NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — A new community-wide literacy initiative is helping students in Niagara Falls fall in love with reading by bringing joy and imagination back to books.
Data from the New York State Department of Education shows students in cities like Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and Rochester are struggling to read at grade level. The lower test scores are often linked to higher levels of economic hardship.
To help change that, educators are turning to programs that take the pressure off students. Joey Hamilton, the creator of Checkers the Inventor, turned his passion for performance into a tool to encourage reading.
"We are all about inspiring kids to be more creative, to want to learn, to want to go off and see the world as an adventure," Hamilton said. "So through all our programs, we do steam, we do character education. Most importantly, for today, we're doing reading."
Hamilton uses his energy and excitement to engage students.
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"So it's all about using imagination, creativity, some comedy, magic, classical performing, stunts and awesomeness, but keeping that heart to be excited to go off and read a book, to want to become smarter, become better writers, become better readers, and all things of that nature," Hamilton said.
Educators say the initiative helps remove the heaviness from the experience of reading.
"For something like this, where you get to go in and just love books and love talking about books and talking about stories and seeing how they can impact you in a different way, it takes away that heaviness from the experience of reading, and it starts to make them see that it can be fun," Leah Baldassarre, assistant principal at Abate Elementary, said.
Childhood literacy is also tied to broader community impacts.
"Literacy, especially childhood literacy, is very much connected to public health and how a person is going to make decisions about their behaviors, how they make decisions about risky behaviors," Dr. Fauzia Khan, Niagara County director of public health, said.
The Checkers the Inventor programming is expected to be implemented in all Niagara Falls city schools by the end of the school year.
