Hispanic parents and reading with kids Archives | The Latino Family Literacy Project

Helping Young Children by Reaching Out to Parents with Books

Katherine Del Monte — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 15:00:48 +0000

Generally, children who are exposed to language and reading at a very young age are more likely to have a chance to excel in their educational pursuits. The New York Times (NYT) shares that Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman said, “The greatest barrier to college education is not high tuitions or the risk of student debt; it’s in the skills children have when they first enter kindergarten.” He goes on to explain that paying for preschool saves society money in the long run.

Before kids reach kindergarten age, children’s minds rapidly develop like no other time in human life. One way to bring learning to the forefront of how we support children as a society is to start, fund, and support programs that boost children’s literacy, including those that empower parents and families through giving them books.

In the NYT article, “Helping Children Thrive,” the Harlem Children’s Zone Baby College and Harlem Gems programs are given as exemplary examples of early education programs. These programs have a four-to-one student teacher ratio and teach pre-literacy, French, and social skills. High quality preschool programs help underprivileged children to make up for some of the resources they are lacking, and another example of a literacy program supporting young children is called “Reach Out and Read.”

Through this non-profit program, doctors and nurses give out books to families during young children’s check-ups and remind them of the importance of reading to children. Children receive new books at each check-up, and the Reach Out and Read site shares that, “many Reach Out and Read program sites create literacy-rich environments that include gently-used books for waiting room use and/or volunteer readers to model for parents the techniques of reading aloud to young children.” Many parents may not be able to afford new books for their kids, and those who might not traditionally read to their children at home can benefit from another adult modelling the read aloud process for them.

Reach Out and Read serves 4.5 million children in all 50 states of the U.S. Their research shows that the preschoolers they work with score three to six months ahead of peers on vocabulary tests. This program is important because it directly recognizes children’s literacy as important to their growth and development, and it is powerful because it can reach so many children through doctor’s visits. By linking reading with physical health, the program honors reading as the crucial element to children’s well-being that research has shown it to be.

Lectura Books provides award-winning bilingual books that are a great tool for English Learner students and their parents. The multicultural stories of each book help to engage the parents of ELL students. This encourages more reading and speaking of English at home. Visit their website to see some of their most popular book titles.

The Latino Family Literacy Project are experts in working with Spanish speaking parents and can train your staff to work specifically with Spanish-speaking parents at your school. Attendees can participate via online webinar training and will learn a culturally competent and research-based program to deliver to parents either online or in person at school.

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Parental Engagement Resources for Hispanic Parents

Katherine Del Monte — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 18:40:17 +0000

One of the biggest obstacles to student achievement is a lack of parental involvement in a child’s academic pursuits. For Hispanic students, this can be a challenge to negotiate due to the difficulties their parents sometimes face when it comes to finding the proper outlets or resources to engage in a meaningful manner. At the heart of the problem is communication, or lack thereof, as a significant number of Hispanic parents aren’t comfortable interacting with teachers or school administrators for any number of reasons. For some there are language barriers that prevent parents from discussing their child’s academic progress, for others it could be an inability with knowing how to engage, and even more Hispanic parents are reluctant to get fully involved because they feel that educators are the primary decision-makers when it comes to educating their child and they don’t wish to interfere. Whatever the main obstacles are to full parental engagement, there are Spanish-languages resources available to help parents feel more comfortable about getting involved in the educational process with an eye towards overcoming these problems. Here are just a few of the most widely available and useful resources for Hispanic parents to explore:

National PTA – The National Parent/Teachers Association is the leading organization devoted to incorporating parents into the conversation surrounding the education of our nation’s children. They work towards advocating for successful educational outcomes of students by making all stake-holders accountable for meeting this goal. That includes parents and the PTA strives to create avenues to help them get thoroughly involved in the process.

Univision Contigo – Clave al Exito – “Key to Success” is media company Univision’s educational online resource designed to help Spanish-speaking parents get involved in their child’s education. The platform serves an access point for helping parents communicate with educators and learn how to help their children read and excel with their studies.

