A valuable untapped educational resource for local language minority communities is the "weekend school" (Bradunas, 1988), which allows students and parents to develop their natural joy for learning language in an environment that values their cultural heritage. Arlington, Virginia, offers two successful community-based programs that promote bilingual family literacy: Empowering Families Through Literacy and Escuela Bolivia. Both are models for meeting the challenges of significant demographic changes and for closing the achievement gap between English-speaking and Spanish-speaking students.
A Changing Community
For two decades, the student composition of Arlington Public Schools has been dramatically changing—from being predominantly monolingual English-speaking to one that is increasingly diverse, multicultural, and multilingual. Currently, 43 percent of the students come from homes where a language other than English is spoken. More than 70 percent of these language-minority students are Spanish speakers (Arlington Public Schools, 1998). Arlington strives to enhance the academic language development of its students as well as the parental involvement of language-minority families.
Immigrant families are eager to participate in the education of their children by using their language abilities, skills, and funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992). Often, however, their efforts are not acknowledged in an English-only environment. In many schools, administrators and teachers think that immigrant families cannot provide the literacy support needed for academic success. They express this "deficit perspective" unconsciously by such comments as "if they would read and speak in English to their children, we would not have reading problems."
The push for the English-only literacy approach sends the wrong message to language-minority families. Parents who do not speak English feel disempowered when their language knowledge is not valued or when they feel disconnected from their children who do not want to communicate in their native language. They are unaware of the research in second-language acquisition indicating that cognitive and academic development in the native language has a positive effect on English development. Reading instruction in students' native language develops a deeper conceptual and linguistic proficiency that is strongly related to the development of English literacy and general academic skills (Collier & Thomas, 1997; Cummins, 1991; Wong-Fillmore, 1991).
Arlington's school system has publicly acknowledged that proficiency in more than one language is a social asset and an economic asset and that parents of culturally and linguistically diverse students are valuable coeducators (Arlington Public Schools, 1998). The district has established first-language-instruction pilot programs to accelerate the academic achievement of language-minority students and has opened its doors and welcomed community-based educational initiatives.
The Latino Community at Work
Tapping the language-minority community's initiatives and talents accesses a powerful resource. Saturday programs, such as Empowering Families Through Literacy and Escuela Bolivia, foster literacy development with a core of dedicated volunteers, staff, and families who put children first. Parents feel empowered as they see their children reading and writing in Spanish while learning about the history and literature of Latin America.
- Improve the reading, writing, and mathematics skills of students;
- Teach children the language, culture, and traditions of their parents and grandparents;
- Provide a caring community that acknowledges and respects their cultural values and fosters initiative and leadership; and
- Establish a collaborative partnership among parents, community organizations, and the school system.
Empowering Families Through Literacy
A multifaceted program, Empowering Families Through Literacy teaches reading, writing, and arithmetic to illiterate or functionally illiterate Spanish-speaking parents while their children receive tutoring and enrichment activities in Spanish. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council 4606, in collaboration with the Mexican Embassy and George Mason University, sponsors this program. Two-hour Saturday classes are taught by two bilingual teachers and five volunteers with extensive teaching experience. Every week, an average of 10 parents and their children attend classes in a community center near the homes of the families.
The program originated when a group of Latino parents and staff members informed LULAC that both limited English-language fluency and limited literacy skills in Spanish created significant barriers for some Latino families in their dealings with the schools. Through informal dialogues, parents with limited educational background expressed the urgency of learning how to read and write. They wanted to learn how to write their children's names and complete school forms. In Arlington schools, 450 Spanish-speaking parents acknowledged having limited, if any, formal education. Further, their jobs and family responsibilities restricted their ability to enroll in adult education classes. They wanted a bilingual teacher and a Saturday family program.
The project prepares and motivates parents to become effective learners and productive citizens by knowing how to read and write. Parents who attend school themselves are more likely to promote literacy activities for their children and to take a greater interest in what happens at school. As a result of the project, parents participate in school activities and are delighted to have books at home. They love to attend Arlington's annual Spanish language book fair, where they choose Spanish books and often participate in discussions with Latin American writers.
