ThinkCERCA Launches 2015 Summer Reading Challenge

At ThinkCERCA, we know it is critically important for students to continue to hone their reading and comprehension skills during the summer months. In fact, students who don’t read over the summer can lose up to two months of school progress. That’s why ThinkCERCA is launching a 2015 Summer Reading Challenge in alignment with other popular reading programs, including Chicago Public Library’s “Explore and Soar” initiative.

Starting Wednesday, June 17th, this initiative will feature four engaging classes in two separate tracks for grades 3-12—two science-based courses for students in grades 3-8 and 9-12 and two social studies courses for students in those same grade levels. In coordination with Chicago Public Library programming, the science courses will include books revolving around the theme “Space & Exploration.” The social studies track will feature texts around a separate theme, “Progress of the People.” The program will run from June 17th through the end of August.

How It Works

ThinkCERCA has developed lessons—featuring engaging informational texts and close reading assessments—to accompany each track. These lessons will connect student with the popular novels they’ll be reading to spur their literacy development during the summer months.

How Students Can Engage

Any student can participate, and we’ve made it easy for these learners to get started. Register online using the corresponding codes to participate in the challenge. View a complete list of lessons, suggested novel pairings, and instructions for getting started by visiting www.thinkcerca.com/summerreading.

Space Exploration:

• Grades 3-8: SPACE2
• Grades 9-12: SPACE3

Progress of the People:

• Grades 3-8: PEOPL2
• Grades 9-12: PEOPL3

How Parents and Educators Can Help

Parents and school leaders know that summer reading is a vital component to developing and retaining student literacy, and this Summer Reading Challenge provides students with the tools to continue to progress outside of the classroom. This program will help parents motivate their children to read more and help educators track their students’ progress using the ThinkCERCA platform.

Fend off the summer slide and join hundreds of students to keep on reading and discovering the world around them even while they’re out of school. Make this summer count using ThinkCERCA.

Photo by Neil Turner, licensed under the Creative Commons' Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.