Engagement Strategies for Summer & All Year
50 Strategies for Summer School Engagement
By Ana Marie Hernandez
(Shell Education, 2024 – Learn more)
Reviewed by Michael McLaughlin
Elementary and middle school educators searching for practical, adaptable student engagement strategies that can be implemented immediately will find inspiration in 50 Strategies for Summer School Engagement by Ana Marie Hernandez all year long.
Hernandez presents a library of teacher-tested, play-based activities that provide students with opportunities to practice with concepts, interact with content, reinforce skills, and demonstrate their growing mastery.
Dive Right In!
The book’s layout invites educators to embed strategies into lessons right away.
The 50 strategies are divided into seven categories: Playful Practice; Hands-on Learning; Cultivating Community; Multimedia Adventures; Beyond the Classroom; Unleashing Literacy and Drama; and Assessment Quick Checks. As teachers think about which segment of their lesson may be in need of a refresh or activity, the book’s organization allows them to find a strategy that can be easily inserted into that block.
Each strategy is laid out in a clear, accessible format spanning no more than two pages.
► Introductory text at the beginning of each strategy provides a concise description of the activity and how to implement it.
► The “Make it Real” section differentiates the ideas across several grade ranges: K-2, Grades 3-5, and Grades 6-8. Here, teachers can consider how they may leverage the strategy within their specific learning objective. Hernandez makes an effort to use examples from Math, History, and English to illustrate that strategies can be used across the curriculum and to inspire educators to develop ideas to expand on and reimagine the strategy.
This is a feature that really makes the resource stand out as there is a deliberate effort to share several variations of each strategy which empowers teachers to scaffold the strategies and differentiate for the children in their classroom.
► “More for You” section offers additional tips and tricks to provide additional support for educators implementing the strategy. Hernandez really pushes for educators to consider the practices she presents as a springboard for further adaptation into a variety of grade or subject settings.
► Where appropriate, Hernandez includes hyperlinks to open-source material as well as both print and digital access to student activity pages needed for strategies that rely more heavily on graphic organizers.
Sample Strategies
To highlight a sample of the 50 strategies in store, I’ve selected a few of the low-to-no tech strategies from those presented.
Hands-on Learning: Interactive Notebooks
Rather than using notebooks as a record of the lecture-based information that teachers have shared, Hernandez invites teachers to reimagine notebooks as a resource to empower students’ continued growth. The value of the notebook hinges on its elevation from a static chronicle to an interactive learning platform. Hernandez provides several ideas of how to operationalize the strategy and make a notebook a more dynamic tool.
For example, the addition of sticky notes allows students to have an instant review tool for concepts, vocabulary terms, and key facts by concealing (and then revealing) information. Similarly, stylized flip-pages glued into the notebook are another method that can transform this classroom staple from something students passively read into a resource that students are actively building throughout the lesson – and can then use in a more hands-on way to reinforce skills and content at home.
Beyond the Classroom: History Mystery
In History there is perhaps nothing as unimaginative as a stand-alone, informational text about a person or event that students read aloud before responding to a series of comprehension questions. As a historian, I am excited by questions to ponder the mysteries of the past. Hernandez invites educators to reframe history lessons into investigations that get students working with source material and directing their energies towards piecing these puzzle pieces together.
I’ve used this strategy in my own classroom in exploring the question: “Why did so many people get sick (and die!) in London in 1854?” I could have certainly told students about the cholera epidemic and shared information about the contaminated Broad Street Pump in Soho.
Instead, as Hernandez suggests, by providing students with clues and pieces of evidence such as a map of the neighborhood, excerpts of historical documents, and other clues, I created an opportunity for students to think critically and creatively about this question, just like their historical counterpart Dr. John Snow. Students had to reconstruct the “crime scene” and a timeline with the evidence and then reason through the facts.
With students involved in the construction of knowledge, they’ll be far more likely to remember the “facts of the case,” and, more importantly, they will practice skills in evaluating sources, making evidence-based claims, and articulating their arguments – all transferrable, real-world skills that they can apply to a host of scenarios across the curriculum.
Assessment Quick Checks: Beach Ball Toss
Kinesthetic learning is the aim of the game here by incorporating movement with content review. Whether used at the end of class, a transition between segments of the lesson, or for an energizing “brain boost,” this activity maintains students’ time on task while getting them moving and thinking.
When students catch the beach ball, they respond to the question that is under their thumb and then pass the ball along to another classmate. This can be a great way to get students to practice math facts, define or utilize vocabulary words or subject-specific terms, recap parts of the day’s lesson, or loop back to a former unit. Along the way, teachers can clarify misconceptions.
Hernandez excels in presenting varied ways across grade levels, academic disciplines, and learning objectives to modify the activity. Rather than a prescriptive approach, the examples inspire ideas of how to adapt, integrate, and refresh the activity over the course of a term.
Don’t Judge the Book by Its Title
This book is billed as a resource repository for educators working with students for remediation or enrichment over the summer break. Summer classes are certainly a time when teachers must add a creative twist or two to capture students; however, student engagement and cultivating an enthusiasm for learning should be the aim every day.
The “summer strategies” presented in this resource are ones that can and should be used throughout the academic year. I fear that the title and description may cause some educators to overlook the book. The title does some disservice as it does not capture the enduring value of this resource as one that teachers can reference in January as easily as they might in July.
Michael McLaughlin is the Head of Middle School at Austin Preparatory School in Reading, Massachusetts. A past recipient of the A+ Administrator Award from the New England League of Middle Schools (NELMS), McLaughlin facilitates workshops for the PD Collab and has appeared on “The Teacher As” podcast. McLaughlin is on the NELMS Board of Directors and on the advisory board of Buckingham Education in the United Kingdom.
