Back-to-school season brings a mix of excitement and reality. Between fresh school supply unboxing (hello, Ticonderoga #2s!) and meeting new faces, a familiar reminder quickly settles in: my new students forgot a lot over the summer.
After a long break, it’s no surprise that key concepts, especially in math, don’t always come back top-of-mind. If you find that your students have fallen a little bit behind, you're not alone. The question is, how do you attack it, along with everything else that comes with the start of a new school year?
The stakes are even higher for fractions summer learning loss. Keep reading for practical tips to incorporate meaningful fractions review at the beginning of year to get (and keep) your students back on track!
What is the summer slide?
The “summer slide” refers to the academic regression that happens when students are away from structured instruction during school-free days of summer fun. And the summer slide is no imaginary thing. In fact, research found that achievement test scores declined over summer vacation, equating to roughly one month of school-year learning.
Why does the summer slide happen?
Can you prevent the summer slide? How does it happen? Without regular practice and guided learning, skills naturally fade. This is especially true in math, where concepts build on each other.
Fraction skills are particularly vulnerable. When students lack a conceptual understanding of fractions, they often struggle to regain their footing. This can lead to even wider gaps as more advanced concepts like adding, subtracting, or comparing fractions become more complex.
Summer slide in fractions: What’s at stake?
The summer slide in fractions isn’t just a temporary setback—it can snowball into long-term academic struggles. Fractions are a cornerstone of upper-elementary math and a gateway to understanding more advanced topics in middle and high school. When these gaps aren't addressed, they create compounding challenges for students down the road.
What's at risk if we don't get students back on track in fractions?
- Struggles with ratios and proportions
- Difficulty with algebra and advanced math
- Decreased math confidence
- Increased need for math remediation in later grades
- Lower performance on standardized tests
Helping students recover early in the school year can make a big difference in their long-term math success.
Why Frax helps address gaps—even after summer
Fortunately, ExploreLearning Frax is here to help. Frax is incredibly effective for helping students overcome the summer slide once they return to the classroom. Frax is a teacher-led, adaptive program that uses game-based learning to make fractions approachable and engaging.
Frax is designed to support grade-level readiness, guiding students through highly-scaffolded learning as they develop a conceptual understanding of fractions. Even after the summer, using Frax for fractions gaps can help you develop a shared classroom understanding of topics to propel future instruction.
3 helpful strategies for teachers at the beginning of the school year
Frax’s engaging, zero-entry program allows all students to gain fractions knowledge and confidence, whether they’re on grade level or in need of extra math intervention tools.
Want to start strong? Try these tips to help remedy the dreaded summer slide and support meaningful fractions review strategies with Frax.
- In general, prioritize a conceptual understanding of fractions using Frax’s story-driven, game-based missions. Frax helps students understand that fractions are numbers too, each with a size and location on the number line.
- Use Frax early in the school year to help fill in any underlying gaps in your students' fundamental fractions knowledge. For the best results, use Frax before starting your fractions unit to accelerate learning and build strong foundations. You may be surprised by how smoothly your fractions unit will go if your room is full of Frax users!
- Incorporate Frax into small group rotations to provide targeted, differentiated review without taking time from whole-class instruction. Frax’s offline activities eliminate the need for extra planning or prep work.
Keep students on track with ongoing fraction support with Frax
The key to fractions gap recovery isn’t only catching up, but giving your class the tools to stay on track. Building early-year routines around Frax sets the stage for long-term progress and helps prevent the summer slide from turning into year-round struggles.
With consistent, teacher-guided use, Frax ensures that students stay engaged, supported, and ready for the next level of math. Get started today with your own classroom trial!