What A Year For Start Lighthouse!
Students at PS 214 read the first chapter of several books and learn to analyze the hook.
In the four short years since its inception, Start Lighthouse has made significant contributions within our partner communities. Our two Literacy Hubs provide safe, comfortable spaces to engage students throughout their school week and we are thrilled that we will bring our mission and programming to a brand new Hub at PS 161 this fall. Our engagement has extended far beyond the schools we serve and we are grateful for our partnership with city and state policymakers, Department of Education leaders and leaders throughout the corporate and publishing worlds.
Having just completed a second year within permanent spaces in Bronx public schools, we want to reflect on our many accomplishments. In particular, our curriculum, created by and for Start Lighthouse, has impacted the thousands of students with whom we interacted throughout the year. Our curriculum is guided by our mission to provide books in which our students can see themselves and to foster their love of reading. During their time in the Literacy Hub, students have opportunities to explore a variety of genres and to think about why certain books appeal to them. Our lessons incorporate student choice, self-reflection and textual analysis. Familiarizing students with many different kinds of books enables them to make informed choices when they bookshop in our Hubs.
The Director of Programming, Deborah Rose, and PS 214’s Site Coordinator, Savannah Price, reflect on their year at Start Lighthouse.
A Few Words From Program Director Deborah Rose
Deborah Rose, Start Lighthouse’s Director of Programming, has created a mission-driven curriculum to give the students an opportunity to engage with excellent literature and thought provoking content while reinforcing important skills and strategies for understanding, analyzing and synthesizing text.
Deborah has been an educator for 30 years with experience in both public and private schools. Before coming on board at Start Lighthouse, she was an assistant head of lower school in Manhattan. Her expertise in curriculum development allows her to create student-centered Literacy Hub experiences, infused with a creative approach to the books the students encounter.
Weekly lessons in the Literacy Hub typically begin with a read aloud that serves as the vehicle for the lesson’s goal. Young students start the year by learning about the parts of a book and print awareness. Older readers jump into making connections through textual analysis.
Lessons are tailored to the interests and needs of each particular age group. After reading the book, Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts, students discussed the difference between needs and wants. They worked to recognize the needs and wants of the main character and then made connections to their own lives by reflecting on their own needs and wants. Third and fourth graders had an opportunity to work on group dynamics after reading, If Kids Ran The World by Diane Dillon and Leo Dillon. The students worked in small groups to create their own kid-run worlds. They practiced listening to each other and compromising on ideas to develop a cohesive plan and then reflected on the experience by completing a report card on their group’s work.
Lastly, to practice making book choices, the fifth graders read and discussed the first chapter of several books and rated them in terms of their appeal. This exercise gave students agency in thinking about their own interests and why one book might be a good choice while another might not. It also helped the students see why it’s not enough to look at the cover of a book or just read the synopsis in making an informed decision about which books to shop.
Students at PS 214 do a modeling clay activity after reading the book Bread Bread Bread by Ann Morris.
Throughout the school year, students “gained a greater appreciation for a wider range of books and a variety of genres,” Deborah observes. Start Lighthouse aims to provide access to books with current and inclusive themes, to spark curiosity as well as to inform. Graphic novels are a popular genre for book shopping and students also gravitate towards informational text and scary stories. It’s also not uncommon for students to request books that have been read to them during a lesson read aloud.
Deborah loves interacting with the kids and reading with them. She feels passionately about challenging students who exceed grade level reading expectations, which inspired her weekly small group book clubs. “The kids are so bright and curious and deserve to be challenged,” Deborah explains. During book club meetings, students read higher level text and focus on higher order thinking skills, such as analyzing and synthesizing. They look for character motivation, patterns within the text and find textual evidence to support their theories.
“I am proud of how much we were able to accomplish in a short amount of time. We are getting much appreciation and notice from the larger community and we have a bright future ahead. Start Lighthouse has already been so impactful and I’m looking forward to what’s next.”
A Few Words From Savannah Price
Savannah Price, a seasoned and talented educator, stepped into the role of Site Coordinator at PS 214 earlier this year. In just a short time, Savannah has been impactful in reaching many students and meeting their diverse needs as students, children and readers. She says the word knowledge comes to mind when she thinks about her work in the Literacy Hub because Start Lighthouse creates a space where knowledge is shared, whether it's through students reading together, or the books they are excited to get from book shopping about topics they have yet to explore.
Savannah is experienced with children of all ages; she previously focused on students in early childhood education. She has reflected that she has never worked in an environment quite like the Literacy Hub, where “the vibrant walls, bookshelves of brand new books and cozy reading spaces make students feel a lot more relaxed.” Students even come to hang out in the Hub during lunch to get a break from school.
Students at PS 214 compare and contrast a book’s characters
Savannah has seen the impact of the Start Lighthouse curriculum on the students’ approach to stories and books. She notes the difference in students' first book shopping and their last book shopping. Savannah is so proud of how students were, “engaged with books’ themes and connected to the lessons they were taught throughout the year in the Literacy Hub.”
Students at PS 214 learned how to create a story arc.
Start Lighthouse’s programming extends beyond the school day with a robust after school program, Savannah’s favorite class to teach. “They are awesome. They won ownership over the Hub and are quick to share the activities they are most interested in,” she explains. A special memory she recalls was her first after school lesson when she read, I Wish You Knew by Jackie Azúa Kramer. After reading the book aloud to the group, each student made a flower and answered the question: What is something you wish I knew? Afterward, their flowers were taped to the wall near Savannah’s desk as a reminder of her students’ innermost thoughts and dreams.
We are grateful to Savannah Price for her dedication to Start Lighthouse’s mission and for caring so deeply about her students at PS 214. Before starting to work at her new home at PS 161 this summer, Savannah shared a final message with the PS 214 community; “Thank you, PS 214, for welcoming me to my home away from home. It was my pleasure to get to know the students and teachers. Hope you have a wonderful summer and a great 2024-2025 school year.”
