Progress of 300 is beyond words
Author:   MARA KLECKER
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Publication: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR)
Section: Arkansas
Date: July 19, 2015
Page: 13

More than 300 Little Rock elementary students attended Camp Can Do over the past month to improve their English speaking and reading skills.
Now in its seventh year, the four-week camp for English language learners expanded to two sites - Mabelvale Elementary School and Williams Magnet Elementary School - to accommodate the record number of students enrolled.
Cloverdale Middle School also hosted a similar program for middle school students.
Though the free camp invites children of all backgrounds and first languages to participate, the majority of the students speak Spanish, said Karen Broadnax, director of the Little Rock School District's English as a Second Language program.
Eleven percent, or 2,707, of the kindergarten-through-12th-grade students enrolled in the district were identified as learning English as a Second Language students during the 2014-15 academic year, Broadnax said.
That number is up 961 students from five years ago, during the 2009-10 school year.
This past year, about 2,355, or nearly 87 percent, of those 2,707 English as a Second Language students spoke Spanish, about a 2 percent jump from five years ago.
Though bilingual teachers are an asset to the schools, speaking a second language is not a requirement for hiring, district Superintendent Baker Kurrus said. He said recruiting Spanish-speaking teachers has "become a necessity" in recent years, and he's been "bull-rushing" bilingual educators at recruiting fairs.
"As with any challenge -whether it's special education needs, language barriers or issues with early childhood preparation - we need to meet [students] where they are," Kurrus said. "We've seen that it's do-able. We've had pockets of success we can build on."
District officials say one of those pockets of success is Camp Can Do.
Among its curricula and activity-based programming, the students use Lexia Reading Core5, which is a personalized, computer-based literacy program that measures performance with testing before and after.
After 19 days of instruction, the overall vocabulary fluency scores for the students at the Williams camp rose 13 percent.
"That's pretty significant considering the very short time we have to work with these babies," said Neresa Williams, the instructional facilitator at the Williams camp. "Now we just have to make sure that learning continues and we don't drop the ball once the school year starts."
Broadnax agreed.
"I was blown away at the progress," she said. "Let's not be underwhelmed by what this means. This means that if this can be done in a few weeks, think about what we can give these kids over the course of a school year."
The Lexia program was first implemented at last year's camp and was used for English as a Second Language students during the past academic year, Broadnax said. The program is also accessible from a student's home computer, so a student can continue learning once the school day ends.
"It's been really beneficial," she said. "We've found ways to educate parents to support their child's learning."
Some students also use the Rosetta Stone software program if their English skills are very basic, Broadnax said.
Kurrus said educating English as a Second Language students and raising their levels of literacy takes a "systemic approach" rather than just relying on one program to teach them English, something that Broadnax agrees with.
Though he wasn't very familiar with the Lexia curriculum and was impressed by the measured student progress, he said the teaching of literacy skills must be broadbased.
"It seems like we've tried every program in the world. Some are hit or miss, and many are so expensive that they can't be expanded on.
"We need a consistent and repetitive approach that builds on the progress from the previous day," he said. "That's the direction our schools are going. It's part of our DNA now, and it's what is going to distinguish us."
Camp Can Do is a branch of that systemic approach.
Though much of the students' morning is spent in the classroom with intensive vocabulary lessons, the camp day was less structured than a normal school day, Williams said. Even so, every activity incorporated English vocabulary.
Each day, the children gathered and sang a song - "Hello everybody, we welcome you. Hello everybody, Welcome to Camp Can Do" - complete with hand gestures and a dance.
They went on nature hikes and took a field trip to visit a local farmer. They jumped rope and made posters and learned to play "Hickory Dickory Dock" on the recorder. They did science experiments to learn about Newton's laws of motion and had hands-on lessons about managing money.
"We had a lot of fun," said 12-year-old Leslie Carcamo, who has attended camp each of the three summers since she moved to the United States from Honduras.
Though her mom speaks English, Leslie said she has Camp Can Do to thank for her English skills. She speaks with only the slightest hint of an accent when she talks about her goals and dreams.
She wants to be an animal doctor, she said, her voice quiet. She tries out the word.
"A vet-ri-na-rian," she said, sounding it out and smiling.
That's what Camp Can Do is about, Williams said. "We want to empower these children," she said. "We work to prepare them not only for the upcoming school year but to continue on to college and whatever they want to do."
On Thursday afternoon in front of 30 parents gathered for the campers' finale performance, several of the younger students stood in a line with cardboard superhero masks on.
One by one, the children stood up and took the microphone. Some of them shifted their weight and took deep, nervous breaths, but they all spoke in perfect English as they told their parents what they want to be when they grow up - police officers, art teachers, soccer players.
Later in the performance, students held up posters about what it means to be in a community.
"You are all members of many communities," said Esther Jones, principal of the Williams camp, as the children filed off stage and a translator repeated the sentence in Spanish to the parents.
Welcoming and supporting these students into the communities of the city and the school district is crucial, Kurrus said.
"To whatever extent we can, we want to encourage a multicultural background here," he said. "It's not just that we want to - it's that it's a need now we have to focus on."
English as a Second Language students "are an interesting and exciting demographic to continue to attract to our schools," he said. "Now it's a matter of continuing to serve them and meet them where they are in their learning."
Kurrus is pleased to see the school district grow more diverse, he said. "It's an exciting time - a time for 'esperanza' - 'hope' in Spanish."