Language Focused Parent Engagement & Literacy Program
Our Program
We engage Hispanic and Somali parents in early Literacy in their primary language, with a Language-Focused Early Literacy curriculum. We teach parents how to teach their children how to read and write in their primary/home language.
Knowing that students can learn two languages simultaneously, the students (the children of the participating parents) become fluent readers first and at a quicker pace in their primary home language and then are able to transfer their reading skills to English.
Additionally, we support schools in the implementation of an Effective Multi-teared Multilingual Parent Communication Plan.
Why it works
Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn because of its shallow orthographic depth. With no unfamiliar phonemes, only one pronunciation/sound for its 5 vowels and 5 diphthongs, and its simple rules for syllabication, words are easy to decode and most words are written as they are pronounced. So, reading and writing in Spanish is a straightforward and easy task.
Somali, like Spanish, is based on the Latin alphabet. It, also has a shallow orthographic depth, which means that most words are written as pronounced. It has 10 vowels, 5 short (like Spanish – a, e, i, o, u) with the same pronunciation as Spanish and 5 long (double each vowel – aa, ee, ii, oo, uu). With its simple rules for syllabication, words are easy to decode, making Somali like Spanish and easy language to learn to read and write in and a very straight forward language.