Encourages Kids To Pick Up Books
Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder announced that the Assembly’s Annual Summer Reading Challenge returns this year and encourages children and parents to participate in the program to combat the “summer-slide”-that takes place when students are not in school during the summer.
This year’s themes are “Dig into Reading” for children and “Beneath the Surface” for tweens.
“Learning shouldn’t stop when the last bell rings at the end of the school year,” said Goldfeder. “The Assembly’s Summer Reading Chal- lenge offers a fun and exciting way for families to spend quality time together; while parents help their children expand their imaginations and learn.”
Each year, the Assembly partners with New York State libraries to encourage children to continue reading during the summer months after school ends. Children who read with a parent for 15 minutes a day, for at least 40 days throughout July and August, will receive an official New York State Assembly Certificate personally hand-delivered by Goldfeder.
Last fall, more than 250 students from Public School 232 in Howard Beach completed the program-in addition to over 4,000 certificates distributed to children throughout 23rd Assembly District.
“Summer reading combats ‘Summer Slide,’ a phenomenon that affects children who stop reading over the summer. ‘Summer Slide’ means that students actually lose some of the reading skills they gained during the school year and start the new school year behind where they finished the last,” said Principal Lisa Josephson of P.S. 232. “Our students at P.S. 232 who do their active reading during the summer months return to school prepared, and they get rewarded for their efforts by Assemblyman Goldfeder.”
Materials, including suggested reading lists and a calendar to mark off the days children read, can be picked up at their local school or at Goldfeder’s district offices in Rockaway Beach and Ozone Park.
“In a few weeks school will be out for the summer, but education and reading should not come to a halt,” said Goldfeder. “The Summer Reading Challenge is a fun way to pass long summer days and prepare for the upcoming school year.”
For more information or to participate in the 2013 Summer Reading Challenge, log on to Goldfeder’s website at www.assembly.state.ny.us/ goldfeder, call his office at 1-718- 945-9550 or email him at goldfederp@ assembly.state.ny.us.
