loss of Reading and Writing skills.
2. Repair: Remedy any weaknesses in Reading and Writing so that students can progress more quickly and fine tune their skills.
3. Improve: Summer is a perfect time to not only maintain but to advance in Reading and Writing ability.  These skills will be used for the rest of a person’s life, and, as such, are beneficial and necessary for success.

Curriculum

The Reading and Writing Advantage curriculum is customized to each student according to grade level, need, and ability.  For example, if a student is in 9th grade and needs to improve their Reading proficiency, appropriate texts for their age will be chosen to read, analyze, and discuss.  Or, if that student only needed help with writing, texts would be chosen to read, analyze, and write about.  These papers would then be thoroughly proofread together with student and teacher so that the instructor can demonstrate how to optimally structure a piece of academic writing, analyze the content of written work, use rhetorical devices to engage the reader emotionally and/or rationally, and employ correct grammar.  Whatever the need in Reading and Writing, our instructors can help students to amend any weaknesses or improve upon any strengths.

Works Cited:

1. Brookings Institution: “Summer learning loss: What is it, and what can we do about it?”
2. NWEA: “Summer Learning Loss: What We Know and What We’re Learning”
3. SAGE journals: “The Effects of Summer Vacation on Achievement Test Scores: Narrative and Meta-Analytic Review”
4. LD Online: “Summer Learning Loss: The Problem and Some Solutions”