Summer Acceleration in Literacy: A Collaborative Reading Camp Experience

Abstract

As students progress through middle and secondary grades, they continually encounter increasingly rigorous texts. These students must possess the comprehension and critical thinking skills needed to respond to such texts. Additionally, students need teachers who possess the pedagogical knowledge to teach reading comprehension across content areas. For those students who are struggling readers, the summer months -- in particular -- can be detrimental if appropriate reading resources and instruction are not provided. This article describes one school's initiative to provide middle school students with additional summer reading support and provide reading pedagogical training to pre-service content teachers. By collaborating with a local teacher preparation program, in-service teachers in the focus middle developed an interdisciplinary reading camp. This article describes the camp's structure and its impact on students, in-service teachers, and pre-service teachers.