penn reading initiative
Increasing the Literacy Rates of West Philadelphia Communities
A Dyfunctional System
Philadelphia is one of the largest cities in the United States, but its grand reputation does not carry over to its education system. Teachers’ wages in Philadelphia have been frozen since 2017, forcing teachers to have to pay for part of their health insurance costs, and leading to an inflated teacher absenteeism rate (6.1% vs 2.8% nationally). Thus, around 27% of teachers left their schools in a given year, mostly to other school districts. Facilities are also incredibly dilapidated, necessitating approximately 5 billion dollars for renovations. Not to mention that there are as many certified libraries in the SDP as there are days in the week. With all of these flaws to the Philadelphia education system, students cannot receive the proper education that they need to succeed in life.
Penn Reading Initiative: A Solution
Penn Reading initiative (PRI) is a student-run organization that was developed through a partnership between the Netter center for Community Partnerships and the Penn Linguistics Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. With our 1-to-1 tutoring-based partnership model, the program is designed to connect Penn students with students from West Philadelphia elementary schools. PRI combines The Reading Road curriculum and other classroom learning activities to enhance students’ reading experience and bolster their literary skills.
My Responsibilities
Student Tutor
Every Monday morning, I commuted from the University of Pennsylvania to Comegys Elementary School a tutored a third grade boy named Kyree. As a result of our time together, Kyree was able to master the silent-e rule and identify when vowels made a short sound or long sound. We played games such as trashketball to help make the learning process more enjoyable, and we even ended up playing the piano together as I taught him how to read music.
Linguistics Researcher
At our monthly meetings, students briefly present on a topic that relates to linguistics and/or student education in order to learn more about the curriculum that we are teaching. We’ve helped to conduct studies on sociolinguistic topics and the effect of socioeconomic status on the development of languages in underprivileged communities.
Curriculum Developer
I have helped revise The Reading Road in order to include more topics of diversity and culture in order to provide a more multidisciplinary education for children who may not be able to be exposed to other traditions that they are unfamiliar with. You can view some of the revision that I have made below:
