Through the use of the “Avancemos” curriculum, Soy Lector in partnerships with Schools and Community Service Organizations, aims to close the achievement gap among Hispanic and Somali minority students by using Multilingualism as an Asset.
We engage parents in Literacy in their primary language, with a Language-Focused Early Literacy curriculum, and we teach parents to teach their children how to read and write in their primary/home language, knowing that students can learn two languages simultaneously. Knowing that Spanish and Somali are easier languages to learn to read in due to the simplicity of their foundation in phonics, decoding, syllabication and grammar rules and the knowledge that once students learn to read and write in their Primary/Home Language, they are able to transfer those skills to English
Our Founder and Director
Luis Vanegas has worked (17 years) in Title I schools with a high ELL (English Language Learner) student population. In those years he has been part of the team who has turned around 5 failing or under performing schools. He is a linguist and expert in Second Language Acquisition, Language Immersion and Bi-literacy, and this expertise was used to develop the “Avancemos” curriculum. He understands that a key factor to learning a second language is proficiency or mastery of the primary language. This key factor is missing among our Hispanic and Somali families, hence he recognized that engaging parents (children’s first teachers) in Early Literacy Education in the family’s Native/Home/Primary (which are easier languages to learn) was key to student learning and becoming proficient readers in English. Thus closing the achievement gap through Bi-Literacy.
He has his Bachelors in Elementary Education with an emphasis in Math and English Language Arts. His Masters is in Education Administration. He holds a Certificate in Dual Language and Immersion and has been certified by Berlitz as mastering and being able to teach the languages of Italian, Spanish and English at all Levels (Pre-School to Adult Education)