Bilingual books at Huntingburg Elementary School library meet students’ needs
Designed to accommodate the multicultural student body and community, a growing section of books in Huntingburg Elementary School’s library is devoted to simultaneously providing reading experiences in English and Spanish.
From the front cover through each page to the end, the new books feature stories written in English and Spanish accompanied by rich imagery designed to capture young readers’ interests.
According to Rossina Sandoval, the corporation’s Director Of Community Outreach, having these books available in the elementary school library supports the corporation’s mission to promote a universal design for learning. This teaching methodology is flexible and designed to accommodate each student’s learning strengths to create better educational outcomes.
“We want all of our kids to learn,” Sandoval said. “We’ve had a lot of cultural initiatives to grow social cultural competence.”
Those cultural initiatives include the dual language program. Beginning in kindergarten, students participating in the dual language program are taught half the day in English and half the day in Spanish. The first set of kindergarteners to participate in the program is now moving through the third grade, and according to Sandoval, the program has been a great success for the corporation’s goal to create global citizens.
“We want global residents,” she said. “We want Huntingburg to have this group of amazingly skilled human beings.”
With 45 percent of Huntingburg Elementary School’s student population being Hispanic combined with the state’s push to increase literacy, these books meet several needs for the students.
Whether a student is a newcomer to the country or a bilingual student beginning to learn a new language, the school wants to provide more reading opportunities for them.
The collection also provides for educational equity.
For example, if there is a free reading time at the end of a class, a new student who solely reads and speaks Spanish would not be able to take part in the reading if there aren’t any books in Spanish to read.
That is why it is important to have a diverse collection of books in the school’s libraries designed to meet the needs of all the corporation’s students, according to the corporation’s media specialist, Sarah Bardwell.
Originally, they started by providing a section of the Spanish versions of popular books, Bardwell explained.
However, as the dual language program progressed, Bardwell and others saw a need to expand reading opportunities for bilingual students. With funding provided by through the Department of Education’s Title III language initiative, Bardwell worked with a special book distributor to order the first set of bilingual books.
Bringing both English and Spanish onto the same page in these fun, colorfully illustrated books opens opportunities for students to learn new ideas and expand their comprehension of words and sounds in both languages.
According to Sandoval, when acquiring a new language, students draw on what they know in their first language to make new meanings in the second language. These bilingual books are just one way for students to transfer knowledge and strengthen their English language skills.
“There is a quote, ‘First you learn to read, and then you read to learn,'” Sandoval said. “Giving them the tools to learn literacy makes a huge impact in their learning process.”
Also, with the potential for language barriers at a student’s home, bilingual books foster opportunities for children to read with their families, overcoming those language barriers, whether in English or Spanish.
“We want to encourage that,” Bardwell said. “Whether parents speak English or Spanish, they have a book that is bilingual. They can see both.”
The section has slowly grown in popularity since being introduced last year. Students are increasingly migrating to it as they find popular titles now available bilingually. But the collection also features stories from Hispanic authors with characters who share their social and racial backgrounds, further encouraging reading and multiculturalism.
The students appreciate seeing these books reflect their own lives, according to Bardwell. It reflects the reality in which they live: a diverse world.
“And for all the students in the dual language program, whether Caucasian or Hispanic, this collection helps them grow their global skills,” said Sandoval.
Bardwell said she hopes to continue to expand the bilingual book section to provide more reading opportunities for the corporation’s growing student population.
