How Deeper Learning Can Address Summer Learning Loss

Every year, we hear news reports about the “summer slide,” or the summer learning loss. Students arrive to school behind where they left off in May or June. This is a real challenge. But there’s more to the story. So, in this week’s article, I want to address some of the potential causes of summer learning loss and how we can address at the start of the school year by taking a deeper learning approach.

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As we gathered around the library tables, our new principal turned on the Power Point and clicked to a graph. I was a middle school teacher eager to finish organizing my classroom supplies and the last thing I wanted to see was another data chart.

“This is where our students were in the fourth quarter of last year,” she said before clicking to the next slide. “And here’s where those same students are right now.”

She then compared the two bar graphs and included a bright red gap alerting us to a deficit. “Let’s talk about how we can catch our students up so that they can show real growth. We are beginning from a negative and that’s hard. But we need to figure out how we can create interventions and First Best Instruction so that we can bridge the gap.”

As we began collaborating, I was reminded of all the big hand-wringing news reports about this so-called “summer slide,” where kids dropped academically because they weren’t in school for a summer. For what it’s worth, the term “summer slide,” always sounded like a water slide to me. I had seen districts that had addressed this with more summer school or with a year-round calendar or early interventions at the start of the school year. And that’s where we were in this moment. Trying to solve the problem before it grew out of control.

Learning loss is a real issue. Studies have shown that when students step away from school for several months, they often lose ground in areas like math fluency and reading comprehension. Part of this comes from the simple fact that knowledge fades when it isn’t practiced. It’s an imperfect metaphor, but it can be a bit like a muscle that atrophies when you don’t work out. Skills require habitual practice and reinforcement through rehearsal and recall.

Other times, though, it’s an issue of interference, where new experiences or information overwrite what students previously learned and it sort of gets jumbled. For example, if a child learns a math procedure in May but doesn’t revisit it until September, other strategies or habits picked up over the summer may interfere with recall. In this way, it is not just forgetting so much as it is the competing memories that make it harder for students to access what they once knew.

Summer learning loss is sometimes an issue of access to learning opportunities. Not every child has equal access to books, enrichment opportunities, or academic support during the summer months. Many of my students spent their summers babysitting siblings or essentially managing a household and, when given free time, it wasn’t always easy to make it to the library.

However, despite the perceptions people had of a low-income community, I noticed that many parental figures created spaces where learning could flourish for their children. These students spent the summer in curiosity-driven, play-based, or real-world problem-solving environments. They did coding and robotics camps. They got lost in novels. They had art supplies. They played sports at the park. They rode their bikes around the neighborhood (even though it was blazing hot in Arizona). These students returned with stronger skills, even if not aligned with tested standards. However, students with fewer opportunities for enrichment or access to learning activities may struggle more with recall and readiness.

At the same time, it’s also important to recognize that what seems, on the surface, to be learning loss might actually be a different issue. Lots of the students I taught stayed up into the wee hours of the night all summer long. This felt infuriating but also, this was their circadian rhythm. Many of them were out of the habit of reading and writing (which felt like a bummer). They were being social. They were playing video games. They were most certainly not using supports to back up a claim on an informational text they were writing.

These issues were not academic. They were appearing to regress not because they lost their knowledge but because they were tired, anxious, and adjusting back to new routines. The “learning slide” was more like a “schooling slide,” which is why they would often thrive once they woke up a little and they engaged in problem-solving via design challenges. In other words, these students were struggling with the habits of school, like sitting still, following schedules, or doing extended work. This has been true of students for decades. A girl who spends the summer painting, drawing, and riding a bike with neighborhood kids might have a hard time adjusting to desks in rows and handouts.

But there’s a new issue that I’ve seen in the last few summers. These students aren’t struggling with the structure of school but with the habits of learning. Many of them have a hard time focusing and even listening to direct instruction. In some cases, they lack cognitive stamina. Like a runner who takes three months off and struggles to run four miles without stopping, these students are simply out of the habit of extended learning. If they spent their summer scrolling social media or playing video games for hours on end, they are in the habit of short term dopamine cycles that contrast with the type of endurance they need for problem-solving and creativity.

The reality of summer learning loss turns out to be complicated and frustrating.

