skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Report says a second Trump term would add 4 billion tons of climate pollution; Trump predicts a bloodbath for the country if he is defeated in November's election; Nevada leaders discuss future of IVF, abortion in the Silver State; and anglers seek trawler buffer zone as Atlantic herring stock declines.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Combatting Learning Loss in Summer: Importance of Reading

play audio
Play

Wednesday, June 14, 2017   

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The lazy days of summer are celebrated by Tennessee students and parents, but in between trips to the pool and the inevitable video-game session, educators say reading has to be made part of the routine.

According to the organization Reading is Fundamental (RIF), students experience from a one- to three-month loss of reading skills in summer if they don't continue to read regularly. Laura Walters, RIF's manager of programs, said reading doesn't have to start with books.

"So just giving kids the opportunity to choose the type of material that they read," she said, "and keeping in mind that it doesn't always have to be a book, that it might be a magazine, it might be a newspaper - even if it's just a cereal box or signs driving down the road."

Walters said younger children should read for at least 15 minutes a day during summer and older kids should read for a minimum of a half hour. In 2015, more than 48 percent of Tennessee students in grades three through eight passed the state's proficiency bar in 2015, meaning more than half were not at grade level.

According to the latest data from the National Center for Educational Statistics, 13 percent of Tennessee adults lack basic literacy skills. Regardless of a student's intended profession, said Ed Deleon, RIF's chief program and content officer, reading skills are an indicator of future success.

"Literacy skills are just so important in the job market and in academia," he said, "that without the proper literacy skills it's really difficult to make your way in the world."

While an incentive program for children to read in the summer can help, Walters said, the best strategy is taking them to the library to let them choose the books or publications that interest them most.

"Internal motivation is probably the most important thing and knowing what drives your child," she said. "Another big factor is, of course, making sure that the children see that their parents are reading themselves."

Organizations such as RIF, Read 2 Succeed and others often offer free summer reading books for children.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Out-of-state money is pouring into Texas as the contentious issue of "school choice" looms large ahead of November's election. (Dzmitry/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

Social Issues

play sound

Women are treated much differently than men by the criminal justice system, according to a new report detailing how and why mass incarceration is …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021