Hooked on Books "Reading is Magic Camp"

July 11-22, 2016

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Too many children in our community fail to learn to read proficiently in the early grades. If reading remains a difficult task, students do not read independently and they do not have the hours of practice they need to master reading. By third and fourth grade, students fall behind as they are required to read for meaning. 40-50% of Santa Fe public school students drop out before graduation and New Mexico is ranked last in the nation in literacy.

Hooked on Books benefits students by getting them hooked on the excitement of reading, providing increased access to free books and reading remediation. The program has four tiers of intervention: literacy contests open to all children in New Mexico, free community bookswap bookshelves, afterschool tutoring and a summer camp for intensive reading remediation.

The Reading is Magic Camp is a specialized summer reading camp for students who are 1 or more years behind in reading. This camp is sponsored by Santa Fe School for the Arts & Sciences (SFSAS), a non profit Expeditionary Learning school.

Two free, two-week-long camps entitled "Reading is Magic" will be held from July 6-17, 2015 at SFSAS on Jaguar Drive and will serve up to 36 low-income Santa Fe area students (not enrolled at SFSAS) who have been identified by their teachers as needing serious remediation in reading.

"Reading is Magic" Summer

We work with local public school teachers to identify students who have serious reading challenges and are at least one year behind in reading. Each two-week camp is filled with individualized, intensive, yet fun, reading instruction using Expeditionary Learning and developmentally appropriate best literacy teaching practices.

The theme "Reading is Magic" is supported by a focus on the Middle Ages which is integrated into all camp activities. The learning centers and reading materials provide opportunities to engage in a variety of learning modalities so that every child is reached. Each camp provides instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary building and linguistic awareness. We provide daily experiences of being read to and independently reading meaningful and engaging stories and informational texts.

Since quite a few of our campers are English Language Learners, we also staff our camp with native Spanish speaking teen counselors and include vocabulary building and multi-cultural pride and awareness as a vital part of the camp program. This camp provides opportunities for students to grapple with complex informational text at the same time they are learning to read.

We create an individualized reading program for each child that is supported by one on one reading, read aloud time, computer reading games, our own original reading board games, our own kinesthetic reading games, hands on projects, songs, videos, drama and storytelling. Each day is filled with engaging reading related activities. This camp does not feel like summer school. We also work with parents to support reading at home and give each a child a backpack filled with appropriate books for their reading level. Each student's reading level is evaluated at the beginning and end of the two week session. Students who are identified as needing more support participate in tutoring after camp, throughout the rest of summer and in the fall if needed.

A major component of the camp is character building. The Middle Ages theme gives the students the opportunity to work towards the goal of becoming a Prince, Princess or a Knight through effort and perseverance. They work their way through the "Royal Road," the path of becoming a Page, then a Squire and a Scribe, until finally they earn the title of Knight, Prince or Princess. The campers earn these titles by doing their work and acting with integrity, honesty, effort and grit- the character values of a knight. Many of these campers have been retained or at risk of being retained- many believe that they are stupid and will never become a great reader. We focus on creating a new growth mindset for these students that helps them internalize the truth that effort will lead to great progress.

Application Process: Please ask your child's teacher to contact Rayna Dineen at [email protected].