An idle mind is a dangerous thing

Written and submitted by Liz Duffy, reading specialist at Rhame Ave Elementary, East Rockaway.

Spring break brings many things to mind — vacation, the park, holidays, family, bike riding — list goes on and on. But how many of us think of reading when we think of spring break?

Maybe you’ve heard of the “Summer Slide,” or the regression students experience after they spend an entire summer break without reading. But what happens when students don’t read over spring break? It’s only a week or so long. How much damage can be done?

The fact is, if you don’t use it, you lose it! The brain, like muscle, changes and gets stronger as you use it. To keep a healthy brain, you must exercise it every day. When students leave for spring break, it is important that they continue reading each day to avoid losing skills they’ve worked so hard to attain. For this reason, students at Rhame Avenue Elementary were given mandatory homework from Principal Laura Guggino. The homework assignment was titled “Spring Break Reading Competition.” Students were expected to read a minimum of twenty minutes each day over vacation and chart the time they spent reading on a calendar.

On Monday when students returned to school, they handed in their calendars. The reading specialist Liz Duffy compiled data to find which grade had completed the most reading hours over the vacation. She then created a bulletin board that graphed the results and on Wednesday, the winner was announced. The fifth grade had completed an astonishing 170 hours of reading over spring break.

Equally impressive were the hours completed by the other grades in the school.
Fourth grade was in 2nd place with 166 hours and first grade placed 3rd with 146 hours. Third grade won 4th place with 140 hours, fifth grade, 5th place with 101 hours, second grade placed 6th with 80 hours and Kindergarten placed 7th with 73 hours of completed reading over spring break. The students at Rhame Ave

Elementary completed a total of 876 documented hours of reading time over break! This work on the student’s part helped them to retain the information they have gained through all of their hard work throughout the year.
With dedication to learning, students at Rhame Avenue Elementary have many fun filled and educational vacations ahead of them, which results in easier transitions back to school.