Jordan Ashby Photo
Rosangela Ward reads The Year We Learned to Fly with 7 and 8-year-olds.
Almost 600 children and 75 volunteer storytellers gathered on the New Haven Green Friday to celebrate reading and literacy.
The occasion was an annual community “read-in” sponsored by LEAP (Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership). The event was part of the group’s summer literacy curriculum aimed at preventing the “summer slide” in which kids lose their reading gains during months without regular school.
“Continue to imagine and continue to dream,” Keisha Redd-Hanans, assistant superintendent for instructional leadership for the New Haven Public Schools, encouraged the kids at the event’s kick-off.
Participants were then split into groups led by community volunteers who selected a book to read. LEAP has made an effort to include diverse books in their curriculum to reflect the students being served.
Luba Margai reading to the kids.
Surrounded by attentive 7 and 8‑year-olds, Luba Margai read Aaron Slater, Illustrator by Andrea Beaty, a story about a boy with dyslexia who learns that his disability does not define him and that he can still achieve his dream to become a storyteller.
When the group finished the book early, Margai led them in a game of “jelly fish,” waving their arms and pretending to swim through the sea.
“One of the best things kids can do is read, just to help them read and grow,” sai Margai, who is a pediatrician at Yale New Haven Hospital. “And the kids did great, so it was a great day!”
Eugene Scott, another volunteer, selected The Shaking Bag by Gwendolyn Battle-Lavert to read to his group. The story tells of a woman who generously gives everything she has to those in need and one day is gifted a mysterious bag from which wonderful things appear.
Eugene Scott reading The Shaking Bag.
Scott brought his own “shaking bag” filled with stuffed animals for the kids in his group. As he read the book, he would stop and ask the kids comprehension questions, such as: “What was this character’s name?” The kids eagerly raised their hands and shouted out answers to get rewarded with a stuffed football or fluffy penguin for the bag.
Scott has been a storyteller for third- and fourth-graders in the New Haven public schools for 12 years.
“It feels like I’m back in the classroom again,” he said of the read-in.
Read ins are a wonderful way to engage children in learning to love reading. The preschool and daycare programs are always in need of new books, as are classrooms in the NHPS, and community centers and after school programs, and anywhere else that young children are present. Learning to love reading is the most important tool in staying educated and succeeding in school. We have prisons and jails around this country filled with people who can’t read beyond a 2nd or 3rd grade level. By donating books or volunteering to help people learn to read, and creating literacy rich classrooms with lots books, we help to prevent crime, and give young people the tools for success.