But when I think about that meeting in the library where we were in those small groups coming up with interventions, I’m reminded of something a colleague said to me.  “Some of this will come naturally. Some of this will require some extra help. But you know what I see when I look at those graphs? I see a reminder that what we do matters. Look, there’s a war on teachers and we constantly get the message that what we do isn’t enough and we hear and about how we should be doing more to raise achievement. But can we just look at the graphs and recognize that across the board in every single subject when students have no teachers for two months, there’s a huge drop? Maybe we should take a moment to acknowledge that what we do is already making a difference.”

As I think about the challenge of learning loss, I’m reminded that we can’t start with a deficit mindset with a “How do we fix this huge problem?” approach. We can’t go in search for a magic formula. Instead, we have to start from a recognition that teachers are already doing an amazing job with a big, complex challenge.

And one of the ways they are meeting this challenge is through deeper learning. When teachers design deeper learning experiences, students improve academically but they also develop the skills, habits, and mindsets that can help mitigate some of the larger challenges that go beyond the academic element of learning loss.

If you want to learn more about deeper learning, check out this hub. You can also check out my newest book The Depth Advantage.

Deeper learning involves a shift from shallow coverage of content into deeper thinking and understanding. The goal is to create learning that endures.

Deeper learning helps students understand and apply what they are learning at a profound level by emphasizing mastery of the core subjects. That’s a key distinction because critics of deeper learning sometimes claim it’s about “soft skills” and not “academic skills.” That’s simply not true. The goal is to learn the content at a deeper level so that it sticks. Because the information is so sticky, students can maintain skills and remember concepts for a longer period.

With deeper learning, students go beyond surface-level memorization and actively explore concepts, make connections, and apply knowledge in authentic ways.  This approach is slower and more deliberate, which can feel scary when students walk in and they are already behind because of a summer slide. It’s tempting to try to catch students up as quickly as possible. But this approach can lead to cramming, where students learn the information at a breakneck speed just to be tested and then forget. For information to move into long-term memory, we all need the chance to actively process, analyze, and apply knowledge to new contexts.

It’s important to recognize that we face big systemic challenges in this regard. Our current education system seems obsessed with speed. In the United States, the two biggest education policy initiatives I experienced were No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. The message was clear. We need to move quickly. We have lots to cover, and kids are falling behind.

I don’t want to minimize the challenges of a student years behind their reading grade level. We should be concerned when we see plummeting test scores. But the collective response to these concerns tends to be a greater emphasis on speed. And yet, when we chase speed, we sacrifice depth. Students end up racing through the material without ever fully grappling with it. Don’t get me wrong. We need to pay attention to reading fluency or to math facts. But if we want deeper learning, we must slow the process down enough for it to stick.

As an educator, you face a tight schedule and a big set of standards. This is why we ultimately need to change policies, systems, and structures. But there are some things we can do that slow things down in a way that leads to deeper learning. We can do compentency-based learning and compacting. We also can layer standards and cluster them together.

The good news is that as students learn at a deeper level, less of the knowledge fades the next year during the summertime break.

When I taught middle school, I would see groggy-eyed kids struggling to write a paragraph and think, “What were they doing all summer?” I would compare them to my students from the year before and feel a sense of panic. But I also noticed something surprising. If I gave them something meaningful and held them to high standards, they would often bounce back. It was slow, yes, and a bit clunky. It was almost like the issue wasn’t a “learning slide,” so much as a change of habits.

Often, the real issue isn’t so much academic as it is an issue of the soft skills (though I prefer the term durable skills or human skills) that go beyond any single subject area. Certain students seem disengaged and distracted. They struggle with slowing down and focusing on any task that isn’t immediately gratifying. Others have a hard time getting started or managing their time. Others still give up too easily and seem to struggle with resilience. In some cases, they have a hard time with collaboration and basic social skills like communication.

Again, this isn’t all students but it is many of them. But that’s where deeper learning makes a huge difference. By teaching the content in a way that develops deeper learning competencies, students develop critical skills that become habits. Over time, those habits grow into mindsets that continue outside the four walls of the classroom.

These competencies aren’t easy to develop. They take time and student buy-in. But there are some things we can do from day one to help students master the content in a way that leads to deeper learning. It can help to craft an activity that blends together two or three competencies into one low-risk activity.

