Twenty students at Sharpe Elementary are spending the summer in the school’s vocabulary camp. Sharpe teachers are working to increase the literacy of its students. Earlier this year, 70 percent of the school’s students were not reading on grade level. (Photo: Tajuana Cheshier/Chalkbeat)

Sharpe Elementary student Kyla Reed, 11, was once a shy reader. But she recently raised her hand with confidence to read a passage from her textbook during the school’s summer vocabulary camp this month.

When Kyla’s teacher Dawn Sledge asked about the difference between high and low pressure to make sure they understood what they were reading, Kyla and her classmates wiggled in their seats with their hands in the air.

Reed’s face held a satisfied smile as she answered Sledge’s question correctly.

“I want to be able to read faster and more fluently,” Reed said after class.

Twenty students are enrolled in the school’s first summer reading camp, which began on June 2 and will last through July 1. The students and three teachers spend six hours a day, Monday through Friday,  focused on reading skills and vocabulary expansion. The program is paid for with the school’s Title I money, federal dollars geared toward low-income children.

Sharpe’s summer program is one of about 30 summer enrichment, intervention, or speciality camps that Shelby County Schools are running this summer.

Read the full story on Chalkbeat Tennessee.