summer work

One of my biggest concerns for the summer is the summer reading drop. Reading Rockets says it best:

Family income plays an important role in predicting the magnitude of summer loss in reading. Low-income students experience significant summer learning losses in reading comprehension and word recognition. On average, middle-income students actually experience slight gains in reading performance over the summer months.
Low-income students experience an average summer learning loss in reading achievement of over two months. On average, children from low-income families lose nearly three months of grade-level equivalency during the summer months each year, compared to an average of one month lost by middle-income children when reading and math performance are combined.

Therefore, I set the goal of giving every child every single leveled book from RAZ on their level for the summer. By my calculations, that meant that I had over 800 books to assemble. I wasn't sure if it was actually possible for me to pull that off, so I asked parents for help. The response has been overwhelming. Parents are volunteering to come in and help, or to take books home to assemble on their own. By the end of this week, we will be more than halfway done with the project.