Reading Camp is basically a grouping of students based on their level of reading skill. The purpose of this grouping is to accelerate the improvement in students’ basic reading skills. Grouping is done for students not only in the same grade, but also across other grades simultaneously, especially grades one, two, and three. To group the children, the teachers in each early grade will do a test to determine each student’s initial level of reading skill.

Furthermore, students with the same skill level from all the early grades are placed in one group. The teachers then discuss what methods and strategies will be applied for each group. The group consists of smaller sections: one for reading letters, another for reading syllables, a third for reading words, and two more for reading fluently and reading comprehension, respectively.

In West Sumba, 19 INOVASI partner schools have been implementing this method for a long time, and it has produced many positive results. Generally, students’ interest in reading has increased significantly, in turn improving their reading ability. Seeing the resulting impact, the West Sumba Regency Government, through the Education Office, expanded the application of Reading Camp to all state elementary schools (SD) and Islamic elementary schools (MI) in West Sumba.

 

To strengthen teachers’ understanding of the concepts and principles of implementing Reading Camp, the Education Office, with the support of INOVASI, held Reading Camp training. It is hoped that, after participating in this training, the teachers will be more confident in implementing a variety of learning strategies for students with different abilities.

The target of this Reading Camp training is not only early grade teachers but also higher grade ones. During the training, participants were divided into two groups, one for early grade teachers (grades one through three) and the other for higher grade teachers (grades four through six). The main focus of the training is the discussion of the third step of the Reading Camp: the creation of a reading-group learning scenario that emphasizes selecting the right learning strategy, one suited to the learning needs of each group.

The developed learning scenarios contain components for activities, learning objectives, media, and assessments for each group. In this training, the teacher strengthens his/her understanding of how to set realistic and achievable learning goals for a set duration of learning. The learning objectives must also be in line with, and support the achievement of, the major and long-term learning goals.

 

 

During February 2020, training was conducted in two sub-districts. The training for the Waikabubak City district was held on 11 and 12 February at the SDI Waikabubak Islamic elementary school and was attended by 96 early grade teachers from 20 elementary schools. In the Loli subdistrict, the training was conducted on 13 and 14 February at SD Negeri Tabulo Dara state elementary school and was attended by 120 early grade teachers.

Training in two other sub-districts—Lamboya and Wanukaka—was held during March 2020. The training in Wanukaka was conducted on 12 and 13 March and had 88 participants. The activity was carried out at SD Negeri Pugu Katoda state elementary school. Meanwhile, in Lamboya district, the training was conducted on 14 March at SD Negeri Rajaka state elementary school and was attended by 74 teachers.

The teachers who took part in the training gave a similar impression—that this training made clearer how the Reading Camp was going to be implemented in schools. Teachers who have implemented Reading Camp have also begun to see the development of their students’ reading skills. In the teachers’ opinion, Reading Camp has truly helped accelerate the improvement of the students’ reading skills. Furthermore, the implementation of Reading Camp has made it easier for teachers to improve their students’ reading skills.