Bee a Reader fund to support Stanislaus school summer literacy pilot programs

The Modesto Bee and the Stanislaus Community Foundation, partners in the annual A Book of Dreams to help area charitable nonprofits, have teamed up again to support books – and reading – in general.

More than 70 percent of third-grade students in Stanislaus County cannot read at grade level. And studies have shown that reading ability by the end of third grade is an important predictor for high school graduation and career success.

Stanislaus READS! is a multiyear collaborative effort between the Stanislaus Community Foundation and the Stanislaus County Library, Office of Education and Children & Families commission to help children read at grade level by the end of third grade. The initiative includes equipping families with the tools to help children enter kindergarten ready to learn, combating chronic absences in the early grades and providing enrichment activities during the summer months, when learning loss occurs.

As part of Stanislaus READS!, six schools in Modesto, Riverbank, Patterson and Waterford are piloting unique summer programs to fight the “summer slide” in learning. The partnership between The Bee and the Stanislaus Community Foundation, called the Bee a Reader Fund, is to raise awareness of the importance of summer learning and spur community investment in school programs.

Not every child has the same summertime learning opportunities – anything from library visits to family excursions to camps – and poverty is a big reason, said Amanda Hughes, program director for the Stanislaus Community Foundation. A child in a low-income family typically loses two to three months of learning over school breaks, she said.

“Cost and proximity are limiting factors for kids” when it comes to summer learning, Hughes said. Offering programs at neighborhood schools near where the kids live seems a natural, accessible opportunity, she said.

Camp Chrysler inspires others

The pilot programs are at California Avenue Elementary School in Riverbank; Las Palmas Elementary in Patterson; Moon Primary School in Waterford; and Burbank Elementary, Sylvan Elementary and Chrysler Elementary, all in Modesto. The model for the programs began with Chrysler School’s Camp Chrysler, which will be in its third year this summer, Hughes said.

She said she’s impressed with the “scrappy” camp that Stanislaus Union School District Superintendent Britta Skavdahl and district and school staff have going. Kids are getting ballet instruction, taking science classes, learning computer coding and more.

“Britta started with a small investment of $10,000 a few years ago to open the school library and computer lab during summer,” Hughes said. Met with a huge response, they “doubled down on it last year,” she said. The Prescott Middle School library also was kept open the first summer, Skavdahl said, and Eisenhut Elementary’s library was added last summer.

For Camp Chrysler, the district has partnered with Central West Ballet, the Central California Art Association, the Great Valley Museum, the Stanislaus County Library and the Police Activities League to give students a varied and engaging experience.

“Last year, we did four camps – two on visual and performing arts, two on science and technology,” Skavdahl said. “We’re doing a minimum of at least that much this summer. We have four camps fleshed out and are looking at others.”

Children are divided into two age groups for the camps: those entering first through third grade in the fall, and those entering fourth through sixth grades.

Reading opens doors to camp

“We make it very hands-on and engaging,” Skavdahl said. “The price of admission is you have to read five books. The research is that if a child reads five books over summer vacation, that reduces the summer slide.”

Students don’t have to read all the books in advance of camp, the superintendent said. They can be read concurrently as camp goes on. “To prove you read a book, we didn’t want just a standard book report,” Skavdahl said. “We designed a way to demonstrate it in a variety of ways. They can compose a song about the book, do puppetry, make a videotape with them playing a reporter sharing news from a book, make a diorama, write a letter to a character in the book or as a character.”

Children also earn a prize for each book report. The prize for the fifth book is a $10 gift certificate to a “buy one, get one free” Scholastic book fair, meaning a child can get $20 worth of books.

The pilot programs at the five other elementary schools have been spun off from the Chrysler model, Hughes said. Some are doing coding, some are partnering for an ag focus, some are doing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). “They each have a completely different flavor,” she said of the programs, which all will be in their second year.

▪ Burbank’s theme is “One World, Many Stories.” Each week features a Great Valley Museum traveling teacher on topics including dinosaurs, rainforests and animal skins. A “Parent Cafe” element will teach parents how to read with their children.

▪ California Avenue Elementary is having a two-part literacy program. The first part has drama teachers working with kids to read and act out various plays. The second part is a reading challenge for prizes.

▪ Las Palmas’ program will combine literacy with STEM presentations. Activities will address social skills and family involvement in developing language and literacy skills.

▪ The Moon program has several focuses, including helping parents get their children kindergarten-ready; teaching math skills, STEM activities and physical fitness; and partnering with the county library’s summer reading program.

▪ Sylvan’s summer camp focus is on literacy through STEM curriculum. “Jr. Iron Chef” will include farm and farmers-market trips leading to planning and preparation of a meal. “Tech Camp” will engage students in various uses of technology to improve reading and writing.

The Stanislaus Community Foundation is giving financial support to each of the six programs, Hughes said. Looking toward the future, “we can’t give them all our discretionary money year after year,” she said. The financial aim of the Bee a Reader Fund, she said, is, “like A Book of Dreams, to get a long-term thing going” in which the community will invest in local children and learning.

During this first-year effort, Hughes said, the foundation will use a McClatchy Co. endowment to provide up to $60,000 to match donations.

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Bee a Reader fund to support Stanislaus school summer literacy pilot programs."