This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。
June, July and August are vacation months for most American school children. But some young students pay a high price for that long summer break. They may forget much of what they learned over the past year by the time they start the next grade.
6-8月是是大多数美国学童的假期。但有些年轻学生为这个漫长暑假付出了高昂的代价。他们可能在下学年开始前，忘记上学年中学到的很多东西。
This problem is often called the summer learning gap. A growing effort across the country aims to deal with it by offering more interesting summer school programs. Some students already attend summer school, but often because they received poor grades during the regular school year.
这个问题通常被称为暑期学习缺失。美国各地越来越多地通过有趣的暑期学校项目来改善这一问题。有些学生已经上过暑期学校，但通常是因为他们在常规学年没有取得好成绩。
STUDENT: "People need food, clothes, and other goods ..."
学生：“人们需要食物、衣服和其它物品......”
On a recent day, students read out loud about communities in a third-grade social studies class at Bushman Elementary in Dallas, Texas. But the nine- and ten-year-olds were also studying art. Visual arts instructor Ron Oliver works to combine the two subjects.
最近某天，学生们在德克萨斯州达拉斯市布希曼小学三年级的社会课上大声读出有关社区的内容。但这些9到10岁的孩子也在学习艺术。视觉艺术教师罗恩·奥利弗（Ron Oliver）试图将这两门学科结合起来。
RON OLIVER: "The kids that never get it -- like the thirty percent that always struggle on testing -- they thrive in this kind of atmosphere. Sometimes they just learn differently."
奥利弗：“那些从未弄懂学习的孩子--比如那30%总在和考试作斗争的孩子，他们就在这样的氛围中成长。有时候只是他们学习方法不对。”
In addition to reading, the students expressed themselves in picture form by drawing community scenes.
除了阅读，学生们还通过描绘社区场景，用图片形式来表达自己的想法。
BOY: "When I was drawing, I was expressing my feelings and showing what was happening."
某男孩：“我是在用画画表达自己的感受，讲述正发生的事情。”
GIRL: "You only use the pictures, and you use it to tell the people, the pictures telling the words for you. You don't need words."
某女孩：“我们用图片讲述自己想说的话，不需要任何语言。”
Their teacher Gloria Pegram has taught elementary school for fifteen years. She says art helps with memory.
他们的老师凯莱·皮格勒姆（Gloria Pegram）教了15年小学。她说艺术有助于记忆。
GLORIA PEGRAM: "Even with math, we try to be creative with it -- it helps their retention. They remember. They say, 'Oh, yes, I remember this because ... ' and they'll go into what we were doing, hands-on, whatever activity we were doing, to help them understand it better, and to retain it."
皮格勒姆：“甚至我们试图让数学有创造性，这有助于记忆，学生们会记住它。他们会说，‘哦，是的，我记得是因为......’他们会参与进来亲身实践我们正在进行的活动，从而帮助他们更好地理解和记忆。”
Ms. Pegram says students who do not take summer enrichment classes often need to relearn lessons when they return in the fall. This is especially true of low-income students. They are less likely, for example, to live near public libraries offering both books to read and special summer reading programs.
皮格勒姆女士表示，没有参加暑期提高班的学生通常在秋季开学时需要重新复习功课。低收入家庭学生更是如此。例如，他们不太可能住在能同时提供书籍和暑期特别阅读项目的公共图书馆附近。
Ed Pauly is director of research and evaluation at the Wallace Foundation. The nonprofit group has invested fifty million dollars to study which programs work best to prevent summer learning loss.
埃德·保利（Ed Pauly）是华莱士基金会研究评估主任。这家非营利性组织已经投资5千万美元来研究哪些项目在预防暑期学习流失上最为有效。
ED PAULY: "And for poor kids, the loss can be as much as three months of school learning that just disappears over the course of the summer. That's a very significant part of the achievement gap that separates kids from low-income communities from kids from more affluent communities."
保利：“对于穷孩子来说，缺席暑期课程相当于损失了三个月的学校学习。这样一个显著的成绩差距将低收入社区学生与富裕社区学生区分开来。”
He says one promising approach has been to include art.
他表示，一种有潜力的探索包含了艺术。
ED PAULY: "We need kids to master reading and math. Arts gets them excited about being there every day. And the arts use reading and math. The arts are a great way to tie together learning experiences."
保利：“我们要让孩子掌握阅读和数学。艺术能让他们天天都兴奋。而这些艺术用到了阅读和数学，艺术是将学习经验联系到一起的好办法。”
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