Literacy Day at PS 369
It's the end of the school year and anyone passing by PS 369, the Young Leaders Elementary School in the Bronx, can hear loud and clear the squeals of joy and delight as students enjoy the inflatable carnival outside. The rides are part of a celebration of students' commitment to continue reading over the summer. It's Literacy Day, one of a series of events sponsored by the Education Equity Action Plan Coalition (EEAPC) to promote the joy of reading and emphasize how crucial reading is to academic and, ultimately, career success. The day centers a formal literacy commitment that parents and students sign, to ensure that the end of the school year is not the beginning of the infamous "summer slide."
Studies have shown that students from low-income backgrounds, such as Latinx, Native American, and Black students tend to experience a loss of proficiency in reading during the summer. In 2013, around 90% of students in Mott Haven were not reading at a grade level. This is especially important since the third grade is the time when kids start to shift their focus to reading. At this crucial juncture, failing to meet this standard could result in learning loss throughout the summer, leading to higher rates of dropouts and poverty. To combat this issue, PS 369's Literacy Day aims to provide students with a chance to develop their reading skills by introducing them to authors and stories that resonate with them.
Inside the school auditorium, celebrated author and attorney S.P. Brown encourages the students in her audience to speak up as they discuss the chapter she just read aloud from her chapter book, Kyrie's School Blues. Some students wave their hands in the air eagerly while others hesitate. S.P. Brown encourages them all as they discuss Kyrie's challenge as a young girl who has a lot to say even though the words sometimes get stuck in her mouth. "Why do they get stuck in her mouth?" S.P. Brown prompts her audience. "Because she stutters!" shouts one of the students. "Do any of you stutter, sometimes?" Brown shares with students how she stuttered as a youth, and how she overcame this so that she could be heard and understood. Looking around the room for emphasis she concludes, "Because your voice matters."
On the other side of the auditorium, rapper and writer Raj Haldar (aka Lushlife) describes to students how he became a surprise best-selling children's book author. When he and his friend and co-author Chris Carpenter came up with the idea for the book P is for Pterodactyl, they had no idea how to become authors or publish a book. What they did have was an idea about how many fun and funny words in the English language have silent letters, words like "know" which Haldar heard in the form of "no '' at least 17 times before he found a publisher for his book. After that, it was on fire. The book sold out its first run of 10,800 copies on the day of its release, and spent 18 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list. "Never give up," Haldar emphasized as he whipped out a copy of his newest book, This Book is Banned. It was the first time he'd read the book out loud in public to an audience. The book offers young students a way to think about the book bans sweeping across the country, starting with a group of hippos who decide to ban giraffes. At the end of the reading, Haldar asks his audience, "Should books be banned?" The loud answer echoing across the room was a positive: "No!"
