The Summer Learning Journey programme (SLJ) is a free digital literacy (blogging) programme. It was designed by a team of educators and researchers from the Woolf Fisher Research Centre, with considerable input from members of the Manaiakalani Community of Learning (MCoL).The purpose of the SLJ is to address the dramatic slide or slump that students can experience in their literacy learning over the summer holiday period. The SLJ was first introduced in 2015 in the Manaiakalani cluster and has been offered six times over the past four years. It was offered in the Kaikohekohe cluster in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. The programme is led by cluster manager, Georgia Alexander-Crawford and supported by a team of blog commenters. 

Each year the research team at Woolf Fisher evaluates the impact that participating in the SLJ has on the (e-asTTle) writing and (PAT) reading achievement of student participants. Results suggest that blogging twice a week or more can virtually eliminate the summer slide or slump in both writing and reading achievement. Each blog activity takes the student approximately 20 minutes to complete. 

To find out more about the SLJ, please feel free to visit the SLJ programme website. The SLJ programme team hopes to offer the SLJ again this coming summer (2019-2020). All students in Year 4 – 8 are warmly invited to participate in the programme. More information will be available in September 2019.