Hot Springs elementary school's summer reading camp wraps up

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) — A summer camp that is designed to help students who may struggle with reading get ready for the coming school year recently wrapped up.

The inaugural Cutter Morning Star Summer Reading Camp for kindergarten, first- and second-grade students, in partnership with Arkansas Learning Through The Arts, was designed to assist students who have been identified through targeted testing as struggling with reading to enhance their skills for the coming school year.

"We have a diverse population as far as reading levels go here. So as we were working with those children, we realized we needed something to extend the school year so kids would not lose what we had worked so hard to gain in the school year," Cutter Morning Star Elementary School Principal Terry Lawler told The Sentinel-Record.

"If you can have a child on grade level by third grade, statistics say that they will be successful in school. However, the opposite is also true. Every child can learn to read. There's not a doubt in my mind. But it's all about exposure and time with quality instruction, with trained staff, with the right resources. And that's what we're trying to do."

Each Monday through Thursday in June, from 8-11 a.m., 41 students regularly attended the camp. To make attendance feasible, the school arranged for two different bus routes to pick up and drop off children and made breakfast and lunch available at school.

For staffing needs, the camp required three classroom teachers, two reading therapists and four local artists.

The teaching artists that spoke to students each week were one of two "key components" of the camp, Lawler said.

"Craig (Welle) and his staff met with us early. We had done their workshops that they offer all schools, but I asked them to do something...