|By Gale Staff|
For many students, summertime signals the freedom to explore personal interests and break away from structured learning. However, educators understand how critical it is for students to exercise key critical thinking and comprehension skills during those months away from school. According to the National Summer Learning Association, 9 in 10 teachers spend at least three weeks re-teaching lessons at the start of the school year.
By taking advantage of statewide programs that provide free Gale resources to schools and libraries, you can help students engage in meaningful learning experiences during the summer—fueling curiosity and academic growth.
Resources like Gale In Context and Gale Presents: National Geographic Kids offer age-appropriate, student-friendly content that sparks independent discovery, encourages family learning, and supports library-led summer programs.
Ready to explore ways to promote these resources and inspire summer-long learning within your community? Check out these tips.
Drive Curiosity with Interest-Led Content
How do you effectively engage students’ sense of curiosity in an unstructured learning environment? Lead with content that speaks to their individual interests—from nature and animals to music, technology, sports, and everything in between. When students are having fun along the way, the path to strong research and comprehension skills is less overwhelming.
Throughout the summer, you can support research-based inquiry, helping students build reading and analysis stamina with resources from Gale In Context, including topic overviews, magazines, reference articles, and multimedia content.
For elementary and middle school learners drawn to science and culture-based topics, National Geographic Kids offers immersive digital resources, trusted content from National Geographic, and built-in study tools to support budding research skills.
Level Up Your Summer Programs with Games and Challenges
It can be difficult to keep students motivated during those summer months, especially when their days are free and lacking the structured routine they receive in school. Gamified learning offers students a fun and interactive experience, and has even been shown to support engagement and cognitive development.
If you’re looking to “level up” your school or public library’s summer program, try integrating ready-to-use activities from National Geographic Kids, like this scavenger hunt, ideal for in-library programs or at-home learning.
Librarians: Want to help students kick off their summer of learning? Check out these helpful references for modeling inquiry and guiding exploration:
Expand Your Outreach to Promote Flexible Learning
When it comes to successful summer learning, resource awareness is key. Make sure students and families know where and how to access critical resources, so they don’t end up missing out. You can spread the word to your community about available resources by:
- Adding direct links to Gale In Context or Gale Presents: National Geographic Kids on your summer reading webpage
- Including QR codes on flyers, bookmarks, or posters
- Highlighting the resource(s) in newsletters or social posts
Librarians: Don’t forget to make electronic resources from Gale a meaningful part of your library’s summer reading program.
Make This a Summer of Learning for Your Community
By promoting state-provided resources with immersive activities, you can encourage active learning, while sparking curiosity and engagement all summer long. Gale In Context and Gale Presents: National Geographic Kids help extend learning beyond the classroom—without creating additional barriers for families or educators.
Together, we can help your community make the most of the resources already available to them. Let’s reimagine what summer learning looks like.
Want to check which Gale digital resources are available to you through your statewide database program? Go to our Statewide Resources page.