Instead of a boring review of classroom procedures and policies, you might convert this into a scavenger hunt or an escape room activity. Students have to find and understand key information, like where to turn in homework, the tardy policy, or the location of specific supplies. This gets them out of their seats and forces them to engage with the environment and the rules in a practical, meaningful way. The hunt makes them focus on the details and master the basic workings of the classroom.

You might also introduce design thinking through quick, low-stakes design sprints. Present a simple problem for students to solve. Students work in small groups to empathize with the user, define the problem, brainstorm solutions, create a quick prototype, and then test it. The focus here is on rapid prototyping and iteration. It’s a great way to introduce a problem-solving mindset and get students communicating and collaborating from day one. An example could be the Create a Sport Challenge:

If you want to tap into curiosity and deeper focus, you could launch a Wonder Day Project. Let students choose a topic they are genuinely curious about. Give them time to explore it online, in books, or through interviews. The goal isn’t a final project but to spark a line of inquiry. This activity connects learning to their personal interests, which is a powerful motivator for sustained engagement and deeper learning.

If you want to focus on collaboration and self-direction, you might have students help negotiate the classroom norms or co-create the procedures in the rituals grid.

If you want students to focus on self-direction and communication, you can also do a quick show and tell activity where students explain an object that represents a memory, an artifact from their culture, or a geeky interest. Or they can take it the next level with Geek Out Blogs built on the Genius Hour concept:

Students could also create “Geek Out Blogs” on a shared class platform. This would function as a space for students to write about something they are passionate about—a game, a movie, a historical event, or a scientific concept.

Geek Out Blogs begin with these questions:

1. What do you really care about? Why?
2. What is something that you’re passionate about?
3. What is something you know inside and out?
4. What are some things you believe deeply in? What are some convictions you have about life?
5. What are your hobbies? What do you enjoy doing?
6. If you could create a class from scratch, what would it be?

I explained that geekiness is a passion, interest, enjoyment and often convictions about a particular topic. I then gave them stems they could use:

• Seven Reasons Why __________
• Seven Ways to _________
• Seven Things to Know About ___________
• Seven Best _____________
• The Seven (Adjective) _________ in ____________

They were all over the place. A girl chose Korean pop music while the girl next to her delved into issues of immigration. A boy across the room  chose Minecraft while the kid next to him gave seven amazing reasons why zombies would make great pets. A few kids wrote about their lives, their families or their cultures.

We ended up getting into digital citizenship and digital ethics. We started our blogs and added multimedia elements. We got into visual design and the do’s and don’ts of slideshows (yes, I have them create Keynotes even if that’s considered uncool these days). They learned about copyright and Creative Commons and developed a set of digital ethics in the process.

Students can comment on each other’s posts, asking questions and sharing their own insights. This promotes a sense of intellectual community and provides a low-pressure way for students to practice communication and share their unique knowledge with their peers.

Note that many of these activities include key standards for ELA or STEM. But they also embed core deeper learning competencies in a way that is low-risk and managable. As the year progresses, you can take things to a deeper level and build on these successes.

To tap into curiosity, communication, and problem-solving, you might implement a Socratic Seminar toward the beginning of the year:

Ultimately, there is not a single one-size-fits-all solution to address summer learning loss. This is more about an approach to learning that emphasizes depth – deeper learning, deeper understanding, deeper drive. When that happens, students learn the content in a way that’s less likely to fade over time while gaining the depth advantage they need as they navigate an unpredictable world.

I have partnered with Presto Plans to develop resources to spark creativity during the first week of school. These resources connect to the standards while also inspiring creativity, problem-solving, and inquiry.

Each resource has:

• Teacher handouts to walk you step-by-step through the resource
• Student handouts to help structure the learning for students
• A sketch video to ignite student passion for the creative thinking
• PowerPoint presentations to guide your students along the way
• Rubrics to assess the learning

The first resource is a set of creative thinking team-building activities. This is a set of five separate team-builder mini-projects that each last one class period.  The second resource is a set of creative thinking writing prompts that cover multiple genres. These tap into student interests and passions while also encouraging inquiry and creative thinking. The third option is a set of high-interest Socratic Seminars  that blend together my sketch video, an informational text, and a structure for implementing a Socratic Seminar.

You might want to consider using both sets of resources so that you get a stronger balance of collaborative and individual creativity in a way that helps students move out of the learning slide and into deeper learning.