In part two of the Writing Our Success Story: Literacy Without Limits in JUSD series, we highlight more literacy programs. West Riverside Elementary hosts a weekly literacy workshop where parents learn how to teach their children at home. At Mission Bell Elementary, over 30 local Costco employees visit weekly to volunteer their time to tutor and mentor students.
Back to the Classroom
Eydi Herrera joined West Riverside Elementary’s Family Stories Literacy Class because she wanted to bond with her children over reading and help them with reading concepts.
“I have learned the strategies from Ms. Rodriguez to get my children to read at home. I learned to enjoy reading,” said Ms. Herrera. “(I) want to pass down that interest to my children.”
The objective of the Family Stories Literacy Class is to prepare parents and give them the right skills and strategies to use with their children at home. The class is taught by Martha Rodriguez, West Riverside Teacher on Special Assignment-Community Schools.
“Everything we do is based on data,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “Reading doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens by (parents) interacting with their children and the book at home.”
Parents learn the same Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) strategies that classes across the district have adopted. Some of the strategies parents learn to use are sentence frames for discussions and citing their sources when answering questions about the book, just like their students. Parents also participate in Socratic seminars, class-led discussions to analyze and share their perspectives on the book they read.
Ms. Rodriguez keeps an open dialogue with teachers and parents to monitor students’ improvements and address how parents can continue to help at home.
When the class read “Paletero Man (Popsicle Man)” by Lucky Diaz, parents were encouraged to enjoy a paleta, or popsicle, with their children before reading the book to create anticipation for the story. Parents and students alike were excited to read and relate to the story and characters.
Lesly Gonzalez joined the class to review reading skills and develop strategies to help her transitional kindergarten student as he learns how to read and write.
“(My son) comes up to me now and is excited to read,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “He’s actually able to understand the story that we read together.”
Erica Cruz, another parent in the class, uses her newfound skill of sentence frames the most at home. Using sentence frames allows Ms. Cruz and her daughter to talk about each other’s books and learn about each other’s interests.
“It’s a pleasure to sit together and read. My daughter loves to read, and now she grabs her book, and I grab my own book,” said Ms. Cruz. “I keep motivating her because she sees how I like to read.”
Students whose parents participate in the Family Stories Literacy Class have seen improvements in their literacy skills.
“I want to encourage other parents to get involved and be an active participant in their child’s education so they can be successful,” said Ms. Herrera.
Community Volunteers
A few years ago, Mission Bell Elementary recognized the need for more literacy intervention for students in fourth grade and above. At the time, Mission Bell had about seven volunteers from local Costco locations who provided literacy tutoring to students. Now, the program has 35 Costco volunteers who visit three times a week.
“Getting your community involved in… literacy is incredibly important because they usually hear it from us… but they don’t usually hear that information from anyone else that works in the community,” said Mission Bell Elementary Principal Angelena Aguilera. “It’s a singular message coming from everyone in the community.”
Carlos Ortin, supervisor at the Mira Loma Costco Warehouse, has visited once a week since 2017. He wants to make a difference in students’ lives.
“I fell in love with (tutoring),” said Mr. Ortin. “It’s a rewarding feeling seeing them (improve) from start to end.”
Mr. Ortin also joins other Costco employees to donate backpacks to Mission Bell students at the beginning of the year.
“(Students) see us on campus and yell out our names,” said Mr. Ortin. “However, we can, we are here to help.”
Sixth grader Miley Horta and fifth grader Damian Hernandez enjoy the time with their Costco literacy tutors because it is less structured than class, and their reading and writing skills have improved since meeting with their tutors.
Miley said volunteers have made reading easier to enjoy and taught her more words.
“It’s amazing to see how much they grow their reading skills in such a short amount of time,” said Costco reading tutor Angelina Aguilar (Ms. Angie), supervisor at the Mira Loma Costco Warehouse.
Ms. Angie volunteers to give back to the community where she grew up.
Costco reading tutors also serve as mentors for students, in addition to helping them with their literacy skills.
“They offer us advice on how to handle situations we are struggling with,” said sixth grader Juliana Rubio.
