CASE STUDY
HOW LITCAMP POSITIVELY IMPACTED STUDENTS’ LITERACY & SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING
SUMMER ENRICHMENT PROGRAM The Summer Enrichment Program in the Schenectady City School District, NY serves over 1,100 students in Grades kindergarten–6.¹ This 4-week program operates during the summer months, Monday through Friday, for 10 hours per day at several Schenectady City school sites and includes a number of academic and recreational activities. In summer 2017, the district implemented LitCamp for two hours per day² as the literacy component of the program to meet two summer learning goals: sustain students’ literacy skills over the summer— a time when students have a tendency to lose some of the skills and reading achievement gains made during the previous school year; and encourage students’ social-emotional learning. In summer 2018, LitCamp was again implemented as the main literacy component of the district’s Summer Enrichment Program. What is LitCamp? LitCamp is a summer literacy and enrichment program for students in Grades kindergarten–8. LitCamp combines reading and writing lessons and texts with an engaging summer camp approach. Through reading, writing, listening, and speaking,
LitCamp aims to strengthen students’ literacy skills and affinity for books. Additionally, LitCamp builds students’ social-emotional skills around what the program refers to as “the 7 strengths”—belonging, curiosity, friendship, kindness, confidence, courage, and hope—by incorporating these concepts into LitCamp texts and lessons. DISTRICT CHARACTERISTICS Schenectady City School District in New York enrolls nearly 10,000 students in 11 elementary schools, three middle schools, and one high school. The student population is culturally and economically diverse with more than 30 languages represented³ and the district website reports that 79% of students come from economically disadvantaged homes.⁴
DISTRICT NUMBERS AT-A-GLANCE
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APPROXIMATELY 10,000 PREK–12 STUDENTS
OVER 30 LANGUAGES SPOKEN
925 TEACHERS
UNIVERSAL FREE MEAL PROGRAMS ⁵
1 Number of students and grades served reflect summer 2018 programming. Grade corresponds to grade completed in the spring. 2 LitCamp was designed for flexible implementation—providing 50 hours (20 lessons) of literacy instruction within a 4- to 8-week time frame. The district used a 4-week implementation model. 3 Retrieved from: http://www.schenectady.k12.ny.us/about_us 4 Retrieved from: https://data.nysed.gov/enrollment.php?year=2016&instid=800000038389 5 Retrieved from: http://www.schenectady.k12.ny.us/about_us
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