Cultural Competence - Bilingualism & Biliteracy

We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to support our Dual Immersion Program’s Cultural Competence Articulation Plan. With the generous funds from the ORA and our elementary school’s PTO, we were able to purchase 50 high-quality children’s literature titles and make those permanently available for our dual language teachers. Classroom teachers are integrating these books into literacy instruction, which allows our bilingual students the opportunity to think critically about the role of culture, diversity, and equity in their lives. Teachers are also using these titles as mentor texts to engage students in collaborative conversations, enhancing their oral language development, comprehension, and cultural awareness. Some of our teachers have even invited parents into the classroom, to read the texts with the students and to share their own experiences as culturally- and linguistically-diverse community members and families. This has provided our program an opportunity to partner with families in an authentic and meaningful way that is directly related to student learning. We truly appreciate the support from the Oregon Reading Association in making this happen, and we look forward to continued work in taking advantage of our new resources! — Kinsey Martin