How Your Child’s Reading Can Change in One Summer

Author: Marely Espinoza-Rosales, LearnUp Tutor

As a LearnUp tutor, the first time I heard about LearnUp’s Summer Intensive schedules, I wondered how 15 sessions over the summer could impact a student’s reading. However, my first summer student at LearnUp showed me how a large change such a short amount of time can make in the student’s reading.

John’s Story

John was in the second grade and entered LearnUp as a Start 1 student. Entering as a Start 1 meant that John was still unable to read even simple words such as cat or sun. For context, by the end of the school year, the average 2nd grader is expected to read 90 words correct per minute—meaning John was very far behind where he should have been.

John was a shy student, and while he always tried his best, I quickly saw that his reading struggle came from mixing up the sounds of his short vowels. In his 15 sessions, we focused on strengthening this foundational skill by teaching him the short vowel sounds one by one.

John went from struggling to finish one book across two or three sessions to reading two books in a single session. On his last day of tutoring, John finished an entire book with absolutely no help from me in a matter of minutes. Sometimes when students make progress like this, they don’t always notice their own growth. However, when John read that book effortlessly, even he couldn’t overlook the growth he had made.

I praised his accomplishment and took a moment to show him just how much of an accomplishment this was. I explained to him that not only had he increased the speed at which he was reading the books, but also that our books increase in challenge as we progress through our program. Meaning that the first few books he had struggled to read over the course of several days had far fewer words per page, and the words were far easier to read.

That summer, John exited LearnUp, completing only 15 sessions. For a student like John who was far behind where he should have been, those 15 sessions meant he could gain a solid understanding of how to read simple one-syllable words. In the grand scheme of reading, John left LearnUp with still a lot left to learn to become a fluent reader. However, even just learning the sounds of the consonants and short vowels gave John the opportunity to grow his confidence in reading tremendously, and he left LearnUp knowing he was capable of learning to read.

LearnUp’s Impact

Compared to other reading programs, LearnUp’s structured literacy program is able to advance students in a shorter amount of sessions through our use of entry levels referred to as ‘starts’. Upon entry to LearnUp, students are evaluated to determine what they already know and what they have left to learn in order to become readers. This allows students to move through our program faster, as they don’t all need to start from the very beginning of the program. LearnUp’s tutoring sessions are also one-on-one between a student and their tutor. This allows tutors to tailor the sessions to fit the needs of the student and move the student as quickly or as slowly through the program as they need.

While every LearnUp student can move at a different pace, in 15 sessions, we typically see our non readers and early readers (Start 1 and 2 students) make progress in reading one-syllable words such as bat, flag, and make.

In 15 sessions, emerging and developing readers (Start 3 and 4 students) make progress towards reading multi-syllable words such as basket, raven, and description.

In 15 session, Start 5 students, who primarily focus on comprehension and writing, make strides in understanding the texts they read and writing solid paragraph or essay summaries.

The Summer Reading Intensive sessions are a great option for all readers. When students exit school during the summer, they often experience what is referred to as the summer slide—a loss of academic skills and knowledge due to being out of school for an extended period of time.

This is especially impactful for their reading, as this is a skill that requires frequent and consistent practice in order to maintain.

A student who is not necessarily behind in their reading when they enter LearnUp will typically still show an increase in fluency, comprehension, and writing as LearnUp tutors are able to fill in any knowledge gaps the student may have. More importantly, those 15 sessions help ensure that the student does not experience a major setback in their reading due to a lack of practice. This helps students enter the following school year feeling ready to learn!

Student names have been anonymized for privacy.