Through September 11, any community volunteer efforts can count doubly- locally and nationally. President Barack Obama wants service projects recorded on Serve.gov, a website devoted to a new national service initiative titled United We Serve. Obama said the efforts will focus on some core areas of his economic renewal plan: education, community building, and energy independence.
He spoke specifically to the need for educational volunteers. “We can rebuild our schools, but we need people to be mentors and tutors in those schools,” he said in a speech on the first day of the project, June 16.
At the site you can create a service project, register your project, and recruit volunteers. Also, you can join existing service projects based on your location or interest.
Through this website, I’ve found some book donation programs for which I’ve applied. These programs acknowledge the reading proficiency loss that so many city students suffer from, unknowingly, in the summertime.
Past the initial summer push, the project will continue to grow in to a more sustained effort. While far reaching in time and wide in scope, the service project isn’t wholly altruistic. As Americans increasingly see our resources stretched overseas, volunteers can be happy to invest time in one of the last vestiges of American democracy- free, compulsory education. Building our own infrastructure and recording our efforts can only help sustain our country and children’s futures.
While rest and relaxation are important for students over the summer- another "r" is often overlooked- reading. According to a recent Journal Sentinel article, students can lose up to a month and a half of learning in the summer. The article suggests that students should try to read 15 minutes a day, simply to maintain learning capacities.
Summer reading is changing to accommodate this need: The days of recommended reading lists are dwindling, and librarians and educators are shifting the summer reading focus from what kids read to how much they read. Printouts of web pages, graphic novels, magazines, and, of course, books are all good sources for summer reading. Students will retain more information if they print a web page rather than read it off the screen, since the more senses that are involved in an activity, the higher the memory retention rate. Having something tangible also gives them a better sense of how much they are reading- and allows them to feel accomplished.
Though reading and literacy activities are usually considered a solitary activity, the new emphasis on page count opens up endless possibilities for child-parent interaction. For example:
- Cook or bake with your child, and have he or she read the recipe aloud to you.
- Take a trip to the (air-conditioned) library and check out books, magazines, age-appropriate CDs (for the liner notes), or graphic novels together. Ask the librarian about summer reading program incentives while you are there.
- Read reviews of summer movies before or after viewing and discuss if your child agreed or disagreed with the review.
- If you are taking a road trip this summer, stock the car with word games, maps, and light reading materials
-Spend time together writing. Write postcards, lists, and notes together.
-Spend time together reading. Take turns reading to one another.
Whatever you and your child read and do this summer, maintain a positive, encouraging attitude toward his or her reading choices. If he or she doesn't like a book or magazine- pick up a new one. It's part of what is nice about summer reading- there's no test at the end.
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