Personal Narrative: My Goals For My Personal Project

Investigating

My goal for my Personal Project was to help elementary aged students during the summer so that they won't lose as much of their knowledge and won't fall as far behind in their education. I chose this goal because, as a child, I fell behind during the summers. I was greatly affected by the lack of learning I was exposed to as a child. As a result, I was pulled out of school and my mother continued my education from home for a couple of years. Though I am very grateful for my mother's steps to take action, I think it is important for children to learn social skills from a young age. I hoped that if my short week-long summer camp could involve some reading and math, I might be able to help the children that come to not fall

Though I had heard that no learning during the summer can have huge impacts on a child's progression, I wanted to see if what I had been told was myth or fact. I quickly saw that it was indeed fact. Children can lose up to three months of learning during the summer, and to an elementary school child, those three months can create huge problems. In The New York Times article, This is Your Brain on Summer it reads, “If students are not engaged in learning over the summer, they lose skills in math and reading. Summers off are one of the most important, yet least acknowledged, causes of underachievement in our schools.” It continues to state how lower-income students are greatly affected by the “ideal lazy summer” because the high-income students are being sent to enriching camps and things of that nature. I found another source that gave a list of activities to help their child to not fall behind. It emphasized the importance of reading, letting your kids learn about subjects that they are interested in, use technology, go exploring, learn a second language, and have fun. Though I cannot make extensive improvements in children's education by one week, utilizing this information within my camp will help me know how to best use my week to help the participants. Finally, in the article, Summer Math Loss, the author explains that math is a skill that is particularly affected by

A key component of my project was to learn more about what does and does not help adolescents overcome the challenges that result from the typical “American summer”. I wanted to have the greatest impact I could, on the youth participating in my short, week-long camp. I needed this information so that I could utilize my time to benefit the participants. I evaluated how effective I was at achieving my criteria by creating guidelines for what my project needed to include. Each day I included a math-themed game. This included adding dice, and counting. I included reading each day as well. Each day was a different career and the book that I would read to the children was themed along with the career the day was based on. Finally, I included a craft to each day. I found that children love to color and use their imagination so I decided to take advantage of that love, that all children possess, and plan activities that went along with the themed day. I planned a short test to give to the participants at the end and beginning of the week to see if their knowledge of math and reading had been affected. This will help me to learn what does and does not work for years to come that I run my annual summer