As an English Language Learner teacher at FHS, Megan Bunn was awarded a Creative Teaching Grant to purchase Spanish versions of Young Adult literature. Research has shown that students learning a new language have a higher success rate if they are literate in their first language. Read Megan’s summary, and see pictures below:
One of the things that we have tried to work on in the ELL room is to increase comprehension in reading in both their native language and also in English. In order to accomplish this, we really needed current books that were in Spanish for the students to read to help increase comprehension. The Creative Teaching Grant helped fulfill that need. We now have a larger selection of books that are in Spanish.
In addition, Megan has created a reading curriculum that goes along with each book. Students are now able to read popular books such as Charlotte’s web, Enrique’s Journey, The Fault in Our Stars, The House on Mango Street, Esperanza Rising, and Tree Girl. The book, Tree Girl is in English but tells the story of a Guatemalan girl who speaks the same dialect that many our students speak.
