‘Reading is everything’: Summer literacy program helps students find their confidence

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For example, she said she’s currently working with several boys who don’t like writing, but part of it is their own mentality that they’re not good at it. She said she’s working with them to start believing they’re good writers.

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Reading College

'Reading is everything': Summer literacy program helps students find their confidence

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“That inspires them to keep going because they feel like they can do it,” she said. “I always say reading is everything, and it really is.”

This year, 79 kids are taking part in the program, which will conclude with a graduation ceremony on July 24.

The Reading College runs for an entire month in the summer and is free for students to attend. It offers support to students leaving the second grade for the third grade.

It began 15 years ago and, since then, has helped almost 1,100 children improve their reading and writing abilities.

Students are bused to and from the program at Red Deer Polytechnic and provided with breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Morning sessions focus on reading, writing, and word work and in the afternoon, the class reads stories, works on sight words, and does fun activities.

Carmichael explained that part of the reason for the progress in students is that they get so much feedback every day from the teachers.

In each classroom, there are only eight to 10 students, so each student is getting more one-on-one time because of the smaller class sizes.

“That in itself is so helpful when you know the direction you need to be going,” Carmichael said.

She said there’s a school division in the foothills that is trying to emulate the program here in Red Deer.

She added that they’re open to sharing details with other school divisions and already have. However, the biggest hurdle for a lot of divisions looking to start up a similar program, Carmichael said, is money.

“We want them to be successful too. What we figured out is, why not tell them? It saves them a lot of trouble.”

She said this program truly changes the lives of kids who take part. So much so, there’s been talk about potentially creating a similar numeracy program.