Be a Learning Hero – Another valuable source for vital information and tips for parents on how to stay up to date with all of the growing changes happening in the education system in the United States. With so many new shifts in the current paradigm, it can be tough to navigate so many developments and this website is dedicated to helping parents stay on top of every new change to become more effectively involved in schooling.

The ENLACE Initiative – A program under management by the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), the ENLACE initiative was created with the sole purpose of helping Hispanic families find the resources they need in order for children to complete high school and pursue college. It serves students in grades K-12 as well as students enrolled in college and universities both public and private.

Lectura Books – Publishes bilingual books to meet the language needs of Spanish speaking parents and their children.

Family Phonics – A program to use with parents who need to learn basic phonics and phonemic awareness, so that they can help their children with English phonics.

Family Stories Curriculum – published by The Latino Family Literacy Project. Requires staff development for effective implementation of a Parent Involvement and family reading program.

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What Can Title III Funds be Used for in Parent Involvement Efforts?

Katherine Del Monte — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 17:00:21 +0000

Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is the funding component that gives states the necessary financial resources to develop standards-based learning initiatives and programs for English Language Learners (ELLs) in the form of subgrants. These funds are designed to improve the academic outcomes toward English language proficiency and the school districts that benefit from these subgrants must demonstrate positive results on an annual basis.

Required Use of Funds

Support of High-Quality ELD programs

Proposed activities must provide for and support high-quality language instruction educational programs, or English language development (ELD) programs, that are scientifically based and that are effective in increasing English proficiency and Academic achievement in the core academic subjects (Section 3115 (c) (1)).

The LEA must provide high-quality professional development to classroom teachers (including teachers in classroom settings that are not designed for only language instruction educational programs), principals, administrators, and other school or community-based organizational personnel. The professional development must:

-Improve the instruction of ELs;
-Enhance the ability of teachers to understand and use curricula, assessment measures, and instructional strategies for ELs;
-Be scientifically research-based and of sufficient duration and intensity (Section 3115 (c) (2)).

Title III Immigrant Funds

Title III Immigrant funds can be spent on:

Family literacy, parent outreach and training activities designed to assist parents in actively participating in the education of their children;

Support for personnel, including teacher aides who have been specifically trained to provide services to immigrant children;

Provision for tutorials, mentoring, and academic or career counseling for immigrant children and youth;

Identification and acquisition of supplemental curricular materials, educational software and technologies;

Basic instruction services that are directly attributable to the presence in the school of immigrant children and youth: classroom supplies, costs of transportation, etc.;

Other instruction services designed to assist immigrant children and youth: civics education, introduction to educational system, etc.;

Activities coordinated with community-based organizations, institutes of higher education to assist parent of immigrant children and youth by offering comprehensive community services.

Other Allowable Use of Funds

Funds may be used to support additional, supplemental staff (counselor, paraprofessional, etc.) Upgrading program objectives and effective instruction strategies:

Improving the instruction program for EL students by identifying, acquiring and upgrading supplemental curricula, instruction materials, and educational software;
Tutorials and academic or vocational education for EL children;
Developing and implementing and improving elementary school or secondary school language instruction educational programs (may be coordinated with other relevant programs and services);
Activities that improve the English proficiency and academic achievement of EL children;
Community participation programs, family literacy services and parent outreach and training activities to EL children and their families;
Evaluation of ELD programs.

These efforts can be established either exclusively or in concert with parental resource centers that are created to better serve the needs of parents who are eager to become further involved in the education of their children but aren’t sure how to participate effectively.

The Latino Family Literacy Project specializes in training staff to work with Hispanic families. If you’re interested in setting up a webinar for your staff so that they can implement a parent program with strong proven outcomes, please contact us at 1-877-LECTURA.

