Students in grades PreK-8 from across the district are encouraged to read for at least 20 minutes every day from July 3 to August 4 as part of a city-wide summer reading challenge organized by Holyoke Public Schools and Holyoke Public Library.
“We are excited to offer this year's summer reading challenge to encourage reading among our students,” said Superintendent Anthony Soto. “As an extra incentive, we will award a tablet to the student who reads the most from each grade level district-wide.”
According to the Brookings Institute, students typically lose one month’s work of school-year learning over summer breaks. This is a significant loss, and it can have a lasting impact on students' academic progress.
There are many resources available to help families keep their kids engaged in reading and learning over the summer. Consider checking some of these out for inspiration:
The Reading Rockets website provides free resources for parents and educators, including articles, lesson plans, and book lists.
The Scholastic website offers a variety of summer reading activities, including games, quizzes, and printables.
Imagination Soup provides incentives, booklists, and resources for parents.
Participating students will need to record their reading minutes in a personalized daily reading log, which must be returned to their schools by Friday, September 8, if they want to have a chance to win prizes.