[kids-lib] Emporia (KS) Public Library and School District Team Up for Bilingual Storytime

[Jennifer Maurer]

I thought you might be interested in this story from The Emporia Gazette about staff from the Emporia Public Library working with staff and students from the Emporia Unified School District to offer bilingual storytime in English and Spanish.

http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/article_340f00b4-5947-11e3-ab07-10604b9f6eda.html

Here are a few points that stood out to me:


*         The school district's migrant student & family resource specialist, approached her [public librarian] about the program.

*         Bilingual story time [takes place] at Emporia Public Library.

*         Each story time begins with a song, followed by a story, which is followed by an activity related to the story. Ibarra, a senior at Emporia High School, reads a page in English and Reyes translates the page into Spanish. [I wonder if they ever choose any Spanish stories that are translated into English?]

*         The program's primary goals are to invite Latino families into the library and to spark enthusiasm for reading.

*         "Many Latino parents are a little bit nervous about coming to the library," Mendez said. "Almost all the books are in English. They might feel a bit intimidated."

*         This concern echoes a pattern that researchers have noted about educational facilities and Spanish-speaking students in general. John Schweiter, an associate professor of Spanish and linguistics at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada, reported that some Latino students avoid school libraries because there seem to be so few Spanish materials.

FYI,
Jen

Jennifer Maurer
School Library Consultant
Oregon State Library
250 Winter Street NE
Salem, OR 97301
503.378.5011
jennifer.maurer at state.or.us<mailto:jennifer.maurer at state.or.us>

OSLIS || www.oslis.org
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