School districts and community partners across the U.S. launched their own Scholastic LitCamp programs this summer to help students avoid the effects of the “summer slide,” the loss of academic skills that occurs during the summer months, which is attributed largely to the lack of reading.
LitCamp redefines the notion of summer school, combining research-based daily reading and writing lessons framed around The 7 Strengths social-emotional literacy learning framework: Belonging, Friendship, Kindness, Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, Hope. With an interactive summer camp theme, the program prepares students to navigate future challenges in and out of the classroom while fostering a sense of joy, community, and accomplishment.
This summer, Pam Allyn, Senior Vice President, Innovation & Development at Scholastic Education, founder of LitWorld, and creator of LitCamp, traveled throughout the country to make special visits to school districts including Prince William County Public Schools and Hampton City Schools in Virginia and Corona-Norco Unified School District in California where she met school and community leaders and hosted interactive read-alouds forLitCampers of all ages. Each school made LitCamp their own with fun, creative approaches to the “camp” theme and special celebrations for literacy. Schools shared that they saw an increase in student engagement and motivation, in addition to a positive impact on overall attendance and student behavior.
By providing robust lessons with specially curated books, LitCamp helps students avoid learning loss and prepare to arrive on the first day of school ready to learn. Check out some of the highlights from Pam Allyn’s LitCamp road trip, below!
Images provided by Pam Allyn
