by Jenni Betts Deming and Jane Schneider

Egypt Elementary second-grader Odalys Ibarra concentrates on the open Mac laptop in front of her, which displays a shiny, animated bathroom scene. She and her mother, Norma, watch as the words “shower” and “toilet” magically appear on the screen.

“I’m just playing,” clarifies 7-year-old Odalys, who says she already knows the words in the vocabulary game. This is really for her Spanish-speaking mother who attends school with Odalys several times a week.

Although she still occasionally relies on Odalys to help translate Spanish thoughts into English, Norma Ibarra says she better understands her new language because of the Toyota Family Literacy Program, which was launched in three Memphis City Schools (MCS) last year.

“Before I speak nothing, now [my English] is better,” she says with a proud smile.

For many foreign-born Latino parents like Norma, learning English often takes a back seat to caring for family or working to pay expenses, says Latino Memphis director Mauricio Calvo.

But for about 70 Memphis mothers, and a few fathers, they no longer have to choose between providing for their families and furthering their education. They can do both, thanks to Toyota’s free literacy program, which offers child care for stay-at-home mothers, and night classes in English for working parents.

More than just ESL
Director Deborah Hasson, who coordinates 25 Toyota Family Literacy Programs across the nation for the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL), explains the program’s aim is to teach English and promote literacy for the whole family, not just the child. “Our president and founder, Sharon Darling, had this idea over 20 years ago of uniting parents and children to learn together as a means to combat poverty,” she says of the unique brand of simultaneous, in-school learning.

In 2008, MCS was chosen from a pool of nearly 200 school districts nationally to receive the three-year, $600,000 TFLP grant. When selecting districts for the grant, NCFL noted the high number of English-language learners at MCS, which has skyrocketed over the last decade, according to ESL Programs Supervisor Andrew Duck.

During the 2000-2001 school year, MCS registered about 1,700, mostly-Hispanic English Language Learner (ELL) students; by 2008 that figure had more than tripled to 5,450 students. At the three Toyota Family Literacy schools, Egypt Elementary, Berclair Elementary, and South Park Elementary, ELL students make up between 22 to 51 percent of the student body.

To participate in the program, parents of ELL students must commit to a minimum of 10 hours per week at their child’s school. This includes a combination of Parent Time, when parents learn their role as the child’s first teacher; Parent and Child Together Time (PACT), when parents learn subject matter alongside their children in the classroom; and Adult ESL classes.

Hasson says children love having their parents come to school each week.
“The children are so excited to have their parents in class with them. The children are so motivated when they see their parents. They behave better and they get better grades,” she says.

During their PACT time, William and his mom, Rocio, play a reptile bingo game. William chooses a scaley-creatured card, then reads the lengthy description on the flipside. He does quite well, except for puzzling over the humdinger “poisonous.” Rocio, who received some nurses’ training before moving to the U.S. from a Mexican border town, carries on an English conversation with relative ease.

“When I go somewhere I can explain what I need,” she says plainly: “It helps with everything. Here in Memphis you have to speak English, very little people speak Spanish here.”

Rocio says she will often see a Latino person in the supermarket or elsewhere struggling to communicate. Now, she says, she can help those people, and she likes that feeling. She can also speak with William’s teachers with confidence and help him with homework. As her confidence has grown, so too has her son’s.

Better speaking skills bolsters confidence
Eygpt Elementary Principal Rita White says she’s noticed a trend of confidence and openness in mothers like Rocio at Egypt, where approximately 25 percent of the 800 students are Hispanic, and 98 percent live in households with earnings that fall below the poverty line.

“This is the best parent involvement you can possibly get,” says White of the boost in participation. “[Program parents] are here all the time — before, they weren’t.”

White also gets to know the mothers personally. “I hear each one’s individual stories,” she says. “One parent was telling me that she was one of 13 children and that she was so blessed to be coming to school — she had never been able to come to school before, she grew up in a circus. This was her first experience of getting to come to a school of any kind.”

Such stories are not uncommon, observes Calvo.

“You’re dealing with a community that is uneducated. These are people who came from a third-world country, where education is not the same as it is here,” he says, noting an estimated 100,000 Latinos now live in the Memphis metro area.

Calvo says many, who hail mostly from Mexico and Central America, want to study English, but face significant barriers when it comes to learning and helping their children thrive in an English-language school system.
“You’re going to find a large number of people who do not know how to read or write — even in Spanish. So literacy is a huge piece of the equation because if these parents are not equipped in either English or Spanish, they cannot help their children,” he says.

Through the TFLP, the hope is that by becoming more literate, parents will be better equipped to take a lead role in teaching their children. “We want the parents to be able to help their children and we want the parents to understand what their children are doing [at school],” says Andrew Duck, who supervises more than 75 ESL programs for MCS. “Research shows that parents are naturally the first teachers, so we’re helping our parents help their children.” And, in the process, parents are learning to help themselves.

