NYC NOW - January 8, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: January 8, 2024

Traffic is slowly improving after 50 pro-Palestinian protestors holding up traffic at the lower Manhattan entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge have made way. Meanwhile, Pastor Eboni Marshall Turman of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem is suing the church for gender discrimination. Plus, Governor Hochul wants to boost literacy across New York by aligning lessons with evidence-based reading instruction called “the science of reading.” This follows a similar move in New York City’s public schools that launched last year. WNYC’s Sean Carlson sat with education reporter Jessica Gould for the latest details. Finally, WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk has been asking people in our area to share stories behind cherished recipes. Here are some stories from our recent "recipe swap" event in The Greene Space.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Monday, January 8th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge is flowing again slowly, though, after about 50 pro-Palestinian protesters changed their arms together to block the lower Manhattan entrance. Police say protesters also closed the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges and the Holland Tunnel for at least an hour. it's unclear how many people have been arrested. The protesters from groups including the Palestinian youth movement are calling for an end to the Israeli onslaught on Gaza

that has killed nearly 23,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. One of New York City's most prominent black churches is being sued for gender discrimination. Pastor Iboni, Marshall, Truman, or Terman's lawsuit accuses Abyssinian Selection Committee for a new senior pastor of pressing her with issues that were not asked of her male counterparts. Marshall Turman is a longtime member of the historic Harlem Churches community

and became the youngest ordained pastor there in 2007. She says in the lawsuit that some selection committee members told her she was the obvious pick to succeed the late Pastor Calvin Butts III. A church spokesperson told the Associated Press, Marshall Turman has an impressive background, but she ultimately fell short of some key requirements. for the role. Mayor Adams has issued a travel advisory for Tuesday night and activated the city's flash flood emergency plan because we're anticipating quite a bit of rain. 43 and sunny now tomorrow

might get some snow and rain by midday, then 51 with rain and gusty as well, and then tomorrow night heavy rain up to three inches, windy, gusty up to 46 miles an hour and the temperature rises to the mid-50s. Flood watchers posted. Stay close. more after the break. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. Governor Hokel says she wants to boost literacy across New York by aligning lessons with evidence-based reading instruction called the science of reading. It follows a similar move in New York City's public schools that launched last year. WNYC's education reporter, Jessica Gould, is here to explain what the science says about reading and what could change for students.

Hey, Jess. Hi, Sean. So when Governor Hokel says she wants to get back to basics and follow the science of reading, what does she mean? The science of reading is based on brain imaging, actually, that shows what works when kids are learning how to read. And what the research shows is what many of us would find obvious that kids need to be explicitly taught letter sounds and combinations, also known as phonics, along with vocabulary and comprehension. But that's not what so many schools have been teaching kids in recent years. In many school districts, curricula glossed over phonics while encouraging kids to use clues to guess it words. And states and cities across the country are now reforming literacy instruction, saying that what they've been doing hasn't been working.

In New York, fewer than half of elementary school students scored proficient in reading on the most recent state tests. Okay, so what are the details of Governor Hokel's plan? The governor says she wants to pass legislation that requires all school districts to make sure they're teaching reading according to. to this research. She's also promising $10 million to help retrain teachers, and she wants SUNY and CUNY to expand their teacher training based on this science of reading. But there are some elements of this plan that aren't clear yet. For example, I asked the state what curricula schools will have to use, and they said they won't be mandating specific materials. So it's not clear how they'll enforce this big shift. Experts also say that $10 million is really a drop in the bucket when it comes to

massive retraining of teachers that needs to be done. So we'll have to see. Jess, you mentioned that there's been a movement to change literacy instruction across the country. Why is this happening now? I asked Professor of Education and Literacy at NYU Susan Newman this. And she said it was the direct insight parents got into their kids' education during the pandemic. It was what parents were beginning to see at home. Hey, this child cannot decode words, seeing with their own eyes. I think that to a large extent, if you asked me how this came about, it was parents. And this was actually my experience as a mom. When my daughter started kindergarten at a public school in Brooklyn in 2021, she didn't know how to read yet. And when she came home with her books and tried, I saw that she was first looking at pictures and then guessing at the words. instead of sounding them out. And she said that's what the teacher had told her to do,

and she was really struggling. Fortunately, as the city required more phonics and gave some extra help, things have gotten better. She recently won the Bookworm Award at school, and she started a book club. But I think that perspective that I had, and so many parents had during the pandemic and immediately after, played a role in this shift,

as well as some really strong journalism that's come out on the subject. Well, speaking of which, You've been reporting on how New York City is overhauling its literacy curriculum. How does the governor's announcement affect the city's efforts? The city says it's already making these changes. So this past fall, half the public schools had to switch to one of three reading curricula that officials say aligns with the science of reading. And next year, the rest of schools will have to switch.

