South Bronx Literacy Academy hits the big screen in new documentary
The film is being screened through Jan. 23 at Quad Cinema in Manhattan and again in Westchester at the end of February. Tickets are available on their website. The documentary team says the exact date isn’t available yet.
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A school in Concourse Village will be hitting the big screen in a new documentary called "Left Behind."
News 12's Noëlle Lilley reported on South Bronx Literacy Academy in 2023 during its first school year. Now the rest of the world can watch their journey to becoming the first public school for dyslexic students in New York City.
Director Anna Toomey is the mother of a child with dyslexia and experienced personally the challenges of navigating a school system not built for kids who learn differently.
From 2020 until the present time, she's followed and documented the political and personal paths of multiple local moms, like Literacy Academy Collective co-founder Naomi Peña as they fought to make the dream of SBLA a reality.
By changing the way reading and writing were taught, the staff saw a change not just in academic success but in student confidence.
One method is called “skywriting” where students spell a word by drawing the letter with their arms.
In News 12's prior coverage, school staff explained that this builds in the neuroscience of writing letters and sounding them out, making it stronger in the student's lexicon so that they’re able to retrieve it more quickly when reading or writing.
For admission, students are not required to have a formal dyslexia diagnosis; they only have to show hallmark signs of the condition.
The staff at SBLA previously told News 12 their students struggled in traditional classrooms, but not because they aren't smart - they just need a different style of learning.
The film is being screened through Jan. 23 at Quad Cinema in Manhattan and again in Westchester at the end of February. Tickets are available on their website. The documentary team says the exact date isn’t available yet.