The enrichment literacy activities for children constitute an important element of the family literacy program. While adults participate in their session, tutors work with their school-age
children. Families also participate in academic celebrations, field trips, and school activities. Parents feel at home in school. They love having their children with them. The participants consider these teachers part of their extended families with whom they get together on the weekends.
The program uses a participatory curriculum whose goals are to help parents learn how to read and write in Spanish and to assist them in making the transition to English literacy within two years. The curriculum development process involves the participants at all levels. Parents are the experts of their own reality. They influence the content and the process. All sessions incorporate a listening phase and a dialogue phase. Learning is a "collective process, where participants share and analyze experiences together in order to address concerns, relying on each others' strengths and resources rather than addressing problems individually or relying on outside experts to solve them" (Auerbach, 1992, p. 19).
These parents have been informally educated by many life experiences and bring to the classroom a fully developed Spanish language system. The teacher identifies these experiences through photographs, published texts, and oral stories. The adult students develop literacy by reading, writing, and talking about their experiences. The core vocabulary is based on life issues. Because parents want to learn skills that will help them both at home and in their work, the program incorporates mathematics instruction. Participants also like to practice writing and ask for weekly homework.
- Gloria: "No saber leer es como ser ciega." (Not knowing how to read is like being blind.)A Salvadoran mother of two school-aged children, Gloria fled her country during the civil war. Asked by her classmates why she did not learn how to read and write during her childhood, she said that she was raised in a small rural village where public schools were often closed because of the war.
- Timoteo: "I thought I was too old to learn but now I am changing my mind."Timoteo, a 58-year-old man, works in building maintenance. He came from El Salvador 12 years ago. Every Saturday, rain or shine, his entire family comes to the family literacy program. At the first class, Timoteo was unable to make the sound-symbol correspondence and relied on his memory to repeat words and phrases. He tried to read time and again and became frustrated when he failed. His classmates always encouraged and cheered him when he succeeded. The volunteer assistants helped him with patience and interest. He persisted in his effort. After two years, he began to make progress.
- Manuelito: "Mrs. Soria, I want to draw a picture."Manuelito is a 5-year-old whose mother and teenage sister have been enrolled in the program for one and one-half years. This bright-eyed child with a mischievous smile came to us as a selective mute. He never answered any questions, but only nodded or smiled and sometimes looked away. If he wanted something, he went to his sister and whispered in her ear. She told the teacher what he wanted. If the sister was not around, he just kept quiet. One day he asked to draw a picture. His teacher was astonished and delighted to hear his voice. Manuelito continues to attend the program with his family. He now talks loudly and clearly.
The Empowering Families Through Literacy program uses several assessment tools to evaluate the progress of its students. When some parents entered the program, they could not identify the letters of the alphabet; others could not read. All enrollees who have attended for two years now can read and write letters in Spanish to their families. They can fill out simple forms and enjoy reading high-content, low-vocabulary texts. Some students are beginning to make the transition to English. One grandmother has enrolled in an English as a Second Language program. She told the class that now that she can read and write in Spanish, she is able to learn English more easily. She tried to learn English before, but felt overwhelmed and could not make progress.
The greatest accomplishment of the program is the new start that it gives illiterate adults in the formal education process. These underprivileged immigrant families are moving beyond invisibility. They are beginning to have a voice. Empowering Families Through Literacy is a caring, encouraging, and safe program that is helping these families become optimistic about their future.
Escuela Bolivia
Every Saturday morning, approximately 200 students come to an elementary school to learn Spanish, social studies, and mathematics while 40 parents learn English and computer skills. Escuela Bolivia is a weekend school that is a result of a partnership among the Bolivian Embassy, community leaders, parents, and Arlington Public Schools.
An aura of warmth and caring is immediately obvious. People greet one another by name and show genuine enthusiasm for teaching and learning. Some parents refer to this attitude by a South American Aymara word, ayni, which means "community, collaboration, support, and relationships" and designates a voluntary way to mobilize human resources to meet community needs.
