Listening for Literacy Update. Year 2!
We are pleased to announce the start of the second year of
Listening for Literacy! This innovative program started last year with a small
amount of money a large dreams. After having guided thirty students through the
program last year, we are expanding to fifty. We have held a few parent meeting
to launch the program. There were a few notable moments at the parent meetings
that I would like to share.
The first is a few questions that we got from parents who
students would be participating for the second year. A parent first asked
questions to clarify how students were chosen for the program. She then asked
if her other child would be able to participate. I work with the other child
and tried to explain that we had selected students whom we deemed most in need.
She then asked if she purchased all the equipment, could her son participate.
We were so incredibly flattered! It was slightly heartbreaking to explain that
there is more than money and equipment invested. The man hours alone, are
donated by the teachers, and prove to be exhausting. But the idea that her
daughter was so successful using this program, that she was willing to do
whatever it took to get her son in the program, was such a vote of confidence.
During the parent meetings we projected up on a screen some
of the material that would be on the new video MP3 players. As sight words
flashed across the screen the parents were reading along. This may not seem
very impressive, adults reading second grade words, but it is! These parents
are not English speakers. They come everyday to an English class at the school.
A year ago many of them could not say “hello” in English, and they were reading
sight words! As their proficiency in English grows, so will their students’.
Listening for Literacy is also representing the inaugural
blog post in the DCPS Educator Portal. They are launching a new teacher blog
and I am proud to have written the inaugural post about our program.