Teachers have been getting new materials and training. And schools are also supposed to be assessing students more and offering more intervention as needed. Experts say this is the right idea, as long as it's implemented well. I've heard some complaints so far about the new lessons in training, so I'm hoping our listeners will continue to be in touch with me about what's going on on the ground at their schools. It's WNIC's education reporter, Jessica Gould. We thank you, as always, for your reporting. Thank you.

On WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. The taste of a family recipe can conjure up a wide range of knowledge of memories. WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk has been asking people in our area to share stories behind cherished recipes. We heard a feast of tales during our recent recipe swap event in the green space. My name is Bonnie Rechter. I was born in Brooklyn. My mother was first generation. Her parents were Polish. My grandmother was a famously horrendous cook, so there are not many recipes that were handed down. But one thing I do remember making with her is what's called mandel bread. It's like an Italian biscuit. It's a very dry dough with almonds in it. That's the one thing

that I did bring into my own house and that I did bake with my kids. And I have boys. The fact that I had nothing really to teach them, they became quite good cooks. And I think that's one of the things about the kitchen. You know, my sons, when I cook for holidays, they come in, they're involved in the kitchen. My fathers and my uncles, they didn't come into the kitchen. My grandmother was very proud that my grandfather didn't know where the kitchen was, and my sons do know, and they share the culinary heritage, and they created a new one. So I think that's very important. My name is Liza Blank. I'm from Brooklyn, New York, and the memory that comes to mind is my grandmother's marinated fish. She would talk about how she would make it and she would marinate it in lemon

and I'm not sure what else, but what I loved about hearing it was how excited she was that her youngest brother would always come to get it and she used to say that he could smell it from the street and the window would be open and he would come up to the window and she would give him marinated fish out the window. My grandmother had five brothers. Two of them died very young. and very tragically, and she just had such a love for them. So carrying that story is like carrying the love she had for her family and her connection to her youngest brother who lived almost as long as she did. I mean, recipes are connection throughout my whole childhood.

There's so much history behind it. It's like passing down feelings and passing down different ways of being, and it's hard to put words to it, but I find it very emotional. and very satisfying. My name is Annie Vargis, and I'm from Jersey City, New Jersey. The recipe that really sticks out most for me is it's my mom's masala chai. Every Indian household has a chai recipe, and it's unique to the household. It's sort of like a fingerprint.

In my household, my mom made chai all the time, and it was always perfect. If I was sick, she would make chai. If I had a problem, she would say, can I make? you a cup of chai. My mom passed away two weeks ago. She was battling congestive heart failure and end-stage renal disease. And while she was in the hospital, she would always wake up and she would say, can you make me a cup of chai? And it was funny because I would make chai in the evening before I would come to the hospital. And every time I gave it to her, something was always off. And eventually she made the decision to stop dialysis and come home for hospital. And

hospice care. And during that time, she said that the chai was always perfect. And that's why this recipe is so important to me because I always hope that even in the last days that we were able to take care of her, that every time I made that cup of chai, that it gave her the same comfort that she gave me. My name is Julian Ryan. I was born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens, and I'm a lifetime New Yorker. The recipe that stands out to me is a lemon cake, and it came from a woman who used to announce the fact that she made it by wrap it on the shingles next door. And that was one of the most joyful sounds of my childhood, because it means we were getting dessert and treats that day. And I looked at that woman, I remember thinking she taught me so much, because she was German

and had come to the States before World War II. And my mother had come after the war from France with Polish parents. And I don't remember them ever talking about where they came from, but I remember them exchanging recipes. And it's kind of saying, find that one thing we have in common with somebody and just appreciate them is really what I love. A collection of voices from Deviled NYC's recent recipe swap event in the Green Space. You can hear the growing collection of stories in our food memoir series at WNYC.

Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.