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After a Year Learning from Home, Many Children Go to Summer School

时间:2021-06-19 20:12:41

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(单词翻译)

 

After her three children were vaccinated1, Aja Purnell-Mitchell asked them what they wanted to do for the summer.

All three agreed: summer school---at school, itself.

The family lives in Durham County, North Carolina, where school buildings shut in March 2020, the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Students have been in distance-learning since then.

Purnell-Mitchell hopes in-person summer school will help life return to normal.

"Getting them back into it, helping2 them socialize back with their friends, maybe meet some new people, and, of course, pick up the things that they lacked on Zoom3," she said.

Zoom is an online video system. Many teachers in the United States used it and similar sites to teach their students at home.

Communities across the U.S. are preparing for increased interest in summer education programs. They have expanded offerings and are paying teachers more than usual to work over the break.

The most recent federal COVID-19 bill provides billions of dollars in aid to states. The Biden administration is requiring them to use some of it for widening their summer programs.

The U.S. Department of Education said it is too early to know how many students will go to classes this summer. The number, however, is sure to be higher than the estimated 3.3 million who attended in summer of 2019.

In Montgomery, Alabama, more than 12,000 of the community's 28,000 students enrolled5 before the June 1 deadline. Usually, about 2,500 go to summer school.

The city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had enrolled 14,700 by Friday and was expecting more to come. Last summer, just 9,300 students attended the offered online classes.

"It's an understatement to say the needs are greater this year," said Kalman Hettleman. He is an education policy expert in Maryland.

Hettleman worries most about the reading skills of poorer, younger students. Many were having problems before schools closed. Now, after a year at home, they will have fallen even further behind.

Hettleman said, "It's not realistic to think that summer school, no matter how good or intense, will close all the gaps...."

He wants to see required summer school, as well as special classes during the next school year, for many children in Baltimore, Maryland's largest city.

"It will help. It will at least give them a fighting chance," he said.

Taylor Dennington is starting high school. She is a good student and never thought she would be in summer school. She and her many friends are pleased to be in school for the summer.

"This year was such an unmotivating school year," she said.

Dennington is studying biology and math.

"I learn better in school than online. Being in a classroom where a teacher is present is so much better than waiting hours for an email back from your teacher," she told The Associated Press.

Purnell-Mitchell's children will have five or six weeks of full-time6 school. It will include sports and music. Some communities will also receive free transportation and meals.

In North Carolina, more than 25 percent of school children, about 200,000, are thought to be in danger of falling behind. The state recently passed a law giving those children priority for summer school. Some communities in other states are simply opening schools for all their students.

School systems must spend some of the federal money to help poor students and students whose first language is not English. Children of minority groups and children who are homeless also take priority.

The expanded summer schools around the country have greatly increased the need not only for teachers but for bus drivers and others who work in school buildings.

Some North Carolina teachers will get a $1,200 bonus, or special pay. There are also bonuses for teachers whose students show improvement in reading and math.

In Anderson, South Carolina, the school system has increased teachers' pay to $60 per hour, a 100 percent increase. Other towns are also increasing teachers' pay.

Connecticut is promising7 $4,500 payments to 500 college students who will teach at summer schools.

New York City has the country's largest school system, with over 1 million children. It is offering summer school to all students.

"They need our support as we build a recovery for all of us," said Mayor Bill de Blasio when he announced the plan.

Back in North Carolina, Purnell-Mitchell said her children missed their teachers and friends. They were lonely and disliked learning at home. Now, they are pleased to be going to summer school.

Words in This Story

pick up - v. to learn or to come by a skill

enroll4 - v. to become a member or participant

deadline - n. a date or time when something must be finished

gap - n. a hole or space where something is missing

motivate - v. to give (someone) a reason for doing something

priority - n. something that is more important than other things and that needs to be done or dealt with first


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 vaccinated 8f16717462e6e6db3389d0f736409983     
[医]已接种的,种痘的,接种过疫菌的
参考例句:
  • I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
  • Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗?
2 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
3 zoom VenzWT     
n.急速上升;v.突然扩大,急速上升
参考例句:
  • The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
  • I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近,昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。
4 enroll Pogxx     
v.招收;登记;入学;参军;成为会员(英)enrol
参考例句:
  • I should like to enroll all my children in the swimming class.我愿意让我的孩子们都参加游泳班。
  • They enroll him as a member of the club.他们吸收他为俱乐部会员。
5 enrolled ff7af27948b380bff5d583359796d3c8     
adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 );登记,招收,使入伍(或入会、入学等),参加,成为成员;记入名册;卷起,包起
参考例句:
  • They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起,他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 full-time SsBz42     
adj.满工作日的或工作周的,全时间的
参考例句:
  • A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
  • I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作,我不知道她是如何对付的。
7 promising BkQzsk     
adj.有希望的,有前途的
参考例句:
  • The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
  • We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

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