Summer learning

Goal of local program is to make lessons stick

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Staff writer

This isn’t your grandfather’s summer school.

There are no long faces, no boring textbooks and most importantly, no rote memorization.

Instead, students are outside with dry-erase boards on a summer day, or working with the Compass computer program to master their basics – or, if you’re in Jim Solum’s math class, playing Math Millionaire.

Solum, who has been in the district for six years, has seen a lot happen in summer school. One student came into math completely lost on a concept.

“For some reason, the student wasn’t grasping it,” he explained. “She came back (in the fall, after summer school), and she had it down pat.”

Summer school is all about improvement – students who have struggled are referred for extra work during the summer. For students from pre-kindergarten through seventh grade, that means weekday morning classes at Waller Elementary School.

And yet, for all of the stigma attached to summer school, the students appear to be having – dare we say it – fun?

It all comes back to the attitude. Solum, who was running his seventh graders through a fractions game last week, has an outlook of a seasoned teacher – even though he only got into the field after his job as a computer systems director was shifted overseas.

“A lot of things we teach I can bring to life,” Solum said. “Most of the kids come up, ‘When are we going to use this math?’

“I’m like, ‘I already did.’ I can explain to them how we use it and what it’s there for.”

Solum also has a key point in how he teaches – making it understandable to the students. For instance, in teaching fractions, the term “reciprocal” comes up.

Only, Solum doesn’t teach it quite that way.

“We’ve got the tip-it dance, we’ve got the flip-it dance,” he explained. “Those are terms they understand more than reciprocal. It sticks with them.”

Making the knowledge stay with the students is the whole point of summer school, explains Burlington Area School District Summer School Director Christine Anderson.

“The purpose is to help students maintain their ability level and reinforce skills learned in the current year to help better prepare them for the next grade level,” she said.

Changes in the summer school program have also helped. The five-week program was moved later in the summer, so students finish the coursework closer to the beginning of the new school year.

The idea is, of course, to try and make sure what is learned is retained.

“Usually, students who attend summer school are better able to maintain skills and some of the educational gaps are filled in,” said Anderson. “Our goal is for the children to be confident and more successful in the approaching school year.”

Also a benefit: the summer breakfast and lunch program coincides nicely, as the school serves 120-150 students for breakfast and about 200-250 for lunch. Many of these students are those who would qualify for free or reduced-price meals during the school year. Anyone up to the age of 18 can attend the meal programs.

For Anderson, seeing the rise in numbers for summer school means more students are being reached. In 2009, 203 students were in summer school. Now there are 299.

“It is wonderful how many students we were able to reach out to this year,” she said.

And for Solum, who never had his summers off before becoming a teacher, seems to enjoy the format as well.

“It’s only half a day, and it gives me the rest of the day off,” he explained. “My wife says, if I didn’t do something during the summer, I’d drive her crazy.”