When it comes to reading, studies have shown repeatedly that boys trail behind girls. This is not a new idea. The gender gap in school success has been on educators’ radar for quite some time.

There are multitudes of resources that speak to the issue, and even websites that are geared just to help boys improve their reading performance in—and out of—the classroom.

According to the CCL, comic books are just the tool to spark boys’ interested in the written word. But just what is about comic books that hold boys’ attention? And, are comic books enough to help boys close the reading gap?

According to studies, comics appeal to boys’ more visual nature. The graphic images help to dynamically add dimension to the story. Even though the amount of space allotted for actual words is limited, the narrative is not hindered by a minimal word count.

A Science Daily article says that boys are not just looking at the pictures, and that comics impart the same benefits of reading any other books.

Websites such as Getting Boys To Read say that comic books are very important educational tools. Not only do they appeal to boy’s visual nature with bright images, and male-geared story lines, they teach literacy devices such as metaphor, tension, and tone.

But, in order for comic books to help boys close the reading gender gap, they have to be available and recognized as school-worthy reading material.

The facts are:
• Reading and literacy skills are critical to a successful education.
• During the early and middle school years, boys trail behind girls when it comes to reading.
• Boys tend to have a greater affinity towards comic books.
• Comic books can help boys increase their reading skills.

It’s important that the experience of reading comics is not too easy for readers, which is quite often the concern, given the limited text and the eye-catching images. Young readers need to be challenged to think actively about what they are reading, and to develop the skills needed for deep, sustained reading.

While gender differences in reading abilities exist, it’s important to not create gender-based reading stereotypes. Boys should never be told that they wouldn’t enjoy a text-only book, or girls that comics are just for boys. Reading skills are very individual, and either sex can defy gender-based learning challenges despite genetics(I.E. girls are bad at math; boys lag in reading), and become successful students.

Comic books in the classroom can provide a dynamic reading experience for girls and boys alike. And for boys who are lagging behind in their reading aptitudes, comic books could be just the ticket to spark a love of reading that helps them take the next step in their reading journey.

And why should they? They teach three to four classes a day with at least twenty students in a class. It is rare for a teacher to ask you to stay after class to discuss your bad marks, or help you better understand what you are learning.

 This year I was struggling in two of my classes: French and math.

In math class, I didn’t ask for any extra help, and my teacher didn’t offer any—even when my grades started to drop. But, my French teacher was great. She allowed me to stay after class for help, gave me tips on how to better take tests, and she even said she would allow me to take my written tests orally.

My point is that high school is very different from elementary school. You are given more freedom, and teachers start treating you more like an adult. If you are getting low grades, it is up to you to improve them. You have to learn to help yourself. You are guaranteed to succeed as soon as you learn this fact.

My Mistake: Rushing.
It is common to rush during a test, exam, or a project. All I can say is: DON’T! This causes your work to get sloppy and inaccurate. You can loose marks very fast. Just take your time and, whatever you do, do not rush!

About me: I go to South Secondary School in London, ON and I have two younger siblings. I have always been a movie guy. But movies aren’t the only thing I enjoy. In the summer I love to bike with my friends down to the Thames River and ride along the trails. The sights and the entire ride are always beautiful. Anyway, hopefully you’ll enjoy my  posts! Remember to leave feedback and comments at the bottom! – Dylan.

How about right now? By re-introducing school-year habits and routines well before school begins, and by engaging in activities that kick the brain into high gear, kids naturally shift out of the summer mindset and get ready for a year of learning.

Our 10 Back-To-School Tips help you get your entire family on track for a better school year…starting right now.

1. Up and At ‘Em. The first bell of the school year rings early—sometimes, much earlier than kids and parents would like. Take the fumbling and grumbling out of school mornings by setting a wake-up schedule now. If kids don’t have an alarm clock, why not get them their own and let them take responsibility for waking up in the morning?

2. Hit the sheets. Nothing makes an early morning routine worse than a lack of sleep the night before. Plus, kids need a full night’s sleep to stay mentally alert all day in class. Start implementing bedtimes…even for older kids. It makes learning (and morning routines) that much easier.

3. Good Grub. Research continually shows the importance of eating a healthy breakfast, especially for students in class all day. Without proper morning nutrition, kids can feel drowsy and distracted. You want your kid focused on the teacher, not on his/her growling belly.

4. What to wear, what to wear. Avoid last-minute searches for green socks, or favourite baseball caps by picking out the next day’s clothes the night before. If you are selecting the wardrobe, give kids a few options and let them choose. They’ll feel a sense of inclusion and responsibility when they feel that they have a say in the decision-making.

5. I’ll take that to go, please. Unless you pay for school lunches, midday grub usually comes packed from home. Get into the habit of planning lunches the day before, whether it’s leftovers, or simple sandwiches, and take the question mark out of lunchtime meal planning. It’s one less thing that you’ll have to worry about in the morning.

