The 2015 Literacy Challenge inspired students around the world to make bookmarks to benefit Save the Children’s Literacy Boost program. Each week during the Literacy Challenge, we introduced you to students and teachers around the world who have directly experienced success through the Literacy Boost program.
Reading Camps are enjoyable, safe places where children come to interact with literacy in entertaining yet educational ways. The activities are designed to complement other components of Literacy Boost, with the overall goal of supporting children’s literacy acquisition and kindling their love of reading. Most of all, Reading Camp activities are supposed to be fun for children.
“Reading Camps help foster literacy and learning by providing children with the opportunity to interact with literacy outside of school, in an enjoyable way. This is especially important for children who come from non-reading households. Reading Camps are designed to encourage children to see reading as a fun and engaging activity that is useful in all situations, not just for school.“
The Reading Camp Curriculum was developed according to the following principles:
- Research-based: The curriculum uses proven best practices from existing academic research on how to teach children to read and comprehend.
- Culturally Appropriate: The curriculum is designed to be highly adaptable. The activities must suit the local context, so they must be flexible. Practitioners are encouraged to alter or substitute activities to best match the local context.
- Fun: The curriculum prescribes play-based reading activities that engage children in a developmentally appropriate and entertaining way. Furthermore, the activities incorporate numerous learning modalities, to accommodate all children.
Local, literate youth volunteers lead the Reading Camps. These counselors are trained to lead Reading Camps in informal settings, usually outdoors. Reading Camps should be capped at 20-25 children per camp, or a ratio of 10 to 12 learners for every counselor. Materials for Reading Camps draw from Book Banks, provided by Save the Children as part of the Literacy Boost program. As materials are limited, Reading Camps strive to increase the availability of community resources and materials to support literacy development.
Reading Camp Participants There are two main participants in Reading Camps: the children (learners) and the counselors (leaders). There should be no more than 25 learners per Reading Camp session.
The Learners
The learners who attend Reading Camps are first, second, and third grade children, or the equivalent, generally aged six to nine years old. Participating Literacy Boost students, and hence Reading Camp learners, all attend primary school. Even though children have seen textbooks in school, limited school budgets do not allow for children to utilize these materials outside of school. Reading materials outside of the classroom are virtually nonexistent, and often there are no children’s books at all in mother tongue languages. Reading Camps are the learners’ opportunity to gain exposure to reading materials in their mother tongue and to learn to have fun with reading.
The Counselors
Characteristics of Counselors:
- There should be least two counselors per camp.
- Counselors should be selected from local youth, ages 16 to 25.
- When possible, there should be at least one female and one male counselor.
- Counselors are usually volunteers; however, if funding permits, Literacy Boost practitioners may wish to consider providing a stipend.
- Counselors must be able to read fluently, expressively and with full comprehension.
- Counselors should live within the communities they serve.
The Students Rebuild Literacy Challenge, in partnership with Save the Children and Global Nomads Group, helped thousands of children in disadvantaged communities become successful life-long readers and learners. The Bezos Family Foundation, through Students Rebuild, matched each bookmark you made and mailed in with $1—up to $300,000—for Save the Children’s Literacy Boost program in Mali, Nepal and Peru.
Photos via Save the Children
