At Lift For Life Academy, a strong emphasis is placed on fostering a love of reading among students, and the results are already evident. Through a variety of engaging literacy programs across the campus, LFLA is helping students build confidence and develop foundational reading skills. These initiatives are contributing to a vibrant reading culture, creating lasting memories, and inspiring a lifelong love of books in the hearts of LFLA students.

High school English classes are incorporating new curricula across all courses, including a new “Freshman Composition” course required for 9th graders. Many members of the senior class are enrolled in college-level English classes at St. Louis Community College. English teachers, like Mr. Todd Starks, are working to connect broader literary topics with relevant, real-life concepts for students to deepen student comprehension skills. Mr. Starks’s level 2 students studied Joseph Campbell's work, “The Power of a Hero’s Journey,” to examine the essential question of how culture influences someone’s goals. Students chose a movie or television hero to study, then identified each step the hero made during his or her journey. Mr. Starks said: “Joseph Campbell strongly believed that you at some point have to let go of the life you have planned so that you can go and get the life that’s waiting for you. He believed that essentially all hero arcs have the same overall idea of a hero fighting and overcoming odds to achieve a goal.” Mr. Starks observed an increase in students' understanding of the story when the connections between the concepts and themes were related to their real-life experiences.

LFLA’s middle school literacy programs are thriving! Through “Pages with the Principal,” students and parents connect over engaging book-based activities sent once a week. Every Wednesday, the after-school book club fosters a love of reading through lively discussions. Additionally, 5th and 6th graders participate in a daily 30-minute intervention program, which strengthens their foundational reading skills. Together, these initiatives are building passionate and confident readers.

Elementary students are hard at work every day in their classrooms. The new literacy programs focus on phonemic and phonological awareness as building blocks for reading comprehension, writing, and knowledge-building. But it's not all hard work - LFLA also emphasizes the joy of reading with at-home challenges for students to participate in with their families. Some of the challenges include reading with a favorite stuffed animal, reading with a flashlight, or making a fort to read in. Third graders play word games to reinforce the meaning of suffixes, while second graders use a “quiz, quiz” strategy to practice long and short vowel sounds.

To create excitement around reading together, the elementary classes welcomed special guest readers throughout November. Visitors from Tarlton Corporation brought books about construction to read with kindergarten and first grade students to spark their interests in the trades career field at a young age. Upper elementary students visited younger classrooms for peer-to-peer reading, and LFLA high school athletes brought their favorite childhood books to read with small groups of students. Mariah McKinney, an 11th grader on the cheerleading team, reflected on her experience reading with the young scholars:

“Reading to the elementary school students at Lift For Life Academy was a wonderful experience. Engaging with the students and the stories made reading more fun and entertaining for them, and for us as the readers. The joy in their eyes as they listen and become engrossed in the story is heartwarming. I could see their imaginations come to life as they asked questions and visualized the characters and settings.

I hope we created a love for reading at a young age that will have a lasting impact. Through stories, I believe they can let their imaginations and creativity run wild. Overall, it was a great way to connect with the youth at LFLA and support their growth as readers.”

With new, dynamic literacy curriculums and initiatives, LFLA is seeing impressive growth in students’ academic success, including stronger vocabulary, improved concentration, and enhanced critical thinking skills—attributes that will contribute to lifelong learning, creativity, and imagination. LFLA’s scholars are cultivating a love of reading that empowers them as individuals and enriches the entire LFLA community.