6. We now return to our regular-scheduled programming. The school day is all about scheduled timing. Start times. End times. Recess. Lunch. As much as possible, follow a schedule that mimics the school day. This includes wake up times, bedtimes, playtimes, TV time, and lunchtime. Don’t forget to make time in the day for learning too!

7. TV off, homework on. During the school year, TV and computers are kids’ biggest homework distraction. Start eliminating that bad homework habit by turning off the TV during the after-school hours, coming to the table, and engaging in some sort of brain-challenging activity.

8. Read. Reading is probably the single best way to keep kids mentally active all year long. Plus, it’s a great way for kids to practice sustaining their attention span, to build their vocabulary, and to develop their reading comprehension skills.

9. Use the ‘S’ word. Help kids get in the school frame of mind by talking about school. How many days are left until the first day? What are the kids looking forward to? What are they nervous about? What is the best memory from last year? Kids may need some conversational prompting, so reference highlights from last year and be sure to keep it positive to build excitement!

10. Something else? Okay so we could use your help thinking of a 10th item to round out our list! How are you getting your family ready for back-to-school? We’d love to hear your family’s tips! Share your back-to-school ideas in the comments section below. If we pick your idea as our 10th tip, we’ll send you Oxford Learning back-to-school swag!

Oxford Learning Winnipeg franchisee Alexis Yildir suggested posting this video as a great way to inspire teens to succeed in school.  The tips are simple and easy-to-follow, and they drive home the message that anyone can be successful. Watch this video together as a family as a great way to get motivated about the new school year.

The Basics
I just finished grade nine and I have to say, it wasn’t as bad as far as high school stereotypes go. But, there are still some things kids should be aware of before starting grade nine.

1. Popularity. It’s a good idea to develop social skills earlier in life rather than later. It will help you a lot in high school and in the future—whatever your career might be. However, getting too hung up with the idea of “being popular” can lead to potential problems, the worst being unsuccessful grades.

2. Confusion.
 One thing you do not want to do in high school is fall behind. Confusion is usually the first step in falling behind. If you are confused about something, always ask questions about it. You may get made fun of, but the only thing that you have to worry about in high school is yourself. In the long run, you will succeed, but only if you listen to yourself and not to others.

3. Don’t Cram.
 Probably the number one thing you don’t want to do at any point in high school is cram for tests. In most cases, cramming leaves you sleep-deprived and completely clueless. Trust me, you’re much better off studying for and hour or so a night up until the test. This way you’ll have a firm grasp of the material, and you will be well rested for the big day.

4. Examinations.
 Everyone fears examinations: it’s fine if you do. The only advice I can really give you is to review and be prepared. Even if you feel that you have a good grasp on the subject, it is always a good idea to review every night. If you wait until a week before to start studying, you end up cramming.  By reviewing every night, you have a much better chance of receiving a high mark on the final.

My Mistake: 
A mistake that I made this year was that I didn’t change my schedule before the year had started. I had Math, English, Geography and French in first semester, and my two electives, Gym and Science, in the second. I had one hard semester and one easy one. It is better to balance out your courses if yours are set up like mine. The workload becomes much easier to manage when more challenging courses are spread out evenly between each semester.

About me: I go to South Secondary School in London, ON and I have two younger siblings. I have always been a movie guy. But movies aren’t the only thing I enjoy. In the summer I love to bike with my friends down to the Thames River and ride along the trails. The sights and the entire ride are always beautiful. Anyway, hopefully you’ll enjoy my new posts! Remember to leave feedback and comments at the bottom! – Dylan.

Our back-to-school checklist has great ideas to help your family get back into the school groove, well before school has even begun!  The sooner that kids are prepared for the return to class, the smoother the back-to-school season will be.   Print off our checklist for an easy guide to back-to-school success!

Click on image to download printable PDF

The idea holds that if certain foods can promote better thinking and learning—fresh fruits and veggies, fish, vitamins, etc.— then it stands to reason that other foods can detract from the ability to learn.

There are many foods on this list, but sugars are the most common substance linked to behavioural and learning challenges.

Often, it’s not food itself that causes problems, but what is ADDED to the food.

The Centre for Science in the Public Interest has published an in-depth study called “A Rainbow of Risks” that links food colouring to attention deficit issues.

Food colouring is not an easy substance to avoid—it is in many everyday foods—even used (according to the report) to colour the rinds of oranges.

The danger is that food colouring appears in foods that are most popular with children: candy, soft drinks, milkshakes, etc. Even more important is that these foods make up a large portion of children’s diets, and developmentally, children are the most vulnerable to developing issues from the food that they eat.

Food colouring is not alone in its link to ADD and ADHD. www.Care2.com lists the 5 foods linked to ADD and ADHD as:

1. Fast foods
2. Processed meats
3. Red meat
4. High fat dairy products
5. Sweets

Food colouring is not just linked to attention deficit issues. An article on Babble.com notes that Blue 1, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6 cause allergic reactions, and Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, the three most widely used dyes, are also known carcinogens.

