In any language, it’s all about reading in Washington Heights

by Yoav Sivan

Most New Yorkers might not equate the Spanish phrase ser o no ser with Shakespeare.  But don’t tell that to Michelle Ashley Estrella, 16, an eleventh grader at the High School for Health Careers and Sciences in Washington Heights who insists on reading Shakespeare in the primary language of her home.  Michelle’s parents are immigrants from the Dominican Republic.In Spanish, ser o no ser means to be or not to be.  But is that the best way to teach bilingual students how to read in English? That is the question – certainly, for educational experts.

Andri Perez, parent coordinator at Estrella’s high school, said 95 percent of the school’s students are bilingual in English and Spanish.

Abraham Palma, director of a  new literacy program for teenagers aged 12  to 18 at the YM-YWHA, a community center in Washington Heights and Inwood, is willing to accommodate whatever language  students prefer, so long as it gets them reading.  After all, Palma said, “if you don’t like to read, the language doesn’t matter.”

He is even willing to compromise on the nature of the reading material itself, fully aware that teenagers are more likely to pick up a comic book or science fiction rather than, say, the “Great Gatsby.”  Palma approves of anything that can make teenagers accustomed to reading.  The idea is “to make reading fun,” he said, “so they will eventually read something more substantial.”

If  Michelle Estrella prefers reading in Spanish –  though her spoken English  is flawless – other  bilingual students like Marc Casteneda read  in English insatiably.  Marc, 16, is from Spanish Harlem and attends the International Business and Finance High School in Washington Heights.  He wants to become a pre-med student at SUNY Stony Brook.

Marc was excited to read last year’s assigned books, which include  Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, and various works of Shakespeare.  But that was not enough for him.  On his own, Casteneda is reading Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, and it has inspired him to travel to London and Paris.

But it’s not the best  of times for the  popularity of reading  among some other high  schoolers.  “It is much more difficult  to get teenagers to  engaged” in reading,  said Angela Scardina,  29, a literary specialist  at the YM-YWHA.  “They have a unique way of thinking.”

Abraham Palma agrees.  “If they [teenagers] have to choose between the cooking program and reading program, they would choose the first,” he said.  “They want to have fun.”

Ellen Campeas, 53, assistant  principal at the Health  Careers and Science High School in Washington Heights, has been an  educator for 28 years.  She believes a core curriculum of required  classic books is essential to facilitate a discussion among students to deepen  their comprehension.

The  key, Campeas said, is to strike a balance  between “non-negotiable  books” and books of  the students’ choice.  The non-negotiable  books are a result  of a mutual decision  by the education team  at the school. “We sat together and chose  the books,” Campeas  said.  The teachers  even have an online  chat group in which  they share their experience  about students’ perceptions of books and exchange  tips about instruction.

“The students don’t  read very much, and I think it is important that by grade 9  they will have read Romeo and Juliet and The Color Purple,” Campeas said. “It’s all in the approach,” she added, because “the language (of the books) is often off-putting.”  Campeas tries to be innovative in bringing the classics close to students’ hearts, for example, by exposing students to theatre on stage. She recently took students to see Macbeth in theatre in Manhattan.

For  students who are not  fully bilingual –  in Washington Heights,  that means students  for whom English is distinctly their second  language to Spanish – Campeas allows the  students to read and study the classics in  Spanish and then to read them in English.   And the approach  may be slower.  “We don’t jump into  Shakespeare, but go  little by little, perhaps  by taking an excerpt or one scene of  Romeo and Juliet and  build on it,” she  said.

Kislyanette  Nova from Inwood, 15,  speaks and reads fluently  in both languages, but  left to her own  devices she would more  likely pick up a  book in English, especially  classics and more complicated  literature.  “It’s  okay,” she said about  reading in Spanish,  but reading in English  “teaches you new words.”   She said she reads The New York Times every day.

The  preference of language is a function of  the background of the student, explained Elizabeth Moje, professor of education at the University of  Michigan and a literacy specialist who has worked  with Latino students.  It varies according to when the students’  families immigrated to  the United States, she  said; that is, whether  the students are first  generation, second generation or “a generation and  a half.”

“I work with kids who definitely want to read in Spanish,” Moje said in a phone interview, “because they want to maintain the connection to the culture, they want to maintain their identity.”

Though sympathetic, Moje said, “I’m not advocate of complete open choice” about what books students should read.  She prefers a middle ground. “We all need structure. I am an advocate of choice which is guided.”  But students should be free to read in whatever language they want, she added.

Moje  hastens to add that  being bilingual can also be an advantage  in academic achievement.  “We have some data that indicates  being bilitirate is predicative of higher  achievement,” Moje said.  She even states, “I think that every child in this country should learn two languages.”

“I don’t have problems with kids reading in their native language,” said Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University who was assistant education secretary under President George H. W. Bush, by email.  “However, I think the job of the public school classroom is to teach children to speak and read English.  In a good curriculum, there are specific readings that introduce children to the common culture which they will share and help to shape.”

“So, yes, they should read in whatever language they wish,” Ravitch added.  “But they should learn to read and speak English too.”