5 Ways to Beat the Summer Slide With Scholastic Classroom Magazines

Key Takeaways:

• During summer break, your students may experience a loss in learning and reading ability, often referred to as the “summer slide.”
• To curb learning loss, it’s important to encourage students to read engaging stories and think critically about them over the summer.
• Scholastic Classroom Magazines make it easy for students and their families to access great stories, videos and engaging, hands-on activities that will inspire independent reading and learning over the summer break.

One of the most effective ways to curb summer learning loss is to provide students with great stories that keep them thinking about and interacting with the texts long after they’ve put them down. Scholastic Classroom Magazines give students access to great stories like these all summer long!

When you order magazines for 2019–2020, you’ll receive digital access to our online resources for the rest of this school year.

As a supplement to your summer reading program, Scholastic Classroom Magazines provide your students and their families with easy access to engaging, high-interest stories, videos, and hands-on activities whether they’re at home, on the beach or even on a family road trip. Here are 5 ways you can use Scholastic Classroom Magazines to stop summer slide and promote independent reading and project-based learning throughout the summer.

Share Authentic Summer-Themed Stories

What better way to get kids reading over the summer than to read about summer-related themes and activities? Check out these two favorites: 

• In this thrilling article from SuperScience, our real-world science title for grades 3–6, your STEAM-minded students will love all the science-related roller coaster knowledge they’ll glean from their reading.
• In this popular shark-themed story from Scholastic Action, “Saving the Great White Monster,” your students will learn just what it takes to save these majestic creatures from ending up in somebody’s soup bowl. (Action is for striving readers in grades 6–12, but it’s written at an upper-elementary reading level, so it’s perfect for students in grades 3–5, too.)

Give Students Access to Knowledge-Building Videos

Watching videos that support and enhance the reading experience is a great way to build knowledge and spark curiosity. Every major story featured in Scholastic Classroom Magazines is paired with an engaging video.

• Check out SuperScience’s roller coaster video, which features a history of these hair-raising rides and covers key science topics like kinetic energy and momentum.
• Action also has an insightful interview with the author of “Saving the Great White Monster,” Lauren Tarshis. She shares some interesting facts about sharks and shows off some cool footage of these deadly predators in action.

Encourage Project-Based Learning

Summertime is a great time for hands-on learning, too. To take learning “off the page,” consider sharing SuperScience’s catalog of hands-on experiments and STEAM challenges with your students’ families this summer. They’re easy to do at home and require only basic household supplies. For an idea of how they work, check out this marble painting activity, which was an extension from the roller coaster story mentioned above.

Give Students the Power of Self-Selection

Research shows that when a student self-selects what they read, they’re more engaged and comprehend the story better. By subscribing to Scholastic Classroom Magazines, students gain access to years of content and can search for articles and topics that interest them the most.

Engage Parents and Families

Any successful summer reading program requires teachers to reach out to parents. Magazines are perfect because sending home digital access is super easy. Just create a classroom password and share it with your students’ families. Then your students can read, learn and explore on the device of their choice, anytime, anywhere. 

Our magazines are the perfect resource for engaging stories that will keep your students reading all summer long. And when you subscribe for the 2019—2020 school year, we’ll also give you digital access to our online resources for the rest of this school year. Then, when September rolls around, you’ll start receiving these brilliant resources in your classroom. It’s like preparing for summer reading and the upcoming school year all at the same time!