Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1S7SvQ8. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Can you imagine how it would feel to be so far behind your grade level in reading that you don’t dare pick up a book? What if every book you did touch were about people you couldn’t relate to, people with life experiences so foreign you might as well be reading about martians? D. Lacy Asbill, the co-founder of the B-corp Moving Forward Education, discovered that there are millions of kids like this in public schools in the United States and did something about it. She summarizes the problem, “There is no question that the public education system is struggling to support students, and particularly low-income students of color. Schools need radically updated strategies to engage, motivate, and empower students who face the challenges of systematic poverty and racism.” Lacy created a program to help kids learn to read and find books that are actually relevant to their lives. “We’ve spent the last dozen years tutoring thousands of the most at-risk students in Oakland,” she says. Our students, who are usually years behind in their academic skills and unlikely to pick up a book, suddenly find themselves motivated to read—they relate to the strong, culturally-relevant, and resilient characters featured in our reading selections, and they value the opportunity to connect what they’ve read to their own lives. We call this Reading with Relevance! Read the full Your Mark on the World article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1S7SvQ8. Please consider whether a friend or colleague might benefit from this piece and, if so, share it.
#401: Social Entrepreneur Impacting Millions With Relevant Reading