Summer slide? Not this year!
Get ready for the UK’s biggest summer reading adventure: the National Read-Aloud Challenge is back for its third and most ambitious year yet. Whether through school or at home, every child in the UK can take part completely free of charge, AND enjoy two months of Fonetti!
The National Read-Aloud Challenge is a powerful, free summer initiative that transforms reading into a fun, confidence-boosting journey for children everywhere, whether they’re guided on that journey by their schools or their parents.
And there are prizes, too!
At the heart of the challenge is Fonetti: an award-winning read-aloud app with instant feedback, powered by our unique, patented automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology, developed specifically for reading. As children read aloud, Fonetti listens in real time, encouraging, correcting, and celebrating progress with every page.
At Scanning Pens, we’re big fans of anything that keeps kids reading over summer as we know how disheartening and difficult it can be to head back to class at a disadvantage. That’s why we’re huge advocates of Fonetti’s National Read-Aloud challenge:
“We’re passionate about helping every child discover the power of reading, whether that’s through paper books or digital apps. That’s why we’re proud to support the National Read-Aloud Challenge, which inspires children to read confidently, building literacy skills that last a lifetime.”
– Quin Chandler, Managing Director @ Scanning Pens
➡️ Head to Fonetti’s National Read-Aloud Challenge hub for more information, and how to join in on a summer full of reading fun!
➡️ And for more on the summer slide – and why keeping kids reading over summer matters so much – stick around with us here at Scanning Pens.
So, what do we mean by ‘summer slide’?
The ‘summer slide’ refers to a loss of around 20% of the previous school year’s reading and learning gains over the long summer holidays that learners are experiencing. A lack of practice and a dip in consistent engagement are key causes, and more pronounced in those who are still acquiring literacy, although learners of all ages experience some skill erosion over summer.
We’ve known about it for a while: the first comprehensive research on the phenomenon came in the mid-1990s, and since then, preventing summer slide is acknowledged as a major hurdle for students returning to class.
But summer slide isn’t just about the start of term
It all starts when learners head back to class and are confronted with more complex and demanding schoolwork. Here’s where the first demographic breakdown happens: those who have read enough to preserve their reading gains over summer and progress into the new year with ease, and those who haven’t.
Some of the second group will be able to put extra effort into learning to get back on track, but this requires a lot of self-motivation and a fairly complex understanding of the difficulties they’re facing. It often means having the confidence to approach teachers with a request for help, which isn’t so easy when you’re both new to each other.
This means that many learners who haven’t read over summer enter the new school year proper with an ongoing deficit. If that summer slide goes unchecked, it can put them weeks of skill growth behind their summer-reading classmates by the end of term. And as another summer goes by with another up to 20% skill erosion, that means that those lost weeks get doubled, and the deficit becomes entrenched.
This is why preventing summer slide is so important: it’s not just about the start of this new term, but about the start of the new term after that, and the term after that.
…What if my child doesn’t want to read over summer?
We get it: there’s some heavy competition from lie-ins, sports, hanging out with friends, social media and video gaming. You can help incentivise reading by adding rewards like days out (or tasty snacks) into the mix, but it’s also important to ensure that ‘not wanting to read today’ doesn’t go deeper.
1 in every 5 learners in your child’s class is going to have a reading difference like dyslexia, and thanks to the pandemic, there are more kids than ever who have fallen behind in reading. If reading aversion seems to go beyond the normal summer-holiday slump, it’s always worth having a quick conversation about why. It might be that they need some extra support, whether that’s diagnosing a neurodiversity, or just the addition of some text-to-speech reading support to give their confidence a boost.
And here are some other tips on beating summer slide by making reading inclusive for all!
8 ways to make summer reading inclusive, and beat the summer slide!
✔️ Get involved with Fonetti’s National Read-Aloud Challenge this summer!
✔️ Give them a choice of reading materials
Let kids pick what they want to read! Whether it’s at home or in class, and whether it’s graphic novels, audiobooks, or joke books, giving them ownership builds confidence and keeps them turning pages and interest leads the way. Choice is key to keeping motivation high and the dreaded summer slide at bay.
✔️ Mix up those mediums!
Reading doesn’t have to mean just print: offer audiobooks, eBooks, and text-to-speech tools so kids with dyslexia or other reading differences can access stories in a way that works for them. Accessibility = empowerment.
✔️ Leverage assistive tech for a more accessible summer
Tools like reading pens can be game-changers, because through multi-modal learning facilitated by page-to-audio feedback, these smart little devices help decode tricky words and boost independence – so every child can read with pride, not pressure.
✔️ Many kids thrive on routine, so make it cool and comfy
Set up a daily “reading chill zone” with comfy cushions, snacks, and zero stress… whether you’re a teacher in the classroom or a parent at home! Even 15 minutes a day can help prevent the summer slide – and when it feels like a treat, kids will keep coming back for more.
✔️ Remember: reading happens everywhere, not just between the pages
Reading an online recipe? Subtitles on a movie? Instructions for a LEGO build? It all counts! Recognising diverse reading experiences helps kids who find reading challenging break down their reading anxieties, and maybe even helps them begin to see reading as something fun and engaging again.
✔️ Buddy Up!
Pair readers together for shared reading time – older siblings with younger ones, or friends with similar interests. Peer support builds confidence and makes reading social, not solitary, and having somebody there to support can do wonders when it comes to finding the confidence to head back to books in a recreational way.
✔️ Highlight heroes with learning differences, and authors with reading needs
Stock your shelves with books featuring neurodiverse characters or real-life figures who’ve thrived with dyslexia and other challenges, as well as authors who have dyslexia. Having role models is important as a young person who learns and thinks differently.
✔️ Track progress, but don’t aim for perfection
As well as getting on board with Fonetti’s National Read-Aloud Challenge, you could also use fun reading logs, sticker charts, or digital badges to celebrate effort and consistency – not just the speed at which they’ve got through books, or how many they’ve read in a certain time frame. Every page turned is a win against the summer slide, but that doesn’t mean only strong, speedy readers are doing something useful.
Summer slide can impede learning progress in a big way… unless they’ve got a reading pen like C-Pen Reader 2 on hand.
For primary school students, summer slide can be even more devastating: when you’re still in the process of literacy acquisition, starting the new school year at a disadvantage in reading can impact that new school year’s progress in a big way. It’s hard to make up lost ground when reading is the key that unlocks the whole curriculum, from science to maths, and sometimes, it’s even harder to find the courage to ask for help.
But Scanning Penshas been empowering learners with the award-winning C-Pen Reader 2 as a support system for anybody who finds reading challenging for years. It’s a clever little thing: shaped like a pen but equipped with out-of-this-world functionality for learners, it all begins when they move the tip of the pen along the page to listen to the words…
✅ Read and understand independently
✅ Instant dictionary definitions
✅ Save text and audio
✅ Hone skills with practice mode
✅ Read wherever, whenever – no need for Wi-Fi!
✅ And it can unlock exam success, too…
When Reader 2 is in its Exam Lock mode, it’s also approved for use by JCQ during Year 6 SATs tests except for the reading paper, as a centre-delegated access arrangement.
📚 This summer can be the one where reading takes centre stage. With the National Read-Aloud Challenge and tools like Fonetti and Reader 2, every child has the chance to build confidence, beat the summer slide, and fall in love with reading all over again.
So whether it’s a comic book on the couch, a bedtime story with Fonetti, or decoding a tricky word with Reader 2 – let’s turn every page into progress!
