In one room on Tuesday, first and second graders place animals on a magnetic storyboard. Down the hall, older students listen to a tale of wombats. Children enrolled in a School of Education program are attending classes on campus this month for an enrichment academy that serves as an internship setting for current and future special needs teachers in Elon’s graduate education program.
The Summer Learning & Enrichment Academy is what school leaders consider a “win-win” for everyone involved – the students, the licensed teachers working toward their master’s degrees, and the parents whose children attend the half-day program.
“Summer can be a period of time where students may lose some of the academic gains they made over the school year,” said David Cooper, dean of the School of Education. “Anything we do for kids with disabilities over the summer cuts into the necessity of having to do that backtracking in the fall … Closing the gap between theory and practice is our goal.”
Elon’s summer academy for special education students started nine years ago. The program keeps this year’s 30 children engaged and occupied in a classroom setting, which minimizes how much they forget from the previous grade over the summer, and it provides master’s students an opportunity to try different strategies and techniques they learn in their program.
Of course, organizers say, it helps that the academy doesn’t feel like a “real” school. “They love saying they’re ‘coming to Elon,’” said Judith Howard, a professor of education and director of the school’s graduate program. “It’s not even that ‘they’re going to summer school’ or to remedial school. They say, ‘I’m going to Elon,’ and I love that.”
The typical day consists of registration by 8:30, followed by lessons for an hour, then a short break. Recess is also built in for the kids. Parents arrive at 11:30 to take their children home after a morning of class.
“This gives regular educators the opportunity to see what a special educator does day-to-day in his classroom,” said Stephen Byrd, a professor of education now in his second summer directing the learning academy. “There’s a different pace of instruction. You have to be able to break it down so students can receive it.”
Many children return each summer and, in some instances, siblings attend the camp together. The kids themselves strike graduate students as eager to learn.
“I thought there would be more resistance because it’s their summer,” said Charlotte Whipp, a master’s student starting at Eastern Alamance High School next month after working the previous four years in a middle school. “They seem to be enjoying this even though it’s not something they necessarily wanted to do.”
Not every lesson takes place in the classroom. Maxine Cassell, a high school French teacher from South Carolina in the special education track, described the benefits of her experience playing basketball with kids. “Children are not just students,” she said. “They’re individuals with like and dislikes … you’re able to help them more when you see them outside an academic situation.”
The academy runs through July 31.
