The Coast News Group
Teachers, administrators and families from Oceanside Unified School District met at the Burlington store in Oceanside on Nov. 20 to celebrate the company donating $10,000 to the district for authentic Spanish literature for its bilingual program. Photo by Samantha Taylor.
CitiesCommunityCommunityNewsOceansideRegion

Store donates $10K to buy books for bilingual program

OCEANSIDE — Oceanside Unified School District received a $10,000 donation from Burlington Stores to help the district buy new books for its two-way, Spanish and English bilingual program.

The program began in 2012 and operates as a full immersion program. Students begin Kindergarten with 90% of their day being taught in Spanish, then as they get older Spanish is decreased and English is used more so that by fifth grade they are learning 50-50 in both languages.

Classrooms that are part of this program include students learning English and students already proficient in English. The goal is to teach students how to read, write and speak in two languages, but also for them to exchange cultures as well.

The $10,000 will be used to buy new Spanish books for the classrooms and libraries of the schools participating in the program, which are Reynolds Elementary, Garrison Elementary (currently sharing a campus with San Luis Rey Elementary) and Chavez Middle School.

The program currently stretches from kindergarten to sixth grade. The school board wants to see the program expand, according to Vicki Gravlin, senior director of curriculum and instruction for the district.

Eventually, the program will reach the district’s high schools. Students who continue the program through high school will receive a seal of biliteracy on their diploma.

The $10,000 will be used to purchase authentic Spanish literature for students. Burlington Stores partnered with AdoptAClassroom.org for the donation, Gravlin explained, so many of the books will be purchased through the non-profit organization’s vendors.

“We don’t want translated literature, we want authentic Spanish literature for our students to read because we are encouraging them to be biliterate but also we want them to celebrate the culture,” Gravlin said.

The teachers want books from various Spanish-speaking countries, not just from Mexico. That way, students can learn how to be bicultural while also expanding their vocabulary by exposing themselves to different words in Spanish from different countries that mean the same thing.

For example, the word “straw” is called “popote” in Mexico but is called “pitillo” in Colombia and “pajita” in Spain.

According to Matthew Jennings, communications director for the district, some of the titles teachers want to see include:

  • “Solo Un Segundo,” a book about time and what can happen in just seconds
  • “Soñadores,” which is about the journey from Mexico and life in the United States
  • “Desde los Orígenes,” a collection of traditional oral Mayan stories
  • “Escalera a la Luna,” a story about climbing a latter to the moon

“Pequeña y Grande Anne Frank.”

1 comment

Rick Schneck November 30, 2019 at 1:32 pm

Warning parents! Those “authentic” spanish materials are also teaching other things like fake climate science, plastic (straws, or “popotes plasticos” come to mind) and cultural attitudes unacceptable to most Americans. The culture we should be celebrating is the American culture, not some third-world country the citizens are fleeing from. All the named schools are currently failing the students. Now they’re trying to cover it up with an immersion program? Wake up parents. Vicki Gravlin and the ever poorly performing Oceanside Unified School District is peddling a political agenda, not an academic agenda.

Comments are closed.