Friends,
I wanted to report back to everyone who has supported Libros for Learning. It has been a wonderful year for the project and for the kids in Cabo Corrientes.
Four of us spent Thanksgiving week in Cabo Corrientes delivering books and meeting teachers. We delivered 8 libraries to primary school classrooms. Each of the libraries had 125 – 150 books that spanned difficulty levels from first grade to sixth grade. The books each had a library card in a pocket glued into the back cover. We also bought bookshelves this year, because most classrooms lack storage space for new books. At each stop, we explained how to check out the books from the teacher and how to take good care of books. We stayed at each school for a few hours. We sat with the kids and did partner reading and group read aloud. Read aloud provides such positive enthusiasm for reading. It would be great for the teachers to spend a little time with read-aloud every day.
We checked on some of the libraries we delivered in the past. The results are encouraging. The kids continue to read them at home and return them to the schools. We will look for the biggest results in 2-3 years among the kids who have had books available to them through their entire schooling. We expect that they will be better readers and more likely to continue their education through 12th grade.
We also decided to spend time with middle and high school teachers (those schools are called “secundario” and “preparatorio”). In particular, we spent time talking about the new English curriculum in Mexico. As of 2008, English language education is part of the curriculum starting in fifth grade. The government has developed an interactive computer-based curriculum that teaches all levels. The biggest challenges for the teachers are first, that they themselves don’t know English, so they cannot serve as experts; the second is that there is no written material to support the computer lessons. They asked for English language books for the students to read n order to practice. As a result of these conversations, we have decided to expand the work of Libros for Learning to include English language books for the middle and high schools. We will be very selective about what we provide – the books will have to be at a simple level – 2nd – 4thgrade is probably ideal. They must also be engaging and visual. If the themes are too young, they kids will not be interested. I have begun scouting out books that may work for these libraries. If you have thoughts about this, please let me know.
We are trying to set up some “Epal” relationships between high school students here and in Mexico. Two principals in schools down there are very interested. They have the internet capability in the schools and are excited to get started. Spanish teachers in my county are going to try to create that.
The year was a financial success. We raised about $7000 and spent it all on the project. As always, we spent no money on salaries or office space. The labor for organizing and labeling the books was all donated, mostly by schoolkids here in North and South Carolina. Special thanks to Mike Leonard of “Reading is Power.” Mike orders the books and does all the spreadsheet work for Libros for Learning along with continuing his own project.
We had support this year from two Rotary Clubs in North Carolina and are working to expand that relationship in 2011. We also got help from many classrooms who adopted Libros for Learning as their class service projects. Some classes raised money, some bought books, and many of them made bookmarks to accompany the books. In visiting with those classes, we were able to teach them about Mexico and about the challenges their friends in Mexican schools face.
Our goal for 2011 is to deliver 20 new libraries to primary schools and to provide English language libraries to two middle and high schools.
Enough information. If you want to learn more, go to the website, www.librosforlearning.com
Photos from the recent trip are in a Picasa album http://picasaweb.google.com/gbaron1950/LibrosForLearning201002#
Thanks for everything,
Glenn Baron
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