Preventing the Winter Slide: Skills to Refresh Before Break

Preventing the “winter slide” starts with keeping key skills fresh and giving students purposeful, bite-sized practice before they head out for break. Perfection Learning’s Measuring Up and other standards-based assessment solutions make that refresh realistic, data-driven, and manageable for busy educators.

Why Winter Slide Matters

• Students often lose ground in core reading and math skills over long breaks, especially if they already struggle with grade-level standards.

• A short, targeted skill check before break can help identify who needs extra support and what to prioritize in January.

Focus Skills To Refresh

• Reading: Close reading of short texts, citing evidence, and building academic vocabulary to support comprehension across content areas.

• Math: Problem-solving with grade-level word problems, fluency with operations, and applying concepts to real-world examples.

How Measuring Up Helps

• Insight assessments offer standards-aligned items that quickly diagnose which skills students have mastered and where gaps remain before break.

• Robust reporting pinpoints standards for reteaching or practice, helping educators design mini-lessons or station work that target the most critical needs.

Standards-Based Practice That Sticks

• Print and digital Measuring Up lessons connect new or recently taught concepts to prior knowledge and real-world scenarios, strengthening retention.

• Scaffolded instruction, hints, and guided practice support all learners, while independent items mirror high-stakes test formats so winter review also builds assessment readiness.

Practical Ways To Use These Tools Before Break

• Build a “Winter Refresh” week using short daily Insight assessments followed by skill-specific practice pulled directly from Measuring Up lessons.

• Create personalized packets or digital playlists for students based on their assessment data, so families have meaningful, standards-based activities to use over the break instead of generic worksheets.