by Scott Albright
Daily Lobo
Parents and teachers at Dolores Gonzales Elementary School attribute student success and community enhancement to the UNM College of Education's Family Literacy Program.
The program is designed to help parents and students who are mostly Spanish-speaking develop literacy skills in order to improve their educational experience.
"The community has called on the University to improve literacy," said
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Leila Flores-Due§as, a professor at the College of Education and co-director of the program.
Parents and students meet every Thursday after school with teachers to discuss reading, writing and speaking skills needed to communicate in school.
Parents are given assignments to do at home with their families.
The homework is assessed at the meetings, and then the parents break off into separate groups to do exercises.
The students then answer questions about the homework.
Theresa Sandoval, who teaches kindergarten at the school, said 90 percent of the program is in Spanish, but all the books are bilingual.
"It doesn't matter what answer they give, as long as the kids are critically thinking," she said.
Betty Chavez, a teacher at the school, said the program promotes self-esteem, and it helps parents, teachers and students work together.
"I think it brings the parents and the children together," she said. "The community has gotten stronger. Parents are talking to each other. There is this bonding going on between children and parents - a really strong bond."
Latania Marr, a second grade teacher at the school, said 30 families participate in the program.
Since the program began in August 2005, there have been fewer fights at the school, and parents and teachers communicate better, Chavez said.
Karina Acosta, the mother of three children who attend the school, said the teachers are good role models for her.
"It's brought me together with my children in the area of literacy, and I feel that the teachers have helped me to know what to do in that regard," she said.
Acosta is from Mexico but has lived in the Barelas neighborhood south of Downtown for six years.
Marr said many of the parents in the program are from Mexico, and there is one family from Chile.
Marr said parents should understand how important school is for their children.
Nieves Torres, co-director of the program, said students who attend Dolores Gonzales come from mostly Spanish-speaking, low-income families.
All the students receive free or discounted lunches.
Roadrunner Food Bank supplies groceries that the school gives to participating families.
"The groceries are meant to supplement the family's diet, but sometimes it's their staple diet," Torres said.
Winter clothes are also provided by the school.
Trisha Vallez said her daughter Pearl, 9, is a straight-A student at the school because of the program.
She said she is grateful for what the program has done for her family.
"I was kind of homeless here for a while," she said. "Everything went down, and I got depressed, and I think that this program gave me hope."
Vallez said she is more family-oriented now.
"It's brought us a lot closer, because we get to share more things together. The whole school is like that - really wonderful," she said.
Chavez said parents gain self-confidence through the program.
"They don't think of themselves as teachers. They think of themselves more as guardians or the mom and dad," she said. "Parents are the most important teachers."
