Staff at Border Valley and Blumenfeld Schools have made it a priority to ensure as many students as possible feel confident with their reading skills as they move from elementary school to high school.

A number of years ago, Resource Teacher Pam Klassen-Dueck said she realized a number of students had fallen behind in their reading levels after the summer break in September, and therefore decided to start a summer reading program.

Klassen-Dueck said research shows students from disadvantaged households, students with disabilities, E.A.L students, and kids that don't have much access to text at home, typically lose a number of reading levels over the summer. She said students often forget how to read, or their levels slip significantly, especially if they have not read or didn't have access to books. "As a resource teacher, and someone who works a lot with students with disabilities, and for a number of our E.A.L. learners, it was important for me to do something about that, because we want to see these students succeed in the paths they've chosen."

Klassen-Dueck said she looked at research suggesting what schools should do to encourage kids to read over the summer. She said the number one priority was simple. It was access to text. She noted a number of their students do not have as much access to text as they need over the summer.

In the first year of the the summer reading program, Klassen-Dueck said the plan was straightforward. The lowest 3 or 4 readers from each class were allowed to pick some library books to take home for summer break. After that first summer, Klassen-Dueck said the results were very encouraging. She said most of the students that took out books maintained their level of reading, and some even improved. She said they were so excited by those results, the next summer they opened it up to any students who wanted to take home books, and similar successes were realized.

Klassen-Dueck said research also shows kids from higher income levels, with a lot of access to books, usually keep their reading level, and they may even improve over the summer. "And from the research I've seen students from low-income households who do have access to books, they do better than everyone else...and this is very significant for us. If you think how reading loss would compound over a child's school career, from Kindergarten to grade 8, if they're dropping 3 or 4 levels every summer, by the time they get to grade 9, they're at grade 3 or 4 reading level. How can they ever succeed?"

Klassen-Dueck said if these students are going into high school not being able to read, it's not fair to them, and that's why it's a priority at their school to help these students not fall behind in reading over the summer.

Even with snow on the ground, Klassen-Dueck said planning for the next summer reading program is in full swing. She said with goals to expand the initiative to include things like prizes, and reading logs for students, planning needs to happen now already.