












































 
1         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

 

ISSN #2331-6845 

 

Language experience camp: Connecting schools, 
students and families in southeast rural Georgia 

 

By Dr. Alisa Leckie 
Georgia Southern University 

aleckie@georgiasouthern.edu    
 

For four years, ESOL teachers in Effingham County have partnered with Georgia 
Southern University to provide a no cost Language Experience Camp for English 
learners and their families.  Our Language Experience Camp has three goals: 1) 
provide continued language development opportunities, 2) develop a sense of 
connectedness among ELs, their families, the school system, and the larger 
community, and 3) create a fun and engaging learning environment. It has 
become a place where students and families connect with ESOL teachers and 
the ESOL director as well as students from across the county. It is an example of 
how one county has adjusted to their changing student demographic in a way 
that supports students academically and also helps them integrate socially. 
opportunities.   

Keywords: language development, family engagement 

 

Although the concept of summer camp is not necessarily innovative, a summer 

camp for English learners (ELs) and their families in a large, rural county in southeast 

Georgia is certainly novel. The Language Experience Camp in Effingham County has 

become an integral part of a comprehensive system proven to support English learners 

and their families in a context where the number of English learners is on the rise. For 

mailto:aleckie@georgiasouthern.edu


 
2         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

the past four summers English learners and reclassified English learners have been 

invited to attend a week long language experience camp the first week in June. Each 

summer the camp had a different theme: Biomes, Bridges, Inventions, and Aviation 

respectively, but all camps focused on developing language, incorporating hands-on 

activities, taking field trips, and including family members. Across the years, teachers, 

students and families have benefitted from the extended time focused on language 

development in a fun, interactive learning environment. What started as an aspiration to 

connect families and develop language has become a tradition that English learners 

and their families look forward to every summer. 

Why Summer Camp? 

 Effingham County is like many counties in the New Destination South (Licheter, 

2012; Massey, 2008), experiencing an increase in the number of immigrants and 

English learners in its communities and schools. Currently, English learners attend their 

neighborhood school and are served by on-site or itinerant ESOL teachers. As with 

most ESOL program models, there are benefits and drawbacks in providing services to 

students at their neighborhood school. One benefit is that upon exiting the ESOL 

program, students are able to remain at the school where they have established 

friendships and are comfortable with routines. One of the drawbacks of this model is 

that English learners are “sprinkled” across schools in this large, rural county. While 

some schools have as many as 30 ELs, others only have one or two. English learners in 

these low-incidence contexts receive individual support from an itinerant ESOL teacher 

daily, but can often feel isolated from their peers and the larger school community. 

Further, many families of these students are unfamiliar with the U.S. school system and 



 
3         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

have had limited school-based interactions as a result. Although English learners in 

high-incidence contexts had larger social networks to assist them in achieving social 

and academic success, the spring semester often meant less instructional time with 

their ESOL teacher due to the need for ESOL teachers to administer the ACCESS 

assessment, and students’ need to take the Georgia Milestones assessment.  

All of the above factors were discussed at an ESOL program meeting just prior to 

the winter break in the fall of 2013. As an observer during this meeting, I asked the 

teachers what they thought could be done to address some of their concerns.  How 

could we expand social opportunities for ELs and their families as well as provide 

intensive continued language development support? Their response…summer camp. 

We then started imagining and describing what our ideal camp experience would 

look like. Most important to teachers was that camp should be fun and there should not 

be any tests. Informal assessments were fine, but typical paper/pencil tests were to be 

avoided. They also wanted the opportunity to spend extended time working with 

students in a semi-structured environment so they could engage in activities without the 

constraints of a strictly scheduled day.  If their students were ready for a break, they 

could take a break. If students were engaged in an activity, they wanted the flexibility to 

be able to continue the activity through its completion. They wanted the time and 

flexibility to integrate authentic language learning opportunities into project-based, 

hands on activities. Finally, ESOL teachers and the ESOL director all agreed that we 

needed to find a way to build community among the families of ELs. They recognized 

that families are instrumental to the academic success of their children and wanted to 

build connections among families and between families and the school system. Based 



 
4         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

on these requirements, we developed three primary goals for our Language Experience 

Camp: 1) provide continued language development opportunities, 2) develop a sense of 

connectedness among ELs, their families, the school system, and the larger community, 

and 3) create a fun and engaging learning environment. 

Language Development 

 Although minor adjustments were made each summer based on content and 

teacher preference, there were three central tenets to our language development 

approach: vocabulary development, scaffolding complex linguistic structures with 

sentence frames, and multiple 

authentic experiences for oral and 

written language production. These 

tenets helped ESOL teachers bring 

language to the forefront of 

standards-based instruction 

(Rubinstein-Ávila & Leckie, 2014). 

Vocabulary terms related to each summer’s theme formed the foundation of what 

language students produced; whereas sentence frames and aligned graphic organizers 

provided structure for oral and written language production. The selected terms and 

language structures were essential, but even more important was our emphasis on 

student produced language. Collaborative tasks, authentic audiences, student produced 

videos and vocabulary infomercials provided relevant and meaningful ways for students 

to practice academic language.  



