As we all know, reading is a valuable skill that your child will use throughout life. In middle school and high school, students are expected to complete reading assignments both in and outside of school. College-bound students should prepare themselves for two hours of studying for every one hour of class time. It is imperative that your student can absorb large amounts of content with increased speed and comprehension. Last summer at SuperCamp, your child learned Quantum Reading, which uses a combination of enhanced interest, highly focused concentration and specific reading strategies to increase speed and comprehension.

There are 5 steps to becoming a successful Quantum Reader:

1. Prepare: Prepare your Attitudes, Beliefs and Commitment (ABCs). It’s also important to create a positive learning environment for yourself. Claim a study space of your own—a quiet one, if possible. Use furniture that fits your style, and ensure that you have proper lighting. Your space should be well lit without hurting the eyes.
2. Get Into State: …alpha state, that is. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and imagine a peaceful place. Look up, look down, open your eyes, and wa-la! You’re in alpha state. Alpha state is a state of relaxed concentration. You’re calm and alert, absorbing material and making connections. Baroque music can help put your brain into alpha state—try Bach, Handel or Vivaldi.
3. SuperScan: Spend 2-3 seconds per page skimming content. Quickly expose your eyes and brain to every page. Move fast!
4. Read: Return to the beginning and read the content. A visual guide, such as running your finger along the words on the page, keeps your eyes from skipping around. In fact, using a visual guide can double your reading speed! Our brains are able to take in entire sentences at a time (not just one word at a time), so allow your eyes to flow quickly over them and your brain will actually register it all.
5. Review: Within 5 minutes, review what you’ve just read so that it sticks. You can do this by mind-mapping, writing out notes or telling yourself or someone else what you’ve read.

Review the Quantum Reading procedure with your student, and ensure that they are using these strategies in school.

The post Quantum Reading: Tips for Becoming a Better Reader appeared first on SuperCamp.

Integrity is priceless. That’s what we learned in SuperCamp this morning. We learned the Integrity Key of Excellence and that integrity means your values and action match.

We did a cool activity to remember this, which was to trace our hands, then write a big ‘V’ for Value on the left palm and a big ‘A’ for Actions on the right palm.

Then we wrote a value on each finger of the left hand and the corresponding action steps required to demonstrate that value. Then you flip them face to face and see how they match up.

INTEGRITY – Match behavior with values
Demonstrate your positive personal values in all you do and say. Be sincere and real.

This Integrity Key Talk led perfectly into our ‘Do It Goals’ session. During our Do It Goals session, we learned about John Goddard and his amazing accomplishments. Then we set our own and learned the DO IT approach to accomplishing our goal.

‘DO IT Goals’ stands for:

Design — Make sure your goals are specific, achievable and measurable.

Outline — Timeline of what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it and what you need to do it.

In Your Face — What is in your way? What are those barriers you’ll have to break through to achieve your goal?

Take Action — What do you need to do to start taking action right now to start working toward your goal? How are you going to take action?

Next we broke out into our main academics session. I went to Quantum Reading today, which I’ve really been looking forward to.

We started by singing our ‘attitude’ song, ‘Don’t stop reading…’ to the ‘Don’t stop believing’ song melody so we can get excited about reading.

Then we commenced with the SuperCamp Quantum Reading Process:

1. Prepare – Get situated correctly (SLANT) and create a positive learning environment.

*** HOT TIP: Baroque music helps put your brain in Alpha State. Good Baroque Composers: Handel, Bach, Vivaldi.

2. State – Get into Alpha State: Sit up, take a deep breath, close eyes while exhaling. Picture your peaceful place, roll your eyes up, roll your eyes down. Open your eyes and go to work with a focused mind.

3. Superscan – Spend 2-3 seconds per page to skim content, tracing your finger in a slalom or straight down pattern.

4. Read – Return to the beginning and read the content, making sure to use a visual cue (like tracing with your finger or pen) to keep your eyes from skipping around. Our brain is able to take in whole sentences at a time, not just one word at a time, so let your eyes flow quickly over them and your brain will register it all.

