2002 Celebration
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2002 Celebration |
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Programs Alder Accelerated Elementary’s Dual Immersion Language Program Program Descriptions Alder Accelerated Elementary’s Contact The Alder Dual Bilingual Accelerated School provides culturally and linguistically appropriate curriculum and instruction for its Latino students and their English-speaking classmates. Staff aim to provide comprehensive educational programs in order to involve parents of limited-English-proficiency students together with other families, businesses, organizations, and agencies. Alder is a neighborhood school of 550 students in East Portland serving a population with a poverty rate of 73 percent. In response to low test scores and a negative school environment, the staff unanimously voted to adopt an accelerated schools model, which emphasizes problem-solving skills and creative hands-on activities. The school’s philosophy is that in an enriched environment, all children can excel through the experience of powerful learning. In 1993, Alder initiated a bilingual education program to meet the needs of its growing Latino population, starting with the first grade and adding a grade each year. In combining the accelerated schools model with dual-language acquisition, Alder provides a unique educational opportunity that promotes native language literacy while immersing students in a second language. This model fosters positive self-esteem for Spanish-speaking students as the staff showcases the gift of language and culture they offer their peers. Alder believes that children in a bilingual class learn through being actively involved and feeling successful. Alder also provides free adult classes in parenting, English as a second language, and Spanish as a second language, all with child care at no cost. The language classes are offered in the evening at the same time each week, with a structured coffee break in which either Spanish or English is spoken. During the breaks, adults ask each other questions and learn in the same way their children are learning. La Clínica de Buena Salud Contact La Clínica de Buena Salud, part of the Multnomah County Health Department’s Homeless Children’s Project, provides comprehensive culturally appropriate primary care health and outreach services to families who are at risk of homelessness. The clinic is located in Northeast Portland in a low-income housing redevelopment project, Hacienda Corporation’s La Villa de Clara Vista. The Latino population in the project faced health care barriers such as lack of bilingual and bicultural staff, strict appointment rules, poor clinic hours, and no walk-in appointments. The Homeless Children’s Project was developed to help eliminate these barriers for the families, who often live as many as four to a single dwelling. The clinic provides primary health care, family planning, well child, prenatal, field/outreach, and referral services, as well as special clinics. These special clinics include lead screening, dental sealants, immunizations, eye examinations, and WIC services. Clients have access to an after-hour clinic and a 24-hour advice interpretive service if needed. Clinic staff have formed a women’s group for mothers to discuss topics of interest, ranging from education to domestic violence to accessing the city transportation system. Nursing and outreach worker visits focus on health education, delivery of medication, appointment reminders, and visits to sick family members. The clinic has formed partnerships with nonprofit agencies that provide or have access to food baskets, clothing, and furniture. Other visits may involve public school, neighborhood associations, youth programs, nutrition services, housing, and legal advice. The housing project convenes a monthly meeting of the on- and off-site social service providers, as well as sponsoring a back-to-school fair, summer fair, and Christmas fiesta. Clinic staff are treated like family and invited to quinceañeras, weddings, and baptisms. Trust, respect, and appreciation are truly rewards that staff receive daily. All health services and education materials are provided in Spanish. and the Multnomah County Health Department requires that translated information received from other sources are checked by its translation committee for language and cultural appropriateness. Libros y Familias Contact Libros y Familias is a family literacy program that recognizes parents as their children’s first teachers and supports the entire family. The program’s overall goals are to empower parents to participate in their children’s educational process, to decrease the district’s dropout rate through early intervention, and to prevent gang involvement by improving family literacy skills, providing positive adult role models, and raising self-esteem and cultural pride. To achieve these goals, the program focuses on increasing the amount of time parents spend reading with their children at home; increasing participants’ use of public library facilities; producing books written and illustrated by parents and children; and promoting author visits and cultural activities that foster self-esteem and cultural pride. Libros y Familias is based on the belief that literacy is a family affair and that in order for Latino children to succeed in school, the family must be included in the effort. Parents must have an opportunity to improve their own literacy skills, as well. The program uses quality Spanish and bilingual children's literature to empower parents to help their children progress in their literacy. Its two components are the adult session and the children’s session. In each monthly adult session, a Spanish or bilingual children’s book is chosen for use based upon its cultural relevance to the group. It must also spark a personal connection and allow adults to share their life experiences with the group and their children. In groups of 8 to 10, a bilingual-bicultural facilitator encourages a dialogue and a piece of writing, or scribes a collective piece based upon the theme of the session. The writings are then entered on the computer and given to children in the bilingual program for illustration. Drawings are also solicited from Latino students at the middle and high schools. Finally, the book is published and distributed at the next meeting. Themes that have been addressed in the past include friendship, religion, working families, the life of the migrant worker, racism, and discrimination. Facilitators in the children’s session direct craft activities based on the theme of the book used for the adults. For example, for the theme of First Memories children made clay handprints for their parents. For the visit by children’s book author George Ancona, children made piñatas and broke several that had been created earlier. Omar Castañeda, Carmen Bernier-Grand, Margarita Robles, Juan Felipe Herrera, Isabel Campoy, Silvia Gonzalez, Alma Flor Ada, Rosa Zubizarreta, and others have visited Libros y Familias. The children’s book used in the session is given to parents so they can read to their children and share experiences from their own lives. The sessions end with the children and parents coming together for a raffle of children’s books and Latino artwork. |