Monday kicked off聽, led by Lt. Governor Joe Garcia each May to encourage continued reading through the summer and to learn about best practices. Throughout the state, Garcia is visiting early childhood through secondary programs, after-school programs, special education programs, home interventions, libraries, and book giveaways, and meeting with educators and superintendents.
Of special note this week was the Lt. Governor鈥檚 Monday afternoon visit to a highly successful program at Godsman Elementary School in Denver that promotes not only literacy, but聽biliteracy聽in Spanish and English. In partnership with the聽, the school has fully integrated the聽. As a result, Godsman has achieved impressive reading and writing gains in both Spanish and English that have outpaced the district and the state.
Developed by Professor聽Kathy Escamilla, Literacy Squared uses research-based strategies to develop biliteracy. As Escamilla explains, "Literacy Squared has four components: research, professional development, assessment, and instruction. Its intent is to develop and empirically test new knowledge and theory about how to nurture the development of biliteracy聽in Spanish/English emerging bilinguals in U.S. schools."
Lt. Governor Garcia noted the strong reading and writing skills of Godsman students as they practiced Literacy Squared strategies in both bilingual and English-only classrooms. Afterwards, Garcia and Escamilla, Dean Shepard, Professor Lucinda Soltero-Gonz谩lez, and Program Director Sandra Butvilofsky, all of the CU Boulder School of Education, discussed the ways in which the program has helped students to develop a strong command of English while drawing on their first languages and developing full biliteracy.
As Butvilofsky notes, 鈥淭he teachers at Godsman have worked hard to implement Literacy Squared strategies, and have seen the benefits of doing so. Teachers have asked, 鈥業s there anything like Literacy Squared for math? We have seen our kids really learn using Literacy Squared strategies.'"
Godsman first and third graders were thrilled to share their love of reading and writing with their Lt. Governor, who continues to emphasize early literacy as a state priority.
By聽Kristen Davidson, CU Boulder School of Education
听补苍诲 .
Related Faculty: Kathy Escamilla, Lucinda Soltero-Gonz谩lez, Sandra A. Butvilofsky聽