Wanjiru Waweru, Jadetimes Contributor
W. Waweru is a Jadetimes News Reporter Covering America News
Worcester, Massachusetts — Over 9,000 books have been reviewed from this incredible library at Worcester Elementary School since January. Assistant Principal Jodi Moynah reported about the book resources in the bilingual process.
“I would say it’s say probably about 50/50 for making sure we have books that are in Spanish as well as English,” said Moynah.
The recent, bilingual library at Worcester Dual Language Magnet appears in almost 5,000 multilingual books, specifically in Spanish and English.
“We do a lot of reading in the classroom of course, but a lot of it is the curriculum. So this gives students an opportunity to find books that they’re excited about,” said Moynah. “Find books that they want to read. Books they can bring home to read to their families.”
Moynah reported the extension of access to recent books supports the school in improving the education system to help their students and provide everyone to enjoy reading, no matter what language they speak.
“We have students whose primary language is English learning Spanish and whose primary language is Spanish learning English,” said Moynah.
Over 75% of the school’s students are Hispanic or Latino. Instruction is combined in both English and Spanish, respectively and around the third grade, the day’s lesson are separated in half.
“It’s a nice extension from the classroom that gives students the opportunity to be excited about reading, in both languages,” said Moynah.
The effort to create this library was enormously led by the school’s parent-teacher organization.
“They worked extremely hard to get donations. They worked directly with the Worcester Public Library and donated countless hours of their time to catalog books and to clean out books that weren’t necessary anymore,” said Moynah.
Parent volunteers donated over 500 hours of their time this year to staff the library, providing students from all 29 classes with a weekly visit.
“Having the opportunity to come, right at their own school, and check books out and check books in. I see children every morning running back and forth to check in books they read over the weekend,” said Moynah.
Moynah explained they recommended students to spend at least 20 minutes a day reading outside of school and this library would be huge stepping stone.
