Kathryn Culpepper
Article Review- 3
Journal Article Review of Summer Reading “Un-Program”
Students whose lives are affected by poverty experience significant reading loss over the summer. One reason for this so called “summer slide” as the author calls it, is the lack of access to books or other reading materials. The purpose of this article is to explain a program that was done during 2 summers that allowed a place for children to go and read. The program was called SOLAR (Summer of Learning and Reading). The goal of the program was to increase student interest in reading and to keep them reading during the summer so their reading level doesn’t decrease. It also wanted to encourage students to read books of their choice and would allow
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Posters, flyers, and bookmarks were used to advertise the SOLAR. On the first day of the program, students who attended were given a 20-question reading attitude survey to complete and the STAR reading computer test. These tests were to be given on the last day of the program as well in hopes that the students showed growth in their reading levels and attitude. The results from the day one attitude survey showed that the students had poor attitudes about reading and little confidence in their reading ability. The results from the STAAR reading test presented very little students scored on grade level. Throughout the 16-day project, students participated in a variety of reading-related activities. They learned how to access eBooks on different applications, took Accelerated Reader tests for books they had read, made art projects, worked puzzles, played games, listened to librarians read stories to them, and read books of their choice. On the last day of the program the reading STAR test and the 20-question reading attitude survey were given again. Unfortunately, the results were inconclusive. Some students didn’t take the pre-test while others only took the post-test because of attendance. The STAR test did not show growth as expected. The surveys did not show that students had a more positive attitude towards reading, although the teachers felt that they students did have more of a positive attitude. The librarians felt the 20-question survey was too long, and the students were required to do it independently on the last day while on the first day they had the survey read to them. Because of this, they felt the students did not answer the questions