Expanding summer fun

Suzie Harrison

Summer conjures up images of vacations, being outside, playing and

fun. Rarely does it include reading and writing. But for the fifth-grade

students in Lisa Caruso’s summer class who are attending College View

Elementary School’s Reading Academy this summer, it does.

In its fourth year, this summer school program focuses on reading and

language arts with time devoted exclusively to each. The class emphasizes

learning the skills and strategies that promote reading comprehension and

effective written communication.

It’s self-paced and the students work on a wide variety of exercises

including short and long stories, essays and poems.

“I think this is pretty good. You can write about fantasies or

whatever you want, which is very exciting,” said fifth-grader Eiraj

Zandi. “It has good activities too that help you learn.”

Students are taught the writing process that teachers would like to

see so that students form good habits. They are expected to follow the

process through selecting a topic, pre-writing, writing the first draft,

peer conference for constructive suggestions, revisions, teacher

conference and review, revising, self-editing, turning in the final draft

for a last teacher edit and getting the work published.

“I like writing because I like making up stories. They

are teaching me how to write correctly,” said Shelby

Spruill.

Half of the day is focused on reading skills and comprehension. At

risk students get priority in enrollment.

“Priority or at risk means a student is reading below their grade

level,” said Caruso.

When they first come in the teachers do an assessment to find out the

student’s reading level.

Then they match the students with independent reading books and

reading groups based on their level.

In addition, the students have required reading. They also practice

reading aloud to each other to work on their reading fluency.