*** HOT TIP: Using a visual guide (like your finger along the page) can double your reading speed.***

5. Review – Within 5 minutes, review what you read by mind-mapping, writing out notes or telling yourself (aloud or in your head) or someone else what you’ve read.

After learning the process, we completed a pre-test to measure our reading speed and comprehension. I got 100% comprehension and 232 words per minute.

Then we practiced these methods during three 30-second reads:

• On my first 30-second read, I read 508 words per minute.
• On my second 30-second read, I read 736 words per minute.
• On my third 30-second read, I read 472 words per minute.

I am a little confused and not sure I’m doing this quite right… I stayed after class with one other student to ask for some clarification. I think we both got the idea. We shall see after lunch…

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After lunch we reviewed the Quantum Reading Process again and got to ask more questions if we had them. Then we went right into more practicing in 1-minute chunks. At the end, we took a post-test. I increased by words per minute to 400 and retained 100% comprehension. Seriously, amazing. Can’t wait to practice more! This will make short work of my inbox!

We’re going for our review sessions where the teams will act out skits for key principles they’ve learned this week, then back to the dorms to pack after this. Such a bummer. 🙁

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My funny for SuperCamp today: A camper just told me she plans to use OTFD to ask for a new Apple laptop! I LOVE IT!

The post SuperCamp LMU Junior Forum Journal – Day 6 appeared first on SuperCamp.

By Daniel Shedd

If there’s one thing we know as a society, it’s that the best breakfast foods are also desserts. I’m looking at you, crepes. If there’s a second thing we know, it’s that confidence in yourself can and does contribute to higher levels of success in nearly everything you do. This is especially true for students. SuperCamp Facilitators, Team Leaders, and office staff all work together to instill confidence in every camper we encounter.

The SuperCamp curriculum is built upon a foundation of confidence through competence. In each activity, piece, and course room, campers experience some measure of success. For example, in Quantum Reading, campers often see huge gains in their reading speed and comprehension with just a few hours of practice. They see themselves being successful at a task that seemed daunting only a short time before. Students quickly realize that they are capable of success and begin to gain confidence in other tasks. With each new activity introduced at SuperCamp, students display a new competence and build confidence. By Day Ten at SuperCamp, many have experienced a transformation in their academics and life skills.

Outdoor Adventure Day is the pinnacle of this confidence-through-competence concept.  The entire day is spent creating, accomplishing, and surpassing goals. In both high and low events, campers overcome physical, mental, and emotional challenges. They learn to trust their own skills and strength, as well as their teammates around them.

Some events require a camper to literally lean on a partner high in the air, in addition to trusting the physical support via ropes of their teammates. Meanwhile, another event challenges the camper to climb a pole and overcome the physical challenge of the climb while facing the mental and emotional challenge of leaving an obstacle behind and trusting their support to catch them.

On the low events, campers are confronted with problem-solving and teamwork challenges with which they will experience success. Their accomplishments on Outdoor Adventure Day help show campers that they are capable of achieving whatever they set out to do. This again builds confidence, which we carry into the rest of SuperCamp and back home.

We know that confidence contributes to success in school, home, and work. At SuperCamp we provide a safe space where campers can practice new techniques that build and sustain competence in a variety of aspects of life. Through that competence, confidence is created, and students find themselves with higher self-esteem, better grades, and better relationships. This academic summer camp provides the perfect combination of academic study techniques and personal enrichment to help any student during their formative teen years and provide effective college prep.

Visit www.SuperCamp.com or call 800-228-5327 NOW to speak with an Enrollment Counselor and learn how to increase grades, confidence and motivation.

About the Author:
Daniel Shedd loved being a SuperCamp camper and Team Leader and has served as a Facilitator for many years.

About SuperCamp:
SuperCamp offers academic and personal enrichment programs for teens, including specifically designed summer programs for high school students, middle school students, and college students. These educational summer camps provide ideal college prep skills and help instill positive values for life based on The 8 Keys of Excellence by Bobbi DePorter. SuperCamp’s academic summer programs for teens help students increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

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