Bilingual students find success in books

Mayor Robert Duffy and several members of the Rochester community announced the start of the city-wide literacy initiative to improve reading rates. But some bilingual students at School No. 33 already know what it's like to be successful because they learned to read.

"You get to learn new things and it's interesting how you can just learn new words while you're reading," said Monique Pradia, a sixth grade bi-lingual student.

"You can fix your problems by reading a book," said Cristian Vazquez, a classmate.

And because they hit the books regularly and have support from their parents and school, they're already teaching their sixth grade classmates how to speak and read in English. Their teacher, Mrs. Gliwinski, says that's just what the city's new literacy program centers around -- commitment from the entire community.

"This has the sense of idealism of countries that say we can't have a nation that can't read," she said, "where everybody's responsible for teaching someone else to read. I think the mayors accessing some of that feeling."

Mayor Duffy says 57 percent of adults in Rochester read on a sixth grade level or lower. He also correlates crime with a lack of education. Gliwinski has seen some of those statistics first hand, but she has seen student come from behind just by picking up a book.

"I can think of people that are working for Strong Hospital who were students of mine that couldn't read, and they began to read and got real involved," she said.

And now that means getting kids involved at a younger age. Starting with pre-K students, so they can develop into the sixth grade students News 8 Now spoke to and be prepared beyond the classroom.

"It will help me because I'll know how to read the papers they give me that I have to sign," Pradia said about her future job.