‘Sometimes, to be in a classroom with all Anglo students,’ Guadelupe Moreno says,
‘it’s hard — they get a little shy and don’t want to raise their hands.
But in a classroom with all Hispanic students, their confidence gets better.’
wondering what she was doing, but others
picked up the cue and began to sing along,
giggling and pointing at each other.
To learn more English, older kids might
look at books such as Gathering the Sun: An
Alphabet in Spanish and English by Alma
Flor Ada. Each letter begins a short poem,
accompanied by illustrations of work in the
fields or Mexican cultural heritage. In the
library, there are also books like Doble
Fudge and Las Aventuras del Capitán
Calzoncillos, even Harry Potter y la Órden
del Fénix.
Older kids complete projects that fit with
state standards. Last year, in Bartlett’s third
and fourth grade class, each child researched
a historical or contemporary Latino figure
like Dolores Huerta or Pancho Villa. The
class created a timeline for their famous peo-
ple, and traced and colored portraits, writing
a few sentences of information under the
portrait. This year, who knows? With geog-
raphy as the focus, they might create a huge
map of Mexico, helping them see where
many of their parents came from, the places
their grandparents and cousins call home.
Figeuroa, Victor Ramos, and many more —
blushed and smiled as the adults clapped and
kids cheered. In Spanish, teacher Leticia
Raspa said to the parents, “It’s important to
give an example to your kids. This is in
order to give a better life to them.” The kids
ate ice cream and cake; older kids switched
between Spanish and English or spoke
Spanglish, a quick and easy mixture.
Josefina Cardenas, who comes from the
state of Sonora, near Arizona, understands
much English but speaks mostly Spanish.
Through an interpreter, she said that her 6-
year-old son learned a lot in last year’s sum-
mer school, not only about Mexican culture
but also academic information that helped
him continue to succeed in school. Olivia
Hernandez, another mom, comes from
Michoacán, an Atlantic state in central
Mexico. All three of her kids have attended
summer school, and she says learning about
their own culture helps them when they go
to “regular” school. Hernandez came to the
first day of summer school, accompanying
the children and making sure things were
running smoothly.
N
ancy Bray is the director of the
English Language Learning pro-
gram for the Springfield School
District. With about 80 students qualifying
this year as migrants or kids of migrant par-
ents, and after years of work in the Migrant
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n June 5th, 4-year-old Judy
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the tables in Westmoreland
Elementary School’s gym. Her black patent
shoes tapped the floor; her face beamed as
she accepted her “diploma” for participating
in MEP during the school year. Just a few
minutes before, she and 18 other small-to-
medium-sized kids lined the front of the
gym to sing about elefantes who kept doing
something silly and losing some of their
cohort, very like the counting song in
English about the little bear who said, “I’m
crowded, roll over!”
Suddenly, it was time for las mamás y los
papás to accept their certificates for com-
pleting a course in English or a computer
course. The parents — Rosio Diaz, Teresa
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JUNE 29, 2006
13