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Posts Tagged "summer academics"
Why Summer Is the Perfect Time to Learn
February 03, 2026
Avg. Read Time 5-6 min.
“I got a feel of what the school was like and what curriculum I could expect in my classes” —7th Grader
Benefits of Summer Academic Programs
Summer offers a convenient continuation of learning for students. It’s important for students in the LD community to be surrounded by peers with similar learning profiles and educators who truly understand how these students learn best, particularly in the smaller, focused classes that summer programs offer.
Among other benefits, summer academics also offer skills reinforcement, focused work in key subject areas, confidence-building, and a strong start to the upcoming school year.
Summer downtime after a long school year is important, but so too is guided summer work time to keep students’ skills sharp and — particularly for LD students — word retention active.
1. Summer academic programs let students “test drive” the school.
Learning about a new school over the summer can be a great trial run for students before the year starts. Maybe the new building is bigger or harder to navigate than a student’s former school, or classes use technology more regularly than students are used to. These programs can be helpful to transition students to a new learning environment.
Whether it’s one or all of these, think of summer school as a dress rehearsal for incoming students to start learning the tools, technology, and other systems that could be part of the norm at the new school.
This is especially important for students with language-based learning differences, because they need to start developing the accommodations and self-advocacy practices that a school like Siena has integrated into their curriculum, including our multisensory strategies and individualization of learning.
Meeting some students and teachers over the summer gives incoming students a degree of familiarity with the community that will be such an important part of their daily lives once the year starts.
“You can find out what’s about to happen in school and begin experiencing Siena. You also start getting comfortable with the building so you know where to go when school starts.” —6th Grader
2. Summer academic programs help assess students' learning needs.
When students take summer classes, their teachers can start to identify their individual learning styles and executive functioning skills, which in turn helps teachers develop student learning profiles to prepare for the coming year.
Students with dyslexia typically need more time and repetition to effectively store information within the automatic reading system; summer programs provide that needed time and repetition in a flexible, personalized environment. Moreover, Siena’s small classes, expert teachers, and individualized, language-based approach allows summer instruction to be tailored to each learner’s needs and strengths.
3. Summer academic programs support social and emotional wellness.
Attending a summer program as an incoming student could be especially good for anxious learners to get a microexperience of the school, their peers, and teachers.
Programs allow students to socialize and form community bonds to lead them into the new school year, in addition to being gradually introduced to the school’s teaching methods and overall learning environment. Often, these summer community friendships give new students a sense of comfort and confidence as they start the new school year.
“Right away I found students with similar styles, and then our friendships continued as the school year started and they introduced me to the rest of their friend group.” —7th Grader
4. Summer academic programs prepare students for the school year.
Providing opportunities for both exploration of strengths and interests, as well as providing academic support, helps create a well-rounded summer in a few ways:
- Increased Comfort: When taking summer classes, students start getting more comfortable navigating the school, learning the teachers’ expectations, and building social relationships.
- Skills Reinforcement: Practicing foundational learning skills between grade levels prepares students for the next grade — academically, organizationally, and emotionally.
- Executive Functioning: Summer is an ideal time to practice organization, planning, time management, and self-advocacy—skills that benefit students year-round.
When students experience growth and success in summer academics, they can experience success, rebuild academic confidence, and return to school feeling capable and prepared.
“It was a good way to see what I would learn about once school started. Some of us made friends instantly, which helped us once school started in the fall.” —6th Grader
Summer at Silver Spring Summer at Northern Virginia
Resources from Siena’s Blog
For more information about the benefits and opportunities of summer programs, see these past blog posts about Summer Reading, Boredom Busters, and Summer Tech Skills.
The Siena School, a nationwide dyslexia education leader currently in its 20th anniversary year, serves bright, college-bound students with language-based learning differences on campuses in Silver Spring, MD (grades 3-4 and 5-12) and Oakton, VA (grades 3-12).
Posted in
Parents and Community
Decision Time: Summer School or Summer Tutoring?
December 18, 2020
Believe it or not, the school year is fast approaching the halfway point. For some parents, it’s time to start weighing options for the summer. Once summer camps and other traditional activities resume, families may feel students need more individual attention on academics to make up for any gaps in learning this past year.