This information can be very helpful for families with children on the ADD/ADHD spectrum. Label reading and eliminating foods high in food colouring may help these families see improvement in ADD and ADHD symptoms.

click image to download PDF

While the school year can be tiring and mentally demanding, kids actually thrive with the daily routine and framework that the school year provides. A break from the school-year routine can be invigorating for a short period of time, but a too-long break (ie: summer) doesn’t help students feel recharged: it leads to boredom.

Without replacing the school day structure with summer camps or other programs, children can become bored very easily. Video games, texting, movies, and lounging by the pool are fun, but there is only so much relaxation and downtime that kids can deal with before they get tired of that, too. And boredom is rarely a pre-cursor to a willingness to jump back into learning.

Providing mentally stimulating summer activities that are reliable and routine is the best way to avoid summer boredom and keep kids charged up and ready to take on a new school year.

Myth 2: If summer was not intended to be a break, school wouldn’t shut down.

The most common school year as we know it—from September to June—exists because of two main historic reasons: At the turn of the last century, agricultural societies required children to help out with farming chores during busy growing seasons and, in cities, schools were unbearably hot during summer and made teaching and learning in poorly-ventilated buildings a health hazard. The current 180-day school calendar is still in place, even if the reasons for it are no longer valid.

In fact, many school boards have made the move to year-round schooling, offering several shorter break periods throughout the year, rather than one long one in the summer.

School boards don’t intend summer to be a “break” for students—policy makers are simply continuing to follow a system that has been in place for many years, and, coincidentally, one that has come to be beneficial to cash-strapped school boards.

Read more about the history of the school year.

Myth 3: Summer isn’t part of the school year.

Summer is just as important to a student’s overall learning experience as what is learned from September to June. In terms of the brain, learning runs 24-7, all year round.

The time away from school is a very important opportunity for many students to fill in learning gaps, make sense of material learning during the school year, and improve/develop important learning skills such as reading comprehension and organization. It’s the time to get extra help that there may not be chance to get while school is in session. It’s the chance to experience in-class lessons first hand. And, it’s the only chance that students have to adequately prepare for the year ahead.

It’s time to stop thinking about the school year as September to June: there is no final bell on a student’s education.

Myth 4: Summer school is for students who get bad grades.

While summer school may have at one time been reserved for those students needing extra help, that is no longer the case. From Calgary to Chicago, reports are showing that summer school attendance is on the rise, and it’s not because students are performing poorly throughout the school year. Students looking to get ahead, to tackle extra credits, and get a competitive advantage by signing themselves up for summer school.

New Trend Alert! With education becoming increasingly competitive, and increasingly global, summer is the perfect time for students to pull ahead. Without having to balance the workload of the regular school year, students can make impressive academic gains and reduce school- year stress. We foresee a rise in summer school popularity. It’s time to get over summer school misconceptions and get ahead.

Myth 5: Summer will makes students refreshed and ready to learn in the fall.

This is the scariest myth about summer learning. After a summer spent relaxing, students may feel refreshed, but they are far from ready to learn. Research into summer learning has shown that after taking a two-month break, students have lost approximately 20-30 % of their academic learning momentum: they’ve gone backward in terms of learning. These studies also show that teachers typically spend up to six weeks re-teaching last year’s material. Students aren’t ready to learn after a summer off: they’ve lost their learning momentum after two months of video games and relaxing at the beach. The summer slide, the brain drain, or summer learning losses—whatever you call it, it can be easily prevented. A few hours a week of active academic style learning keeps the brain sharp, so that when falls rolls around, students actually are ready to learn.

It’s the perfect time to catch up with friends.

It’s the perfect time to lounge by the pool and hit the beach.

It’s also the perfect time to develop bad habits, to get off track, and to lose academic standing.

In summer, one of two things can happen to the average student:

1. They can lose learning momentum, fall behind, and end up starting the new school year at a disadvantage.
2. They can catch up in trouble areas, and get a head start on the new school year.

Enter summer learning. Summer learning is not a new concept, but it is becoming increasingly important. Education is becoming more competitive. Students don’t have time to slack off…not even for a couple of months.

Summer school is no longer a punishment for under-performing students; it’s an opportunity for students to improve their learning abilities and get a jump on their classmates. In fact, statistics show that summer school enrollment is up—and not just for students who need extra help: students looking to get ahead and make the upcoming school year easier are choosing summer school in lieu of traditionally popular summer activities.

While there are many ways to keep the brain active during the summer,(see the ABCs of Summer Learning) the best way to avoid the summer learning slide is to engage in some type of formal academic learning all summer long.

After all, the brain never stops learning, so why should students?

In terms of a child’s education, summer is just as important as the rest of school year. Oxford Learning has many great summer programs available to help students avoid the summer learning slide. Contact your local Oxford Learning centre for more information.