Recent results from the 2012 PSSA tests show Grade 11 students at Overbrook High School scored an average of about 17 percent on the reading section compared to the national average of 43 percent.
The Free Library of Philadelphia in Overbrook is creating early literacy programs this spring to provide youth in the community with stronger foundations for reading and lifelong educational skills.
“Many children are leaving for school unprepared,” Kim Robinson, children’s librarian at the Overbrook Park Branch, said.
The Free Library of Philadelphia in Overbrook is creating early literacy programs this spring to provide youth in the community with stronger foundations for reading and lifelong educational skills.
“I think if children knew how much joy there was in reading there wouldn’t be a problem, and that’s sort of the whole basis of my story times, to let the children know that reading is wonderful, fun and good for the imagination,” Robinson said. “It’s a small, quiet message in a very loud world.”
Better known as “Ms. Kim,” Robinson is an ambitious librarian on a mission to develop children’s literacy skills such as letter awareness, letter recognition and directionality in print through interactive story times.
For this week, and throughout the month of February, Robinson will incorporate stories rich in oral tradition from various countries in Africa for Black History Month. Her stories include Masterman, a Nigerian folktale about humility, and The Elephant’s Wrestling Match, a Cameroonian story about a small bat who outsmarts an elephant.
“I think it’s an important message to share with kids that brains still prevail over brawn,” Robinson said.
The Overbrook branch also offers an after-school literacy program for grades 1-12 called LEAP.
“If you can read you can do anything you put your mind to in this world and so I’ve been trying to get kids to read and give them a future,” Robinson said.
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