Pleasure reading program instills pleasure of reading in students

Photo Credit: Rob Sgobbo

So hooked on the subject, that the 11-year-old is close to finishing Stephanie Meyer’s four-book Twilight series. “It’s awesome,” Diandra said, “I just can’t get enough of it. I know I like a book because when I read it I get really mad, or really sad, or I’ll laugh out loud. These books make me do that.” Continue Reading

It works for this teacher

Vicki Rodriguez, 34, a native of Washington Heights, who is now in her fourth year as an English teacher at Fredrick Douglass Academy, asked her class to rewrite “Othello” with a twist: write it in slang and set it in Harlem. Continue Reading

Ted Nellen at Edward Reynolds Westside High School. Photo credit: Sarveen Abubaker

It means different things to younger people

Sam Walters* hates Hamlet. If he had his way, he would never have wasted time reading the play in high school. “I don’t like reading very much and I don’t like Shakespeare. The only line I like is ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,’” the 11th grader said during his school lunch break.

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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. Continue Reading