A handful of elementary students in Berkeley County School District are turning the page and venturing into higher levels of reading, thanks to the 2023 Summer Reading Camp program.
For the past four weeks, more than 100 rising fourth graders have participated in the district’s annual Summer Reading Camp, held at Bowen’s Corner Elementary, Moncks Corner Elementary, Sangaree Elementary and Westview Elementary. The purpose for the camp is to provide students who scored Not Met 1 (according to SC Ready) with the opportunity to receive additional quality, intensive instructional services and support.
The camp is the result of the Read to Succeed Act, Act 284, which ensures students receive interventions when they are not yet comprehending grade-level text. The purpose of this piece of legislation is to improve literacy rates of the students in South Carolina. The camp is one of many components to the Read to Succeed Act.
BCSD’s K-5 English/Language Arts Coordinator Kristina Mathieu said student growth was measured using weekly progress monitoring and the i-Ready Diagnostic Assessment. Mathieu said the district saw an 11 percent increase in students who are now on grade level for phonics when compared to the spring administration of i-Ready. When averaging each of the four sites, the district had a 22 percent decrease in students who were two or more grade levels below.
Students who attended camp were immersed in literacy instruction with a space theme. The space theme helps give students some background knowledge of future science instruction in four grade. District teachers who helped lead the camp said the students worked hard on building fluency and comprehension over the past month.
June 29 was the last day of camp. Parents were invited to come out and see everything their children worked on during their time at camp. The students led their own student-parent conferences to show all the material they covered to their parents - it also gave them a chance to practice reading aloud to their parents.
Students did a lot more than reading, too. As part of the space theme, students researched about planets in the solar system and made slideshow presentations to share with their visiting parents on the final day. They also did some fun STEAM-related activities such as checking out the Star Lab, iTow Truck, Mars Rover simulations, and targeted small group instruction all to enhance student literacy skills.
BCSD attributes the success of this year’s camp to the assistance of its families, school staff, and district office collaboration across all departments.
