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Mostly Cloudy Lawrence schools, they’re making reading cool
A teacher once told a classroom full of seventh-graders that if they could read, they could rule the world. The Lawrence School District’s goals might not be quite as lofty, but it plans to ensure that its students — from kindergartners to high school seniors — can read and are reading.
Outside the Broadway Campus that houses both Lawrence Elementary School and the middle school, the district held its Mid-Summer Check-In on Aug. 10, at which students were invited to pick out books for free, have a snack and receive a Lawrence Reader T-shirt.
The event, with books donated by the nonprofit, Freeport-based Book Fairies, was synchronized with a district virtual program featuring Dr. Romie Mushtaq addressing the learning and wellness needs of students divided into three groups: kindergarten to third grade, fourth to sixth grade and seventh to 12th grade. T
he students who took part in Romie’s Mentally Strong event received kits that included notepads, pencils and stress balls to help them reduce stress.
“We’re focusing very much on mental health and the total emotional well-being of the children,” Lawrence Superintendent Dr. Ann Pedersen said. “This is a celebration of their academic strengths as readers and hoping we can make reading seem cool.”
By doing so, Lawrence aims to attack the so-called “learning gap” created by the coronavirus pandemic’s interruption of traditional in-school learning, which has left students dealing with a challenging mix of in-person and remote instruction.
The district’s Reading, Reading, Reading initiative aims to illustrate that reading is valued, and adds to important life skills that extend to every subject. Lawrence Early Childhood Center Principal Lisa Tariq, who is also the district’s director of special programs, called the book fair “a complete success.”
“Lawrence focuses on reading, as it is important for the whole child developing physically, academically and emotionally,” Tariq said, adding that the hope is that children will unplug from electronic devices and read during the summer. “[Reading] develops imagination and communication and language development.”
When schools closed in March 2020 because of the pandemic, Pedersen said, the district was quickly up and running with online instruction. She acknowledged that the beginning was “bumpy,” but said that issues were “smoothed out,” and teachers continued connecting with their students, occasionally setting aside lessons just to talk with them, and that connectiveness has helped keep students on track.
Reading, according to a consensus of experts and their research, expands people’s minds and their vocabulary, spurs creative thinking and enhances the ability to concentrate, while helping to reduce stress.
Lawrence Middle School librarian Jillian Abbatangelo, who’s known to her students as Ms. Abby, created a weekly newsletter called “S’Mores” that promotes reading and includes links to authors of books the students have read.
“What we’re hoping for is that the students read better, write better and succeed,” Abbatangelo said, noting that more-engaged people become better citizens. “Just like a sport, the more we practice, the better we get.”
Abbatangelo said she has built relationships with her students over the years, and many come back to visit and share with her what they are doing in their post-scholastic life.
“It’s amazing what you can develop with them, the relationships you can build, the growth you can see,” she said, adding that she views herself as a “co-parent” who encourages parents to contact her in a dual effort to help ensure that students are learning and reading. “They’re all my children,” Abbatangelo said.