 
5         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

 A description of some of our activities can help illustrate the ways we integrated 

vocabulary, sentence frames and language production into camp activities. Our first 

summer focused on habitats in Georgia and included field trips to the Savannah Wildlife 

Refuge and Skidaway Aquarium. Prior to each field trip, teachers taught relevant 

vocabulary and content using a variety of grade level appropriate activities. While on the 

field trip, student pairs had tablets that they used to take pictures and videos of wildlife 

and habitats. The morning after each field trip students uploaded their pictures and 

video into Moviemaker, a free movie making software. In pairs, students worked on their 

Georgia Habitats video throughout the week by adding captions and narration. At the 

end of the week celebration several student videos were shown on a large screen and 

each student was given a copy of their video on a 

DVD to take home. Similarly, these past two 

summers we again used Moviemaker to promote 

language production. This time, however, our 

middle/high school students developed 

vocabulary infomercials using the selected terms 

and sentence frames for our Inventions and 

Aviation themes. Students in the younger 

grades acted out the various scenes from the 

infomercials many of which were based on the projects 

developed in their respective classrooms. For example, inclined plane, momentum, and 

velocity were described through a demonstration using the “Mars Rovers” second and 

third grade students were making. Instead of individual videos, students received a DVD 

Figure 1: Manuel and Maron construct 
rocket launchers 



 
6         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

containing all of the vocabulary infomercials. Although traditional vocabulary instruction 

and pencil/paper activities did occur, the varitey of contexts and incorporation of 

technology provided meaningful and authentic reasons for students to practice and 

produce academic language.  

Creating Connections:  Field Trips, Celebrations and Parent Engagement 

 Development of academic language was our primary focus, but we also wanted 

to enhance the sense of connectedness among English learners, their families, the 

school system and the local community. Because Effingham is such a large, rural 

county with a relatively small number of ELs spread across it, we wanted to use 

summer camp as a way to connect families and increase their comfort level with the 

ESOL director and several ESOL teachers as the schools each ESOL teacher serves 

can vary from year to year. Parents and other family members were invited to 

participate in all camp activities but primarily chose to attend field trips and the end of 

camp celebration. Not only did field trips provide authentic opportunities for students to 

learn and practice language, they allowed families to visit places many had never been 

before. Field trips included the aforementioned Savannah Wildlife Refuge and Skidaway 

Aquarium our first year along with the Wildlife Center and Mechanical Engineering labs 

at Georgia Southern University the second year and a morning of outdoor inventions 

and and afternoon of bowling the last two summers. Each field trip was semi-structured 

and allowed ESOL teachers to interact with families in a setting outside of school and 

facilitated interactions among parents from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.  

This past summer, we augmented our family component by integrating a family 

literacy component two afternoons.  Each day we developed a “Make and Take” activity 



 
7         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

related to our theme of Aviation. Parents arrived about an hour early and used the 

directions and materials to make a hot air balloon mobile one day and a rocket that 

used Alka-Seltzer tablets as fuel the next. After they made their own, parents took 

directions and materials home so they could make another with their child later on in the 

summer. The friendships parents made with each other throughout these activities have 

extended into subsequent school years and continue to endure.  

Summer Camp - NOT Summer School 

The third goal for our Language Experience Camp was to create a fun and 

interactive learning environment. It was for this third reason that we determined 

“summer camp” was a much better term to use than “summer school”. Even though 

academic language and state science standards guided our curriculum development, 

we focused on integrating small group work, games, technology, demonstrations and 

competitions to keep students engaged and to promote language production. During our 

Bridges themed camp, for example, students made arch bridges, I-beam bridges, and 

suspension bridges out of a wide variety of materials from marshmallows and Laffy 

Taffy to cardboard tubes and string. The final day consisted of a bridge building 

challenge in which students were given a bridge building context and access to 

materials such as pool noodles, boxes, string, and duck tape to build the best bridge for 

their specific problem. When parents arrived, students described their context and 

justified why their bridge was the most appropriate. These types of activities were 

possible because of the loosely structured context, the parallel thematic instruction 

across grade levels, and the focus on language production throughout the week.  



 
8         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

Funding and Logistics 

 Once we realized the many advantages of a summer camp for English learners 

and their families, we needed to find funding to pay for teacher stipends, field trips, and 

classroom supplies.  Each summer we needed stipends for four teachers (K-1, 2-3, 4-5 

and 6-12) to work with the 40-50 students we served each summer. Fortunately, our 

first year was supported primarily through a grant from Georgia Southern’s Partnership 

Council and ESOL Program Funds. As our initial brainstorming session occurred late in 

the academic year, most of Effingham county’s funds had already been allocated. This, 

however, did not preclude any support from the school system.  In fact, Director of 

ESOL Services, Kristie Long, was instrumental in finding a location for camp, enlisting 

and securing on site support from the IT department, collecting and organizing 

registration and other paperwork, and soliciting support from county level administration.  

Each year since, our collaboration has continued with both entities contributing 

resources and brainstorming cost effective possibilities. For example, the second year 

Effingham County paid for the majority of teacher stipends and fiscal support from 

Georgia Southern included supplying non-fiction and fiction books for instructional use 

during camp that students were able to take home, a single teacher stipend, and a small 

amount for classroom supplies.  Knowing that we would need a lot of material for our 

bridge building projects and challenge, teachers sent flyers home with students 

requesting that parents donate supplies such as paper towel tubes, boxes, string and 

other inexpensive or recycled items. We also took our field trip to Georgia Southern and 

students were able to see the bridge that engineering students entered in a national 

contest and interacted with undergraduate and graduate students as they worked on 



 
9         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

projects in the mechanical engineering lab. An added benefit of this experience was that 

several of the college students and faculty members have English as their second or 

third language.  What started out as a cost-effective field trip, turned out to be an 

engaging and enlightening experience for both parents and students. These examples 

demonstrate that through creativity and collaborative efforts, we have been able to find 

ways to offer our summer Language Experience Camp for English learners and their 

families at no cost to them.  

An Unanticipated Benefit:  Professional Learning for ESOL Teachers and Georgia 

Southern’s Teacher Candidates 

 One unanticipated positive outcome of our Language Experience Camp was the 

opportunity for professional learning for ESOL teachers and undergraduates about to be 

enrolled in Georgia Southern’s ESOL Methods course. While developing curriculum and 

materials, ESOL teachers worked together collaboratively to integrate best practices for 

working with English learners (Cloud, Genesse & Hamayan, 2009; De Jong & Harper, 

2005) and to share ideas and resources. Teachers discussed ways to utilize the same 

or similar structures across grade levels to provide consistency. These conversations 

contributed to the professional development of ESOL teachers working at camp and 

undergraduate students at Georgia Southern were able to see these best practices in 

action. At the end of the spring semester students who registered for ESOL Methods for 

the upcoming fall semester were invited to volunteer for one or more days. Throughout 

their time at camp, undergraduate students rotated through each classroom with the 

intent of providing an additional set of hands during the many interactive activities and 

also to focus on how the skilled ESOL teachers they were supporting integrated 



 
10         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

language development into content instruction. For example, students saw how thinking 

maps and sentence frames were used in Kindergarten and middle school to scaffold 

content concepts and language production. Further, the thematic nature of camp 

allowed undergraduates to see how related content was taught with increasing levels of 

difficulty. The camp setting provided an opportunity for undergraduate students to work 

with English learners across the K-12 grade span who spoke a variety of languages at 

home and who had diverse degrees of English proficiency. Students who volunteered at 

camp regularly referred to their experiences throughout the ESOL Methods course in 

the fall.  

Final Thoughts 

 The Language Experience Camp for English learners and their families has 

become a tradition in Effingham County. Students and their families begin asking about 

camp in March because they know spaces fill up fast. It has become a place where 

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

ELA - Hispanic ELA - Limited English
Proficient

Math - Hispanic Math - Limited English
Proficient

Georgia Milestones Scores 2015-2017

2015 - State 2015 - Effingham 2016 - State 2016 - Effingham 2017 - State 2017 - Effingham

Figure 1 Test scores from 2015 - 2017 for Effingham County and Georgia 



 
11         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

students and families connect with several ESOL teachers and the ESOL director as 

well as students from across the county. It is an example of how one county has 

adjusted to their changing student demographic in a way that supports students 

academically and also helps them integrate socially. As Figure 1 indicates, Effingham 

county is doing well in their efforts to educate their English learners, most of whom are 

Hispanic. The Language Experience Camp is not the sole reason for the academic 

success of these students, but it has become an integral part of a comprehensive 

system to educate all students in the county. 

  



 
12         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

References 

Cloud, N., Genessee, F., & Hamayan, E. (2009). Literacy instruction for English 

language learners: A teacher's guide to research-based practices. Heinemann. 

De Jong, E. J., & Harper, C. A. (2005). Preparing mainstream teachers for English-

language learners: Is being a good teacher good enough?. Teacher Education 

Quarterly, 32(2), 101-124. 

Lichter, D. T. (2012). Immigration and the new racial diversity in rural America. Rural 

Sociology, 77(1), 3-35. 

Massey, D. S. (Ed.). (2008). New faces in new places: The changing geography of 

American immigration. Russell Sage Foundation. 

Rubinstein-Ávila, E., & Leckie, A. (2014).  Meaningful discipline-specific language 

instruction for middle school students for whom English is an additional 

language.  In Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy, Kathleen Hinchman and 

Heather Sheridan-Thomas (Eds.). Guilford Press:  Routledge, NY. 

 

 

 

 
    
 
      
 


	Language experience camp: Connecting schools, students and families in southeast rural Georgia
	By Dr. Alisa Leckie Georgia Southern University aleckie@georgiasouthern.edu
	Rubinstein-Ávila, E., & Leckie, A. (2014).  Meaningful discipline-specific language instruction for middle school students for whom English is an additional language.  In Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy, Kathleen Hinchman and Heather Sheridan-Th...

