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Permission granted by San Luis Obispo School District Office of Education
Education Dive
How educators, librarians are connecting students with books to prevent COVID-19 summer literacy slide
Students who continue reading over the summer can gain a year or two
over their peers who don’t, according to Idaho State Librarian
Stephanie Bailey-White.
Shawna De La Rosa
July 1, 2020
After a socially distanced spring of online learning, school and county
librarians are making an effort to put real books in the hands of
students for a screen-free summer in an effort to stave off an
anticipated "COVID slide" in literacy skills.
Experts fear students will experience an exaggerated version of the
summer slide this year. When the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to
close this spring, many districts were unprepared to transition to
online learning, setting the stage for a significantly longer learning
gap than during a typical summer despite best efforts to salvage the
spring.
Over a typical summer, students are estimated to lose up to a month of
grade-level-equivalent learning. A report by NWEA Research predicts
3rd-graders’ RIT scores, which measure instructional level and growth,
will drop well below their mid-March levels.
Public library connections
Reading over the summer is a critical component to avoiding the summer
slide, said Idaho State Librarian Stephanie Bailey-White. Students who
continue reading over the summer can gain a year or two over their
peers who don’t, she said.
With many libraries still closed, librarians in Idaho are working to
provide virtual and online programs. Many libraries in the state are
offering curbside services and providing books at school grab-and-go
meal stations.
With Latinx students making up 18% of the state’s student population,
the library system provides books in different languages and is always
trying to bridge those gaps, Bailey-White said. “Right now, we are
looking at ways our libraries can get more access to e-books, which are
expensive,” she added.
Digital books are good for older students who are used to accessing
information online, though some older students prefer books as a way to
escape technology.
“But when it comes to younger students, we always say, ‘A lap is better than an app,’” she said.
‘Book in students’ hands’
When schools closed, students at North Shore Middle School on Long
Island, New York, quickly transitioned to distance learning. Thanks to
the school’s digital book platform, Sora, students didn’t miss a beat,
said Nina Livingston, library media specialist at North Shore.
“None of the English classes suffered because we had Sora already up
and running,” Livingston said. In early April, for example, the online
book platform made the Harry Potter series available to students
through school accounts.
But as summer approached, Livingston made it her mission to get
hardcover books in the hands of the school’s 600 students. She was able
to make it happen with support from her principal and $5,000 in funds
from the school’s parent teacher organization.
“Students have spent the last three months reading everything
digitally,” she said. “We wanted them all to have an actual book in
their hands.”
There is something magical about hardcover books, Livingston said.
Books can be brought outside, they can go in the car, and they don't
have batteries that low.
In typical years, students check books out from the library for summer
reading. This year, Livingston had to go a different route by
purchasing new books — but finding 600 hardcover books wasn’t easy
during closures.
“Trying to get books from the publishers during COVID was next to impossible,” she said.
Livingston was finally able to partner with an independent book store,
Book Revue in Livingston, New York, which worked with publishers to get
all the titles needed.
The library media specialist selected six books that ranged in genres
spanning memoirs, graphic novels, mysteries and adventures. Students
made their choices online and were able to pick the hardcover books up
by the end of June.
“Every kid now has a hardcover book in their hands,” she said. “It was
really exciting, especially for the incoming 6th-graders.”
Story walks
“We have a storybook walk behind our library that we change out every
two weeks with books on a theme,” said Leslie Warren, a librarian. The
story walk currently features the book “Falling for Rapunzel.”
The library also provides weekly baskets filled with books, which are
changed out regularly for sanitization, and weekly craft project
materials. Additionally, the city has 13 Little Free Library stations
that remain well-stocked, Warren said.
"Book cuddling"
Hardcover and paperback books are important tools for very early age
groups, said Shannon Pimemtel, program supervisor for First 5, San Luis
Obispo County Office of Education in California.
“When parents read to their child, it creates strong bonding and
promotes improved language and listening skills,” she said, noting that
it also promotes a love of books and learning. “We call it ‘book
cuddling.’”
Using resources from the nonprofit Raising A Reader, a national
children’s literacy program, Pimentel is distributing literacy book
bags to 46 early education programs in the district, from Pre-K and
kindergarten classes to Head Starts, private preschools and homeless
shelters. She is even distributing some bags to laundromats.
The books and resources in the bag do not need to be returned.
“With COVID, we all went into online learning through iPads and
computers,” she said. “But we are reminding parents to pull out these
books, which can also help with math and science concepts.”
The bags include instructions that teach parents how to ask open-ended
questions that promote imagination and allow students to make their own
connections.
“The child is practicing their listening skills and building their
vocabulary,” she said. “But they are also building their
social-emotional learning. The books inside these bags open up
conversations about empathy, emotional expression and help children
understand hope, worry and happiness.”
Michael Goodbody, STEAM innovation manager for San Diego Unified School
District, is also using Raising A Reader initiative in his district.
The program is important because it puts books in the hands of
students, he said, but also gives parents background on how to properly
support their children.
“Parents have been asked to do more in these times of uncertainty, and
we should do anything we can to support them as they help their
children,” Goodbody said.
Physical books, as opposed to digital ones, allow families to get outside, and that’s important, he said.
“We aren’t just worried about students’ learning, we are worried about
how they are feeling during this time, how secure and healthy they
feel,” he said.
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