How Culturally Familiar Books Foster Reading with Hispanic Parents

Children connect with stories and themes that they know. If something is recognizable to them in a book, they will often relate to it in a way that draws similarities to the people and events in their own lives. Through this familiarity, reading becomes more enjoyable and serves a stronger purpose towards promoting successful literacy outcomes. Teachers who work with … Read More

How Educators Can Reach Out to Hispanic Parents

Parental involvement is a crucial part of a child’s educational road map. But this can be tougher to achieve for parents of English learner (EL) students. Communication is a large component of effective engagement and it’s up to educators to ensure that a positive discourse is reached between the school and the parents of EL students. There are a variety … Read More

Measuring Parent Engagement for Success

Parent engagement helps students to succeed academically and helps schools to serve students more effectively. Encouraging, assessing, and measuring parent engagement are all important elements of a successful parent engagement initiative. Parent engagement can be measured in various ways; through parent surveys and questionnaires, measurements of attendance counts at family-school events, and assessments of the number and quality of these … Read More

Suggestions for Connecting Art and Literacy with English Language Learners

Using art to communicate is an ancient, international, and powerful practice. Visual art experiences offer opportunities for students who are learning English to express their knowledge in symbolic ways, which builds their personal and academic confidence and their ability to make connections between concepts, images, and texts. For example, if a teacher who is leading a unit on the life … Read More

Why Teaching in Two Languages Makes Sense for Programs with Hispanic Parents

Teaching in two languages can provide Hispanic parents with the peace of mind that they need to successfully engage in the education of their children. Family literacy programs that include parents in the curricula help to stymie the fears and lack of confidence that Hispanic parents often feel when it comes to reading to their children. They may not feel comfortable reading … Read More

Parental Involvement and the Impact on School Success

There is a 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 … Read More

A School Library Can Support ELL Families

Libraries have historically been multi-faceted organizations which offer not only books and media, but access to community programs and cultural experiences. There is now a growing trend in public schools in which school librarians, classroom teachers, and ELL teachers are using the library as a meeting and activity venue for ELL families. It can be challenging for ELL parents and … Read More

State of Colorado ELL Support and Programs

At an approximate tally of 114,415, roughly 13.3% of the Colorado public school system is comprised of English Language Learners as of the years 2012-2013. School District 1 in Denver County comes in 12th in the country for the largest concentration of ELL students with 31.4% of that district’s student population. Among these students, a majority of them speak Spanish, with … Read More