A Glance at our Grants: Biliteracy Classroom Library at Kingsley
Channel: dg58 youtube
Date: 04/04/2016

District 58’s Biliteracy Program serves Spanish-speaking children. Subjects are taught in both English and Spanish, so students will become successful readers, writers and thinkers in both languages. 

“Reading and speaking in two languages is important because we can speak to people in Spanish AND English,” said first grader Adamari.

The program started in 2014 for kindergarten and first grade students, and it’s growing by one grade level each school year.

Its classrooms use culturally relevant Spanish and English books. And thanks to Education Foundation grants, the program received kindergarten and first grade books last year as well as second grade books this year.

“And because of the grant, I was able to obtain some more books in Spanish. We had a plethora in English,” said First/Second Grade Biliteracy Teacher Karina DeLeon. “The books that are autobiographies are about people who are important to the Mexican culture, like César Chávez. So now they’re learning about important figures to their culture as well.”

“My favorite part about reading is sometimes you can learn new facts and learn things,” said Uriel, a second grader.

“My favorite book is ‘Ricitos de Oro y los Tres Ositos.’ It’s my favorite book because it teaches me lessons,” added fellow second grader Itzel.

“We also implemented a challenge to see who can read 100 books,” DeLeon said. “So of course the first books that the kids gravitated to were the new books that we got because of the grant, and they’re so excited to read those books in Spanish.”

“Reading and speaking in two languages are important because if you have a friend who can’t speak English, you can speak to him in Spanish,” remarked first grader Gabriel.