Finding Appropriate Academic Programs and Local Tutoring Options
Education consultant Ann Dolin has written about parents’ summer anxiety regarding how to find the right amount of academic practice and intellectual rigor over the summer. After almost a year of online learning for many children, parents might not be seeing the typical gains in reading, math, and other skills. “You certainly don’t want a summer where kids aren’t involved in any learning at all, and that’s because they can lose up to two months of progress,” Dolin observed in 2019, “But you don’t want to go overboard, either.”
While summer school may have negative connotations for students, finding the right balance of rigor and relaxation to help parents keep their children learning is key. Summer academic programs and tutoring that adopt both approaches have significant benefits. Continued academic practice and specialized training throughout the summer are especially important for students with language-based learning differences to prevent summer slide regression in reading and writing skills.
The Siena School offers both summer academics and tutoring programs for area students (not just current enrollees) to offer a continuity of education between school years.
Summer Academics for Students with Learning Differences
Siena Silver Spring’s summer academic program provides students in grades 4–9 with a positive instructional experience that works on review, reinforcement, and enhancement of academic skills. Small classes and a nurturing environment provide fun and creative learning opportunities in reading, writing, and math skills and concepts. Students who participate in summer academic courses get the opportunity to experience the school on a smaller scale and ease into the school community. Seeing Siena’s curriculum, faculty, and strategies before the school year starts smooths students’ transition to a new school after they’ve gained comfort in a new learning environment.
Siena’s summer academic program provides the same individualized, multisensory approach practiced throughout the school year in a relaxed but rigorous setting. (See Siena’s academics page for more curriculum information.) Students learn and practice using assistive technologies, specific executive functioning techniques, and writing and reading skills that are applied in each class. It’s been consistently beneficial for our new students to attend summer academic sessions to start creating a community with other students who have similar learning differences.
By first learning new skills, technology, and strategies and then practicing them in class without the added pressure of grades, homework, tests, or quizzes, students can best prepare for the coming school year during the summer. Attending a summer academic session allows students an opportunity to build and practice using a toolkit of skills to carry with them into the fall.
Summer Tutoring for Students with Learning Differences
Another good option to prepare for the new school year is tutoring in specific subjects. Summer tutoring offers consistency of learning, new skill development, one-on-one instruction, and individualized learning—all at a pace structured for the child. Tutoring can give some structure to a student’s summer day and exposes them to healthy learning practices that they can then continue once the school year starts.
Siena Tutors, Siena’s virtual tutoring program, provides students in grades K-12 with a positive instructional experience focused on each individual’s growth in core academic subjects including reading, writing, math, science, and Spanish. We additionally offer tutoring services with a focus on executive functioning, which includes scheduling, prioritizing tasks, managing workloads, organization, and goal setting. See Siena’s tutoring page for more details about our program and tutors.
These individualized virtual tutoring sessions—which can be tailored to their needs—equip students with various skills applicable to both their virtual and traditional schooling. The tutors are educational professionals extensively trained in multisensory instruction and accustomed to individualizing lessons. By using the same multisensory approach that Siena does, these tutors offer students new strategies and tools while delivering important educational continuity.
Summer tutoring sessions can offer students an opportunity to preview next year’s curriculum if they struggle with information processing or executive functioning. This preview will help when a student accesses that curriculum the next school year. One-on-one time with a tutor enables solid review time for students to build on their skills and start a solid foundation for the next school year.
While summer school may sound scary for students, trying the approach of summer academics or summer tutoring might be a great compromise. Offering either option to your child this summer can still give you the desired end results of knowing the learning process will continue through those dreaded summer slide months.
Resources for Students with Learning Differences
- See The Siena School blog for posts about our multisensory and movement-based curriculum, as well as ideas for at-home work and free time over the summer.
- See Ann Dolin’s website and YouTube Channel for more resources and tips for avoiding the summer slide.
- LD Online and the Atlantic Seaboard Dyslexia Education Center (ASDEC) have a wealth of resources for families navigating academics and tutoring needs.
- Reading Rockets also has good information for finding a tutor for children with dyslexia.
Posted in
Parents and Community
