Harbor Literacy Center

For additional information please call 212-427-2244 ext. 515

In a community where a good education is the surest, if not only, path to a self-sufficient adulthood, the Harbor Literacy Center is an important resource. We teach children and young people to read, spell, and write with fluency. Literacy Center staff work closely with all Harbor programs, training teachers to incorporate literacy skill-building into every activity. Literacy Specialists assess skill levels and devote extra attention to students who struggle with reading. We are pioneers in the use of the Orton-Gillingham approach for students who are learning disabled, dyslexic, or otherwise disadvantaged. This approach uses multi-sensory experiences and phonetics to improve reading, spelling, and writing.

Our Early Childhood Literacy program helps Harbor preschoolers gain the fundamental literacy skills they will need to be successful in school right from the start. School-age children who are new to the Harbor come to us with a variety of individual needs and varying levels of proficiency. Literacy Center Specialists work with remedial students in small groups, patiently using research-based methods to help these children read and write with greater fluency and confidence.

Clearly we are benefiting the children and young people in our care. Last year, 92% of referred students who were categorized as “below average” moved to at least “average status” and 75% of school age remedial students read and comprehended connected text with greater fluency and accuracy. Because of our unusual expertise in the use of the Orton-Gillingham approach, the Literacy Center gives training to outside teachers and to school administrators who are eager to emulate our techniques and our success.