Summer Literacy & Math Project
All ETSD students are asked annually to participate in a district-wide summer literacy and math project to not only practice reading and math skills, but more importantly encourage lifelong readers and mathematicians.
A highlight of the literacy project continues to be modeled off of the One School, One Book national campaign, which includes a shared reading experience for all. In ETSD, the initiative begins with the summer One District, One Theme announcement of Responsibility Starts with Me, where students are asked to connect one of their summer reads to the 2024-2025 theme of responsibility. A responsibility title was also selected for each elementary grade and written into the September protocol in shared reading to start the school year. Students will read in class their designated responsibility book and the theme of responsibility will be explicitly taught, along with other connections to building a community of readers and celebrating the work completed over the summer months. Students are challenged to then think about how responsibility can be carried forward throughout the school year. The following questions are posed and set the stage for a positive classroom climate from the very first day of school.
- What does responsibility look like in our classroom? ...In our school? ...In our community?
- How will you be responsible?
- How does being responsible connect to kindness and our CARES program?
Students also completed other authentic literacy and math tasks such as writing letters to authors, sharing books on Padlet, creating fraction problems, making videos, and more. This summer’s math focus is on riddles and puzzles. So far, over 500 students have posted a math problem or a recommended read. If you are an ETSD students, be sure to complete your summer literacy and math tasks before September!
Schools/classrooms are encouraged to integrate the theme of Responsibility Starts with Me throughout the school year. While the initial theme discussion in the protocols focuses on the theme of responsibility, students are also introduced to the other social and emotional competencies in September that make up the district’s CARES program, which is part of the Responsive Classroom approach.
In addition, each elementary school is holding one to three summer literacy events. The library-media centers are utilized and each event facilitated by one or more staff members. All sessions reinforced the goal of promoting summer reading, while celebrating choice and building school community. These are great opportunities for students to visit the library media center, see some of our staff, return and check out books, interact with district therapy dogs, and much more. Be sure to attend your school's next event! Click here to go to our Summer Literacy and Math Project page.