By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
A partnership between the Juvenile Residential Center of Northwest Ohio and Bowling Green State University is brightening lives and creating teachable moments through language arts.
Language Arts Motivates Pupils, or LAMP Camp uses actively engaging lessons to bring the joy of language arts to various groups of students in northwest Ohio, most recently to the students at JRC.
Under the leadership of BGSU upper-class students interested in language arts education, JRC learners had the opportunity to learn about language arts by clapping out the 5-7-5 syllables of three-line haikus, jumping rope, throwing baskets and working together to find examples of alliteration, hyperbole, similes and onomatopoeia during the first LAMP Camp at the residential center.
LAMP Camp, patterned after BGSU’s award-winning Math Camp, provided “an opportunity to show the excitement and engage students in a fun way,” said Dr. Joanna Weaver, associate professor and coordinator for the Adolescent to Young Adult program in BGSU’s College of Education and Human Development.
Building positive community partnerships has been a central focus for Director Montana Crawford over the past several years. JRC works with the Wood County Educational Service Center to assist youth in maintaining their growth as a student or getting caught up in their educational career.
Weaver had been involved with other literacy and reading programs at the center, which made LAMP easier to bring to the facility, Crawford said. Even so, the process took about a year due to some of the obstacles of scheduling, planning and implementing a new program at JRC.
While Weaver is the conduit to bring the university educational program to the residential center, the BGSU students are the driving force behind the lesson plans, organization and teaching to the residents.
They work together to study each group and plan the lessons, determine everyone’s roles on the day of the camp and make sure all details are finalized.
“LAMP Camp enhanced or provided new knowledge about language arts. It also provided an opportunity for teamwork, and all youth to engage in problem-solving that they are taught throughout their placement,” said Montana Crawford, director at JRC.
“The youth noted that everyone benefited because the material was taught differently, through hands-on visual, physical and mental learning,” Crawford said.
One JRC student said, “Normally, language arts is not exciting; however, the way it was presented was effective and memorable.”
BGSU student Rylee Smith, who is president of LAMP Camp, ran the haiku station and said the students were “incredibly engaged and had a blast with it.” The work involved learning the structure of a haiku and then the students created a haiku based on meme images.
“Students asked thoughtful questions and produced excellent work,” Smith said. At the end of the camp during final reflections on the day, the haiku station was mentioned as one of their favorites.
BGSU student Anneliese Buma led the Short Story Relay station where the young men had to read about Dracula and answer questions during a kinesthetic relay race. According to Buma, the youths initially kept to themselves, but then they learned that teamwork was the key to success in the lesson.
“It was especially fun for the JRC students; they were very competitive, but the longer they were at the station, the more they worked together and cheered their team members on,” she said.
At BGSU and in the College of Education and Human Development, leadership and service are foundational to the community-oriented focus. “Whenever I advise students, I talk to them about giving back in part because we’ve been given so much,” Weaver added.
They also talk about targeting the lessons to the audience, which required an in-depth assessment of the demographics of the population they were teaching. For JRC, similar to LAMP Camp at the Boys and Girls club and a Toledo Public School, “We talk about how those communities are often overlooked,” Weaver said.
The boys at JRC “are students like every other, who need to learn as much as the next person. They just made a mistake for which there are consequences,” Weaver said. “They will rejoin society, so we help to make that bridge and let them know they are loved and such special young people.”
She said the fun activities let them realize for a moment they are people and human beings and not just residents. “To me that speaks volumes.”
“The youth often feel that they don’t deserve positive things or people to support them,” Crawford said. “LAMP was able to demonstrate to them that they can be part of positive things, even those that are educational in nature.”
The value the program brought to JRC was immeasurable, Crawford said, adding that the BGSU students also learn valuable skills about how to interact and teach youth who are in a different situation than a typical student in the community.
“These opportunities enhance their teaching abilities and give good insight into youth who may not be in a typical school environment and what challenges they face,” Crawford said.
During the final reflection, there was an obvious sense of community. when the group came together and created a circle chain from links collected by the residents during the activities.
“No one was counted out; everyone was involved and participated, which was a positive and fun way to engage,” Crawford said. “It was positive and fun to engage, and they realized they could have fun, but also have a healthy competition.”
Overall, the youth noted that no matter where they are learning never stops and that BGSU staff were very engaging!
“The reflections that the JRC students gave during the reflection time had me almost in tears because of how much they got out of this camp. Reflections like, ‘Even though we messed up, we can still be normal kids, and the world can still take a chance on us” really put into perspective how these JRC students benefitted from this camp,” Buma said.
For Smith, when the chains were linked together at the end of the activities, she experienced a note of satisfaction and deep emotion when one of the younger students volunteered that the chain “shows us that even though we made a mistake in our lives, we can still better ourselves through learning.”