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Parental Involvement and the Impact on School Success

Katherine Del Monte — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 16:00:45 +0000

There is little debate that a parent’s engagement in a child’s learning is highly beneficial. A number of studies have shown the extent of the positive impacts that healthy parental involvement can provide with marked improvements in attendance, behavioral patterns, and social skills, as well as better grades and test scores, resulting in higher graduation rates. But distinguishing the type of relationship that provides the most benefit can be a bit more difficult to fully ascertain, as the term “parental involvement” can have many different meanings and applications for a student’s progress. For most parents, attending parent/teacher meetings is the most common method of demonstrating some form of involvement in their child’s learning, but there must be a nurturing alliance between parents and educators as both parties work in concert for the positive outcomes of the child. This can be found in a number of collaborative strategies that include volunteering, routine avenues of communication, and a shared effort for decision-making so that all stakeholders have equal input in school policy and educational content. This helps to foster stronger bonds with the child at both school and home between all concerned parties to help improve learning. Teachers work with students during the day to impart curriculum and parents continue the successful achievement of students by taking an interest in their studies, assisting them with homework and ensuring that all such work is finished and ready for the next day’s classes.

Recent surveys have demonstrated that involvement of parents in their children’s schooling varies from age, grade, and even along racial divides with increased engagement found in parents of students in grades K-8 than in grades 9-12. Parents of White students were also found to be more likely to participate in some capacity, either by way of attending a school event, volunteering at the school, participating in fundraising, and serving on a school committee, than parents of Black or Hispanic students. Parents who communicated on a routine basis with educators beyond organized parent/teacher conferences also showed improved achievement patterns in students than those who were not as engaged with their school. Every parent wants their child to succeed and while some are more readily available than others to be present and accounted for in the encouragement of their child’s learning, it’s crucial that the relationship formed between parents and educators is built upon a solid foundation of partnership and understanding of the goals that have been set forth for the child’s success.

Lectura Books offers award-winning bilingual books that are a great tool for English Language Learners. The books are written in both English and Spanish and focus on important vocabulary. This will help ELL students succeed with language acquisition no matter what grade level.

If you liked this blog post, check out our Facebook and Twitter page to stay updated. We frequently post relevant information related to ELLs.

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The Hidden Resource for School Success: Spanish-speaking parents.

Katherine Del Monte — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 02:07:04 +0000

Parents send their kids off to school each day, supporting the educational journey for their kids to acquire an education for a better life. But with the changing demographics in today’s America, how can Spanish-speaking parents realistically help their kids with academic success if the school work comes home in English?

The Hispanic population is the fastest growing population in the United States and sometimes schools are left wondering how to bring Spanish-speaking parents into the mainstream educational process. This issues may be too complex for teachers to figure out on their own.

What if parents do not have high educational attainment themselves? Or what if parents don’t understand what parent involvement means in our school system? How can a parent help their child, if the child has surpassed the parent’s educational attainment? How can teachers bring parents into the school-going process?

The Latino Family Literacy Project are experts in training school staff to work with Spanish-speaking parents for schools success and has some suggestions for teachers to review with Hispanic parents at their next school meeting:

At school:
Get to know their child’s teacher and principal
Volunteer to help the teacher in the classroom
Help the teacher by assisting children with special needs
Help with special events or projects
Plan and accompany classes on field trips
Assist coaches at sporting events, or the drama teacher with school plays.
Volunteer to help with parent workshops
Visit your child’s class for parent career day to describe your special gifts.
Assist in the library and help with story time or tours with other parents.
Plan to meet with your child’s teacher regularly to discuss reading level.

At home:
Share as many stories as you can in your first language!
Read to your child – reading aloud is the most important activity that parents can do to increase their child’s chance of reading success.
Discuss the books, stories and characters you read to your child
Share your own family stories
Tell your own childhood stories to your children. Describe what your childhood was like and what you enjoyed doing most as a child.
Provide structure for each day, where possible.
Limit television viewing on school nights or after school work is finished
Talk to your child regularly about what’s going on in school
Help with homework and check homework every night

Teachers can attend our workshops to learn more ways to help the Spanish-speaking parents at their schools so that their children can benefit from home reading routines and other activities.

Watch some testimonial videos for some easy suggestions for working with Spanish-speaking parents.

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