MVSD Celebrates Family Biliteracy Program

MVSD Celebrates Family Biliteracy Program

     The Mountain View School District was proud to honor the exceptional families who participated in the District’s six-week Virtual Family Biliteracy Program.  The special celebration, hosted by MVSD’s Family Engagement Department, honored family members from all 10 of the District’s elementary schools including Baker, Cogswell, La Primaria, Maxson, Miramonte, Monte Vista, Payne, Parkview, Twin Lakes and Voorhis Schools. 

      Strengthening family connections through literature and language in Spanish and English or Mandarin and English is the goal of the Family Biliteracy Program. Throughout the six weeks families were involved in hands-on projects, engaging discussions and high levels of critical literacy.  Utilizing bilingual books, they learned strategies for engaging students in their primary language using dialogic reading.

     Led by MVSD teachers and support staff, classes were held twice a week and for participating families enriched the levels of biliteracy, enhanced first language instruction and promoted the idea of family as a unified learning unit. 

   “We are grateful we were able to continue to provide this worthwhile program for our families during this challenging year,” said Priscilla Figueroa, Director of Family Engagement. “Our teachers and staff members did a wonderful job adapting it into the virtual setting and our parents really enjoyed the time they dedicated to sharing this experience with their children as they highlighted the assets of their primary language and shared the richness of their culture,” she said.

        Throughout the program teachers model, differentiate and tailor biliteracy skills such as reading, writing, speaking, listening and comprehending across languages.  Using books, story maps, arts and crafts, singing, dancing and cooking, the activities are geared toward creating a multidimensional biliteracy.

     Jennelle Chou, MVSD’s Mandarin Enrichment teacher, targeted the Mandarin language to help children become more familiar with their parents’ native language and where they come from.

     “The three books we read were very good for the students to learn the Chinese culture, language and literacy,” said Chou.  “Our families enjoyed cooking together and made traditional Chinese dishes like Egg Ball Waffles.  They also explored the Chinese culture by dancing the Fan dance.”

       Twin Lakes teacher, Rosanna Gonzalez enjoyed having one of her former students attend the program with her child and is thankful to the parent participants for keeping Spanish alive in their homes.

       Teacher, Maricela Angulo-Borrayo commended the families for their outstanding efforts and was pleased to see growth and development in language over the course of the six weeks.

       Parents expressed their appreciation to the District for providing such a beneficial program.

      Thank you to the Superintendent, Board of Education and Ms. Thomas for the program which allowed families to come together and share their culture with everyone,” said Miriam Farias, a parent from La Primaria School who attended with her daughter Annabelle.  “The books we read talked about a lot of things in the Spanish culture like why the Spanish alphabet has extra letters.  It’s a really wonderful program.”

       School principals joined in the celebration and commended the families and instructors for their tremendous work.

      “I really enjoyed popping in to the Family Biliteracy Program each week to see the awesome work of our teacher, parents and students,” said Terri Thomas, principal of La Primaria School.

       “Reading is such a powerful thing in a child’s education and having the opportunity to share languages and cultures and celebrate with our families is wonderful and enriching,” said Shane Muetzel, principal of Cogswell School.

       “Our families are the pride and joy of our District,” said Dr. Hugo Moreno, principal of Payne School.  “We appreciate the families taking part in this program and their commitment to their heritage, and we thank them for promoting the multiple cultures that make up Mountain View.”  

      MVSD is dedicated to building family connections through literacy and primary language

as well as providing engaging, enriching and empowering programs for parents and families which positively impact students and their educational journey.

  • Mountain View Preschool Programs
  • Magnolia Learning Center