Thanks to program funding, White and her staff have taken the women to the Orpheum, a local beauty salon, even the post office. “Exposing [TFLP mothers] to the community is as important as learning English,” says White. “The fathers are out in the world, it’s not the fathers that are isolated. It’s the mothers.”

Calvo says he sees many Hispanic mothers become cut off and depressed because they cannot interact with their community. That’s something, he says, a program like this can help change.

“This depression comes out of frustration from being isolated for so long, always depending on someone to take you somewhere,” he says of some stay-at-home Latino moms who may not have a driver’s license. “So I really think this program enriches the life of women in other areas as well.”

With a little learning, a little involvement, and a lot of confidence, TFLP parents like Norma and Rocio are quickly becoming the most dynamic and connected parents at school, says Hasson, who’s seen the program’s far-reaching gains in 90 schools across the country since 2003.

“Family literacy is such a practical, sensible idea,” she says. “When you’re working with a family unit, it’s really win-win all the way around — the children benefit, the family benefits, the school benefits, and the community-at-large benefits.”

Immigrant Growth Felt in County Schools
by Jane Schneider

With the arrival of summer, many Shelby County ELL students return to homes where English isn’t the primary language. To keep new skills sharp, the Shelby County Schools (SCS) runs an English as a Second Language (ESL) Summer Camp. Elementary-aged children meet a half-day for two weeks to learn about geography, share their culture, and have fun.

“The biggest challenge is meeting kids where they are,” says Todd Goforth. director of SCS’s ESL program. “They speak many different languages and are learning at different levels, both with their English and academically. If they are behind in reading, we must bring them up to their grade level.”

And unlike the way ESL was once taught, grouping foreign-speaking children together to learn at their own pace, today’s students are mainstreamed into regular classrooms, immediately immersed in both language and learning.

About half of these children start school with no English speaking skills, “and since they can’t get help with homework at home, we must be able to provide that extra level of support,” says Goforth. It takes one to two years for kids to become conversant in English, but three to five years to fully comprehend academic language. So classes like the summer school camp focus on strengthening academic vocabulary.

SCS serves more than 1,200 ELL students a year, and Goforth estimates 25 new students enroll each month. Most of those are Latinos. With more than 54 languages spoken by students in the county schools, it’s imperative they become fluent in English in order to progress academically.

One tool Goforth has developed to meet that aim is a resource-based web site for ESL teachers. It offers exercises in English speaking, listening, reading, and writing, and “is broken into specific areas so you can focus on the individual skills with a child,” notes Goforth, who is also president of Tennessee’s Teachers to Speakers of Other Languages organization. He includes teacher modification tips that explain how to assess ELL students and break down assignments. The site has become a popular one and is used by ESL instructors around the country.

In addition, the district makes ESL available to adult speakers, with classes offered at three different locations year-round (please see sidebar on the following page).

Latino Memphis: Connecting to the Latino Community

Latino Memphis strives to connect the Hispanic community with the rest of Memphis, and vice versa. The nonprofit serves two types of clientele, Hispanic individuals and families, as well as agencies and organizations wanting to reach Hispanics. Latino Memphis works to help in the areas of health, education, justice, information, and culture. The organization provides assistance to pregnant women, educational classes, nutrition and exercise counseling, support groups, and special events for the Latino community.

For information, call 366-5882, or visit latinomemphis.org. Latino Memphis offices are located at 2838 Hickory Hill Road.

Memphis area Adult ESL Classes
If you or someone you know needs help learning English, check out the following locations. Classes are free unless otherwise noted. Buena suerte — good luck.

Mason Family YMCA • 458-9622
3548 Walker Ave. • ymcamemphis.org

Memphis Literacy Council • 327-6000
902 S. Cooper • memphisliteracycouncil.org

Messick Adult Center (Memphis City Schools) • 416-4077 or 4895
703 S. Greer • mcsk12.net
Classes offered at Messick and at satellite locations

Moses Community Coalition, United Way, Health Loop Community Program/
Regional Medical Center • Hollywood Branch Library, 1530 N. Hollywood
Call Salvador 758-0593 or Patricia 515-5582

Shelby County Schools • 674-0774
Millington Public Library, 4858 Navy Road
Bert Ferguson Community Center, 8085 Trinity Road, Cordova
Call Todd Goforth, 321-2553

Sycamore View Church of Christ • 372-1874
1910 Sycamore View • sycamoreview.org

University of Memphis Intensive English for Internationals • 366-5882
Latino Memphis, 2838 Hickory Hill
Call for fees

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