Lowndes County children are trying to improve their reading and math skills in a free summer study camp this month.
Nearly 50 energetic students in kindergarten through eighth grade are participating in Summer Academic Enrichment Camp at West Lowndes Elementary School, which began June 1 and ends June 25. This is not summer school. Rather, it”s a way for kids to practice for the upcoming school year.
“Our goal is to keep them sharp over the summer so they”re on the top of their game when school starts,” said Jim Robinson, the tutor and assessment coordinator at West Lowndes Middle and High schools. “Typically kids forget a lot over the summer, and you spend the first nine weeks of school relearning, so hopefully we won”t have to do that.”
The plan for keeping the mental doldrums to a minimum is made up of two 90-minute blocks of reading and writing. The teachers at the camp use interactive software to help the kids learn: Read 180, which tests reading comprehension, and Accelerated Mathematics, which gives students math problems to solve on screen.
“They”re assessed at the beginning,” said Scott Johnson, tutor and assessment coordinator at New Hope High School. “We give them another diagnostic test at the end to see how much they”ve grown.”
Students use the bus system to get to school at 8 a.m. and are fed lunch before heading home at noon.
In her class of first- and second-graders, Gill Vaughn used a unique strategy to teach reading. She had PVC pipe fashioned to look like crude telephones. Instead of having all of the kids reading aloud at the same time, Vaughn used the pipes allow student to hear themselves.
“They”re like a telephone,” Vaughn said. “You speak into them, and you can hear yourself speak. It helps with pronunciation.”
“We aim to make learning fun and exciting, so that they develop the initiative to want to learn to succeed, which will in tern compel our students to graduate from school and pursue a higher education,” said Lowndes County School District Superintendent Mike Halford.
It seems Halford”s goal is being felt by the students.
“We get to hang out with our friends and learn while we play,” said seventh-grader Rosalind Ellis.
Although he was skeptical about the program during the first week and didn”t think it would be fun, Jaquaious Little, had changed his mind by Wednesday and was learning a lot.
“We have group discussions, and we learn how to cooperate with each other more,” said Jaquaious, also in the seventh grade. “Plus, since it”s only four hours long, we have time to do stuff when we get home.”
The program ends on June 25, but the administrators have not decided if they will hold a second session. For now, they”re just focusing on getting to the end of June.
“We have a surprise for them at the end of the program,” Johnson said. “They”re speculating about what it is.”
“They”re going to take us to the movies,” Jaquaious guessed, “but we want to go to a water park instead.”
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