That feeling of collaboration, initiative, and pride was inspired by the Bolivian Ambassador to the United States, Marcelo Perez Monasterios, who became concerned about the low academic achievement of Latino students in Arlington. Assisted by Arlington's Latino leadership, Arlington Public Schools, with the Bolivian Embassy, called for a meeting of Bolivians whose children attended Arlington schools. A single question made up the agenda: What could be done to improve the academic achievement of Latino K–12 students? The 150 parents who attended the meeting wanted their children to go to school on Saturday and to learn in Spanish so that they could accelerate their learning. They did not want their children to fall behind. Parents felt that their children needed a boost and a stronger connection to their traditions and family values.
The local Bolivian educational community committed to designing, developing, and managing a weekend school. Two principals of schools with large Latino populations readily offered their buildings to the program.
Parents and children flocked to Escuela Bolivia to be part of this effort. Some students speak Spanish at home, whereas others are monolingual English speakers. Many of these students were born in the United States and have never had the opportunity to learn about Bolivia or Latin America.
Finding qualified bilingual teachers was not a problem. As soon as the Latino community learned about the project, teachers came forward. Many were experienced educators who had taught in Latin America.
Marcela Von Vacano, an experienced Bolivian-born bilingual teacher, serves as principal. She spends four to five hours on Saturday coordinating the work of 15 teachers and volunteers. She feels that her work is valuable and describes her weekend experience as her "weekly journey back to Bolivia."
An active group of parents and community members volunteers at Escuela Bolivia. On a typical Saturday morning, Wilma makes buñuelos, a doughnutlike pastry, to offer parents. Sonia sells books brought from Bolivia. Rita and Lisette help in the office, and Iris meets with the patrol club. Other volunteers work in the classrooms. The level of energy is contagious.
All teachers are high-quality bilingual educators committed to improving academic achievement. They use a variety of activities to reinforce language development. For example, while 4th graders use a Web site to learn about geographical areas, the music teacher may bring a charango, an armadillo-shell mandolin, to classrooms, explaining the instrument's origin and playing melodies from Bolivia's regions.
Students learn social studies and language arts in Spanish while their parents learn English and computers. Parents publish a daily summary of their classroom activities in English and have published a bilingual book of their childhood memories. High school students also publish a bilingual newsletter with the support of a volunteer. Secondary students are so motivated that they stay after school to learn folkloric dances. Luis, a high school student, says, "I feel at home, my teachers are great, and I want to go to Bolivia this summer."
As Iris said, "I have been waiting for this for a long time. . . . I am here to help."
For Iris, Escuela Bolivia is a cultural refuge that offers children an opportunity to learn Spanish and aspects of their Bolivian heritage. Two of her children, a 4th grader and a 12th grader, attend the program. For her, having her children speak both Spanish and English is a cultural and an economic asset. She is a volunteer and sponsors a patrol club to keep la escuela limpia (the school clean).
Parents and educators interested in raising Latino students in a fully bilingual environment jointly designed the Escuela Bolivia program. Lessons are held in both Spanish and English so that all students become proficient or more proficient in all facets of Spanish culture and language—speaking, reading, and writing.
Escuela Bolivia is a success. Spanish language, social studies, math, and folklore programs are being taught to children ranging in age from 5 to 19 years. Teachers and volunteers periodically assess students' work. Every 10 weeks, each student receives a report card. Other preliminary indicators of the program's success include the high student-attendance rate, parents' feedback, and performance assessment tests at each grade level. Escuela Bolivia has also produced a community-based network of parents and teachers.
The program is growing as native-English-speaking children also enroll in the school. The next step may be to offer Spanish classes for teachers and for English-speaking parents who have their children in the program. Escuela Bolivia recognizes that proficiency in more than one language is an asset.
Looking Forward
It is inspiring to witness immigrant families learning together on Saturday mornings. Language-minority students not only are an invaluable resource but in many ways also are the key for the future (Collier, 1995). As educators, parents, and community members, we share the responsibility for the academic success of all our students. Let's open the doors of the schools to community-based organizations and to parents who are willing to sponsor family educational activities that embrace multilingualism as an essential tool for the 21st century.
Community-based literacy programs demonstrate the conscious efforts of immigrant communities to succeed academically in their new country without losing their ties to their home cultures. They facilitate fluency and literacy in both Spanish and English by carrying their programs and activities in a dual linguistic and cultural environment. In doing so, the programs strengthen the self-confidence and self-esteem of language minority students.
