AAPS: Pioneer students read culturally diverse books to younger children

Story, photos and video by Jo Mathis/AAPS District News Editor

If you can see her, you can be her. If they can see it, they can do it.

That’s the motivation behind the Black and Latinx student unions’ first Read & Represent event held recently at Pittsfield Elementary.“Representation matters,” said Lynn Copeland, an administrative secretary at Pioneer High School, who is also a co-advisor of the Black Student Union with her brother, William, a PHS community assistant. “It’s important to have a direction; to know where you’re going. and when you see things you can relate to, you can say, `Oh, well maybe I can. I was thinking about it, but now I can probably put those thoughts into action and really do something because I see them doing something.”

Read and Represent is an initiative started by the Black and Latinx Students from Pioneer High School to introduce culturally relevant reading material to elementary students to help promote a love for reading.  BSU & LSU will travel to Pittsfield Elementary on a monthly basis to read culturally relevant storybooks to classrooms.

The high school students will continue attending training on voice projection, character development, and audience engagement.

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