How to Keep ESL Students Learning Over the Summer (Without the Boring Worksheets)
Ah, summer break—the time of year when students relax, recharge… and sometimes forget half of what they learned. We’ve all seen it. You spend months helping your English learners build skills, only for them to return in the fall with rusty English and gaps in progress. For many multilingual learners, summer also means full immersion in their home language—which is valuable—but it can slow down their English development.
1. Set Realistic (and Doable) Goals for you ELL students
Not every student will read five chapter books or complete a writing portfolio—and that’s okay! Instead, encourage small, manageable routines like:
- 15 minutes a day reading or writing in English
- Talking to a sibling or friend in English about their day
- Watching short English videos or listening to music with lyrics
- Watching their favorite show in English with English captions to boost listening and reading skills at the same time.
Tip: Talk to families before break. Recommend free local programs like library story times, school/district summer enrichment for ELLs, or online read-alouds. You can also encourage students to share about their favorite summer book through simple drawing or writing prompts.
2. Make It Fun and Meaningful for you Multilingual Learners
Forget the packets of comprehension questions—send them off with a Summer Scavenger Hunt instead!
Kids love a challenge. A simple checklist of fun, real-world tasks in English keeps them engaged—and makes learning feel like play. Here are a few ideas from the ESL Summer Postcards & Scavenger Hunt resource:
- ✅ Write about your favorite summer food
- ✅ Insert or draw a picture of your summer activity
- ✅ Track the weather for one week/ one month
- ✅ Write the title and artist of your favorite summer song
- ✅ Share a photo or drawing of something you saw outside
- ✅ Complete a postcard each week about your summer adventures!
Assign it digitally (Google Slides or Classroom) or print a version for students without home tech access. Offer a small reward in the fall for returning it completed—like books, pencils, or even “Lunch with the Teacher.” That little incentive makes a big difference!
3. Encourage Real-World English Use
The best English practice happens outside the classroom.
Encourage students to use English in everyday situations:
- Ordering at a restaurant
- Asking for help at a store
- Playing with neighborhood friends
- Watching English TV shows with subtitles
- Listening to a favorite song and identifying familiar words
Bonus idea: Ask them to collect brochures, menus, or flyers over the summer and circle English words they recognize. You can even have them create a mini scrapbook of “words I found this summer.”
4. Encourage them to Create Weekly Summer Postcards
A weekly postcard or letter-writing activity is a simple, low-prep way to keep students writing regularly.
Students can create digital postcards to you or a classmate (and share them on the first day back to school). No internet? No problem! Use the printable versions with sentence frames, vocabulary banks, and visual prompts to help them succeed—especially helpful for beginning ELLs.
Prompts can include questions like these:
- What did you do today?
- What’s the weather like?
- What did you learn this week?
- What’s your favorite thing about summer so far?
Use completed postcards as a Back-to-School bulletin board display in the fall!
5. Honor Their Language and Culture
Keep things accessible:
- ✅ Use clear visuals and simple language
- ✅ Choose activities that connect with students' lives
- ✅ Be mindful of family schedules and resources
Encourage students to describe things in both English and their home language: their favorite food, a family tradition, or even items from the grocery store. This honors identity while building bilingual strength.
Preventing the “summer slump” doesn’t have to mean stacks of worksheets. With a little creativity, we can help our English learners stay connected to language, learning, and fun—all summer long.
Do you need ELL summer packets that can be completed by your ELL newcomers independently? Check out these packets.
Do you need more ideas and resources for summer school? Click here.
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