Use It or Lose It

a teaching story by Charlotte Stitt Gordon | May 03, 2010

Thankfully, summer is the time for students and teachers to go brain dead and forget that ever-present redundancy of skills practice on which the year's final assessment hinges. Well deserved is their freedom from hovering state standards, hurrying to catch up on the pacing schedule of skills to be taught, and superfluous testing to assure objectives are mastered, or not.

But for some learners, is it wise to shut off those cognitive processes for two months or more and hope the fire reignites where it left off when summoned in the fall? Of course, all pupils are rusty when they return to school after an extensive break, but the momentum builds, and they are up to speed after a few weeks of review.

However, struggling learners often have to entirely relearn basic skills acquired the previous year. When presented with these skills by the new teacher, the light just does not come on, leaving the teacher baffled as to why last year's teacher did not expose the children to this.

When she/he finds out that Mrs. Jones did indeed pound these concepts into their heads until she was nearly in tears, exasperation is too mild a word to describe her/his feelings. Where were they? Were they absent with the latest virus going around? Were they pulled into a resource class at the time? Were they daydreaming out the window or possibly in the principal's office?

No, they were alive and well, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in Mrs. Jones's room. It took them longer to learn these skills than the rest of the class, but eventually they could make the correct responses and acted as if they had it...only to forget it as soon as new learning competed for brain cells. They did learn it for the moment, but long-term retention was not part of the deal.

Summer regression of academic skills is a proven phenomenon, but what is the best way to combat this? Are summer reading lists sufficient to maintain literacy skills for all learners? Are purchasing at-home practice workbooks an adequate way to drill those math facts and language rules or playing number and word games on family night? Are summer enrichment camps academic enough to challenge previously learned knowledge and add new insight?

For the average and above average child, these are excellent ways to hone their skills during summer break. Keeping the learning alive and playful will tease their brains to dig up basic skills and extend them for further application and creativity.

But the struggling student needs more structure and scheduled practice to allow last year's skills to embed themselves deeper into long-term memory. Without it, fall will prove to be a shocking experience when parents realize that their youngster is repeating almost all of what was thought to be learned in the prior year. They scramble to uncover Junior's previous report card to verify to themselves and the new teacher that indeed he made satisfactory progress on these skills and fear he will be bored to exasperation this year.

Summer tutoring by a trained educator is probably the best way to cement learning during extended breaks for these pupils. For them, the formation of learning pathways in the brain is only superficial and needs more molding, sculpting, and rewiring to be soundly established. Much repetition in practice by varying educational techniques in small group or one-on-one settings will make the difference. For some, total reteaching of the concepts may be necessary if distracters or misunderstanding interfered the first time they were introduced.

Affording summer tutoring can be an issue for many families, but also consider what the cost might be in the long run if this unplanted field lies fallow all summer. Most likely the initial cost of continuing practice of skills that a child has just been exposed to will be less than rekindling unused stores of vaguely formed knowledge.

Teachers may seem to parents to have an agenda when they encourage summer tutoring for past students. But as an adult interested in the best options for these learners, educators need to polish their salesmanship and help parents realize that tutoring now is most likely the least expensive choice possible.