Turning up the Summer HEAT
School system wants parents to keep learning sizzling
By Katherine Peters CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Chesterfield students have joyously tossed aside textbooks in exchange for full-time summer fun, but that doesn't mean kids have to forget what they learned last school year. Chesterfield County Public Schools' Summer HEAT program provides students - and their parents - a way to stay sharp even when school is out.

The Summer HEAT Web site offers students in grades 6-12 a variety of online resources for math and reading, helping students keep their prior knowledge active and ready for use in their next courses.

Educators say a few hours of review each week will help keep students' minds in top shape for the fall, allowing teachers to shorten review periods at the beginning of the year.

"When students come to us with deficits, or perceived deficits, it really slows down that new content teaching process" at the start of the next school year, says Michael Bolling, instructional specialist of mathematics for the school system. Summer HEAT can help give students "a running start" for the year.

Students preparing for Algebra I, for instance, can work through the Algebra I document on the Web site to help pinpoint their weak spots. Each document has a companion solutions guide that not only provides the right answer, but illustrates each step in solving the problem. If students need more help, they can click on links to tutorial sites such as Ask Dr. Math.

Bolling encourages students to try each problem on their own before jumping to the solutions provided, using the Web site as a self-directed review.

"This helps students take a little more ownership in their own learning," Bolling says.

But math isn't the only subject that can slip over the summer. Being in the habit of reading is also important when fall comes around, says Randi Smith, secondary language arts instructional specialist.

Summer HEAT also includes two suggested summer reading lists - one for middle school and one for high school students - to help improve comprehension, fluency and vocabulary. The lists are blends of classic and contemporary literature from a myriad of bestseller and Go Read lists. Few of the books, however, are found on required school reading lists.

"What we try to do is just expose kids to as many possibilities of reading selections as we possibly can," Smith says. "Reading is a pleasurable event that we forget about."

To help students jump into the reading lists, Smith suggests "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" for middle school students and "Their Eyes Were Watching God" for high school students.

Students need more than reading lists, however, to jumpstart their summers, according to Smith.

"[Parents] have got to model what they want for their kids," she adds, emphasizing that Summer HEAT should be a team effort for parents and students.

This is the third summer the Summer HEAT program has been offered through Chesterfield County Public Schools. To access Summer HEAT, go to www.chesterfield.k12.va.us, click on "Summer School" in the upper right corner, and then click on "Summer HEAT."