By Monique Darrisaw-Akil
What if I told you that the next pandemic is around the corner, but is totally preventable? Wouldn’t you muster all your resources to stop it? That’s what is happening in America now when it comes to literacy among young people, and everyone, not just educators, has the power to do something about it.
“There is currently a literacy crisis happening in the U.S.,” according to the Education Trust, “one that disproportionately affects students of color, and that cannot be ignored.” According to the National Assessment of Education Progress, the majority of American children are not proficient readers. Last year, the NAEP found that just 43 percent of fourth-graders in the U.S. scored at or above a proficient level in reading. And for marginalized students, the numbers are much worse: just 17 percent of Black students, 21 percent of Latino students, 11 percent of students with disabilities and 10 percent of multilingual learners can read proficiently by fourth grade.
Reading is fundamental, extending far beyond the ability to decode words. It cultivates critical thinking, builds healthy imaginations, expands vocabulary and nurtures curiosity. Reading expands the mind, and it is essential to maintaining an informed citizenry and an effective democracy. The decline in reading proficiency should concern us all.
How did we get here? The proliferation of technology in every aspect of our lives is a main culprit. Distractions are everywhere, from constant entertainment on our televisions to the endless notifications from our apps to video games that keep children and young adults occupied for hours and make it difficult for traditional books to compete. While technology offers many benefits, we must find ways to rebalance the scales and reignite a love of reading.
Schools, in partnership with parents and communities, are key, and collaborative efforts are crucial. In the Uniondale school district, our pre-kindergarten program provides students with a great foundation in reading, but sustained support is vital. Parents are the primary influencers of reading in their children’s lives. By modeling reading habits, sharing reading strategies and prioritizing family reading time, parents and caregivers can have a positive impact on children’s reading journeys.
Here are some of the ways you can support your children’s reading at home:
Choose the right books. Select books with no more than four or five unfamiliar words per page or paragraph to avoid frustration.
Select books that they’re interested in. Interest and enthusiasm are key.
Talk about what they’re reading. You can talk about a book before, during and after they read it by asking questions and getting your child to share predictions and reactions.
Every family can create a reading culture at home by dedicating some distraction-free time to reading.
In Uniondale, our teachers promote reading by fostering a love of books and teaching the foundational skills that make students avid readers. Every day, teachers develop students’ confidence in reading by exposing them to rich vocabulary, providing phonics instruction and sharing comprehension strategies. As a nationally certified My Brother’s Keeper Community, we pledged to ensure that all of our students are reading on grade level by the end of third grade. We are working toward this commitment by enlisting the support of our community partners, businesses and leaders, who engage in either our Reading Buddies or our community-based literacy activities.
This summer, we initiated a My Brother’s Keeper Summer Reading program, which challenged elementary-school students to read 30 books over the summer and post their summaries online. Our local businesses, including restaurants, barber shops and laundromats, displayed signs that promoted the program and allowed students to post their reading summaries to a digital QR code. Students who took part were invited to a free night at the Long Island Children’s Museum and an end-of-summer fun night on the Uniondale High School athletic fields.
We continued our community reading program in the fall, in collaboration with the Uniondale Public Library, and this month we’re launching a Reading Buddy program with the teens of Jack and Jill of America’s Nassau County chapter. All of these initiatives not only spread awareness of the importance of reading, but also signal that there’s a shared responsibility for children’s reading in our community, and we all have to do our part.
The solution to the literacy crisis is within our reach. By working together and reminding young people of the magic and power within the pages of a book, we can reverse this trend and empower the next generation.
Monique Darrisaw-Akil is superintendent of the Uniondale school district.
The original article was published in the LI Herald and can be accessed at the following link: https://www.liherald.com/stories/monique-darrisaw-akil-schools-literacy-crisis,212231