Posts published on June 16, 2016

8 Ways to Prevent College Summer Learning Loss

 

BY JANE HURST

One of the biggest challenges many students need to overcome is the learning that they lose while they are on summer vacation. This happens to all college students at one time or another, because there are two to three months when no learning is being done. If you are worried about this happening to you, here are eight things you can do to prevent summer learning loss.

  1. Schedule Daily Learning Time – You don’t have to make yourself sit for hours and learn every day all summer, but 15-30 minutes of daily learning time will help to keep the things you learned throughout the school year fresh in your mind. Get yourself into summer reading groups, and visit the local library to check out books that will help.
  2. College Summer Camp – Summer camps are always great for learning, whether they are week-long camps or day camps. There are several different types of college summer camps, so look for one that focuses on the things you like. For instance, if you are into science, look into space camp, computer camp, etc. If you are artistic, there are also arts and crafts camps.
  3. Get Yourself Into Creative Writing – Creative writing is loads of fun, and a great way for college students to brush up on writing skills, which include grammar, sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation. Use online tools to choose something to write about, and use a good thesaurus so you can find new words to use in place of others. You will learn new words, and make your written works even more interesting.
  4. Take a Virtual Vacation – You can travel all over the world without ever leaving your own home, and you can learn a lot about things that are happening in other countries, different cultures, languages, etc. If you can get your hands on a virtual reality headset, it will make learning even more fun, because you will almost feel like you are in whatever country you are learning about.
  5. Improve Speed Reading Skills – Start reading for enjoyment every day throughout summer vacation. It could be reading a chapter from a novel each night before bedtime, reading on long car rides, etc. Also, to help you understand what you are reading try using comprehension workbook a few minutes each day. These books can be found at teacher supply stores, as well as online.
  6. Work on Grammar Skills – While working on improving reading skills, don’t forget about grammar skills. Look for grammar workbooks, and encourage yourself to use these books. After a while, you will start getting correct answers all the time.
  7. Develop Math Skills – Get yourself to work on a couple of math problems each day. Make it a daily challenge, and reward yourself when they are completed by going to the park or doing some other type of fun activity. This is particularly important for college students who have trouble with math, and it will help to prepare them for the upcoming year.
  8. Try Field Trips – Field trips are fun, and educational. Take your friends to art galleries, science museums, historical locations, etc. and get them into activities that are related to the subjects they study in school, such as history, geography, math, science, and social studies. Try writing short essays or draw pictures to show what you have learned on the field trips. Don’t forget to include fun field trips.

Byline:

Jane Hurst has been working in education for over 5 years as a teacher. She loves sharing her knowledge with students, is fascinated about edtech and loves reading, a lot. Follow Jane on Twitter!