VOA Learning English for VOA Special English Recorded by Ty Theavy

Vacation វិស្សមកាល                   Break សម្រាក                  Grade ថ្នាក់

Aim គោលដៅ                            Attend ចូលរៀន                Regular ធម្មតា

Social studies ការសិក្សាសង្គមកិច្ច Visual arts សិល្បៈរូបភាព   Thrive ជឿនលឿន

In addition to បន្ថែមទៅលើ           Feeling អារម្មណ៍               Elementary school សាលាបឋមសិក្សា                     Creative ច្នៃប្រឌិត             Relearn រៀនម្តងទៀត

Low-income ប្រាក់ចំណូលតិច       Evaluation ការវាយតម្លៃ      Invested វិនិយោគ

Promising ដែលនឹងមានជោគជ័យ  Excited រំភើប                    Tie together ភ្ជាប់គ្នា

June, July and August are vocation months for most American schoolchildren. But some students pay a high price for that long summer break. They may forget much of what they learned over the past year by the time they start the next grade.

The problem is often called the summer learning gab. Growing efforts across the country aim to deal with this gab by offering more interesting summer school programs.

Some students already attends summer school. But that is often because they received bad grades during the regular school year. At Bushman Elementary in Dallas recently, student read out loud about communities in a third-grade social studies class. But the nine-and 10- years-olds were also studying art. Visual art instructor Ron Oliver works to combine the two subjects.

“The kids that never get it,” he says. “Like the 30 percent that always struggle on testing—they thrive in this kind of atmosphere.”Ron Oliver says some kids just learn differently.

In addition to reading, the students expressed themselves in picture form by drawing community scenes. One boy told us he was expressing his feeling through drawing.” You only use the pictures,” added one girl. She said pictures can tell the words for you.” You don’t need words,” she said.

Their teacher is Gloria Pegram. She has taught elementary school for 15 years. She says art helps with memory.

Gloria Pegram says teachers even try to be creative with math. She says teachers try to use a hands-on activity whenever possible to help students remember better.

Gloria Pegram say students who do not take summer enrichment classes often need to relearn lessons when they return in the fall. This is especially true of lows-income students. They are less likely, for example, to live near public libraries offering books to read and special summer reading programs.

Ed Pauly is director of research and evaluation at the Wallace Foundation. The nonprofit group has invested $50 million to study which programs work best to prevent summer learning loss. Ed Pauly says poor kids can lose as much as three months of learning over the summer. He says one promising method has been to include art in summer programs. Ed Pauly told us teaching through the arts get kids excited about being in school every day.

And the art use reading and math. So they are a great way to tie together learning experiences. 

VOA Learning English for VOA Special English 
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