Anne Arundel County's public schools reconvene in less than a month, yet some students will likely be more prepared for the coming year than others, thanks to a summer program that prevents the so-called summer slide.
The county's Elementary Summer Academy offers classroom instruction and activities to ensure that students retain the previous grade's language and math skills.
This year, more than 1,000 students at eight sites enrolled in the program, which began in early July and concluded Thursday. County school officials say that more than 17,000 students — from kindergarten to fifth grade — have participated in the program since its launch in 1989.
"It provides a bridge to the gap they lose over the summer, so it helps them to build confidence and maintain skills they've learned throughout the year," said Doreen Lavallee, program site coordinator and teacher at Piney Orchard Elementary School in Odenton, one of the sites where the program was held.
During a recent Summer Academy day at Piney Orchard, students in one of the kindergarten classes learned about letters and words while playing the game Hangman. In a second-grade class, students learned about different types of drums around the world and displayed their writing on the wall.
Rising sixth-grade students say that taking the class helped them recall some of the lessons they had forgotten from early last school year.
"It's awesome," said Alex Rahnama, 11, from Severn. "We're reviewing stuff we previously learned, but it's helping us to learn it how we didn't learn it before."
He added that the sessions had helped him improve grasping such math concepts as simplifying fractions.
In addition to class instruction, students also earn prize tickets they can trade in at the schools' stores, which stock items including balls and temporary tattoos. Tickets are earned for such tasks as completing homework assignments or exhibiting good behavior in class. Teachers say earning tickets is an ideal way to modify behavior.
"Summer Academy is not looked upon as a punishment or a repeat," said Kim Callison, county schools coordinator of elementary reading and language arts. "It is an enrichment program."
Natyah Cotton, 10, of Hanover said that when she told friends she would spend the summer in such a program, "They just said, 'Good luck.' " Asked what she would be doing if she weren't enrolled in the program, she replied, "I would be watching TV."
In fact, most of the students say that they likely would not be focused much on hitting the books during the summer if it weren't for the program, and their fifth-grade teacher, Kellie Ramey, says she can relate.
"I'd be at the pool with my children," said Ramey, who teaches at Waugh Chapel Elementary in Odenton. She said the students not only sharpen skills learned the previous year but they build self-confidence in an environment where class sizes are small, enabling more personalized instruction.
"Because of the small class size, you can really get to know the children," Ramey said. "When I go to work with them in small groups, or one on one, it's very, very specific to them."
Students are tested during the early stages of the program to determine which areas they need to focus on and are tested at the end of the program to see how they've progressed. Because of the individualized attention, Ramey said, students feel less embarrassed about asking questions or giving the wrong answers.
And teachers also benefit from the time spent in the classroom. Lavallee, who will resume teaching second grade after having spent the last couple of years teaching third, says the program allows teachers to instruct in different grades as well as share ideas.
"That's the way teachers learn," Lavallee said. "They receive ideas from other teachers to help them throughout the school year."