The Future of Education

During the summer holidays, stopping literacy instruction leads to a decline in learming [2, 3]. In fact, reading and writing less regulary for two months has a negative effect on the maintenance of student skills and learning. This fact, observed by several teachers, has been identified as the “summer slide” [4]. According to research data, this decrease is equivalent on average to at least one month of teaching [2]. Thus, this conference presents a study that aims to identify the effects of different contexts on reading achievement during this period (day camp, with animal and control group) . The result shows that the students who carried out reading activities in a day camp context maintained their learning skills, while those who read to an animal in an animal shelter context had improvements in terms of accuracy and fluency in reading while the fluency in reading of students in the control group decreased. Consequently, reading activities in a day camp and in an animal shelter context have shown that reading during the summer holidays helps students maintain their learning skills.

Keywords Reading, summer slide, maintenance of skills, children 6 to 8 years old

Reference s [1] Chapleau, N., Lauzon, F., et Morissette, J. (2022). L’été, c’est fait pour lire!,
Nouveaux cahiers de la recherche en éducation.23(3). Canada.
[2] Conseil Canadien sur l’apprentissage (2008). La perte des acquis durant les vacances d’été. Carnet du savoir. Récupéré de : http://www.bdaa.ca/biblio/recherche/cca/summer_learning_loss_fr/summer_learning_lo ss_fr.pdf…
[3] Kim, J. S. et Quinn, D. M. (2013). The effects of summer reading on low-income children’s literacy achievement from kindergarten to grade 8: A meta-analysis of classroom and home interventions. Review of Educational Research, 83(3), 386-431.
[4] Royer, É. (2012). La réussite scolaire: chroniques d’un passionné. École et comportement.