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Goal

There should be room on library shelves for books that speak to every student, encourage their academic growth, and represent every student's background and experiences. This should include honoring and celebrating students’ home languages and an emphasis on the importance of biliteracy. Deltona High School has a rich and diverse student population, and the books on our library shelves should be a reflection of that richness. The student body of DHS is 46% Hispanic, with robust Spanish-language and ESOL programs. Many of our students are also actively involved in our "Latinos in Action" leadership course and/or seeking the Florida Seal of Biliteracy through our Cambridge program and other advanced courses of study.

As a result, the goal of this project is to enhance our library collection with a variety of Spanish-language texts to support the needs of our various student populations and encourage their continued academic growth.  

What will be done with my students

This project is a collaboration between Deltona High School’s Media Specialist, the World Languages and ESOL departments, and the "Latinos in Action" leadership course. We will work together to ensure that the new books reach the widest possible audience and provide enrichment opportunities for students across our diverse student body.

When the Spanish-language texts are received, they will be labeled with a “Spanish” sticker on the spine, allowing them to be easily identified and accessible in the overall media collection.

On first arrival, the books will also be featured in a media display to promote the new titles. Students involved in our "Latinos in Action" leadership course will help to design and implement the display, with guidance from the Media Specialist. Teachers from the Literacy, ESOL, and World Language departments will then be encouraged to send students to check out books from the new display.

When students finish reading and return a Spanish-language title, they will be encouraged to complete a “Quick-Pick” book review for the title that can be displayed with the book to encourage future checkouts.

Students identified by ESOL and World Language teachers will also be invited to record video "book talks" promoting the titles in the Spanish-language collection for other students. They will plan and execute their book talks with assistance from the media specialist. Once students have recorded the book talks, flyers featuring QR codes for the videos will be published and promoted throughout the media center space, in Literacy, ESOL and World Language classrooms, and across various social media platforms.

The students participating in the "Latinos in Action" leadership course will also help to design flyers, announcements, and other promotional materials to encourage students to visit the media center and check out the Spanish-language titles across campus. Our hope is that this program will not only encourage participation in biliteracy programs, but that it will also provide additional leadership opportunities for our many talented students helping to build our "Latinos in Action" program.

Students will also be given an opportunity to suggest additional Spanish-language texts to be added to the collection in the future as interest in the program increases. The hope is that this will be an ongoing initiative and collaboration that will continue to grow over the next several years and beyond.

Connected World Language Literacy Standards:
Modes of Communication-
2. Interpretive Reading: The student will be able to understand and interpret information, concepts, and ideas in writing from a variety of culturally authentic sources on a variety of topics in the target language.

Intercultural Standards-
6. Culture: The student will be able to use the target language to gain knowledge and demonstrate understanding of the relationship among practices, products, and perspectives of cultures other than his/her own.
7. Connections: The student will be able to acquire, reinforce, and further his/her knowledge of other disciplines through the target language.
8. Comparisons: The student will be able to develop insight into the nature of the target language and culture by comparing his/her own language(s) and cultures to others.
9. Communities: The student will be able to use the target language both within and beyond the school setting to investigate and improve his/her world beyond his/her immediate surroundings for personal growth and enrichment.

Connected B.E.S.T. ELA Standards-
ELA.9.R.1.1: Explain how key elements enhance or add layers of meaning and/or style in a literary text.
ELA.9.R.1.2: Analyze universal themes and their development throughout a literary text.
ELA.9.R.3.2: Paraphrase content from grade-level texts.
ELA.10.R.1.3: Analyze coming of age experiences reflected in a text and how the author represents conflicting perspectives.
ELA.10.R.1.1: Analyze how key elements enhance or add layers of meaning and/or style in a literary text.
ELA.11.R.1.2: Track and analyze universal themes in literary texts from different times and places.
ELA.12.R.1.3: Evaluate the development of character perspective, including conflicting perspectives.  

Benefits to my students

There is an ever-growing body of research that supports the importance of biliteracy education and the many academic benefits of encouraging dual-language learners. Research shows that developing reading fluency in other languages also improves English reading fluency and comprehension for students across all age groups and ability levels. As a result, harnessing the benefits of biliteracy is a powerful tool as we look to improve our students' reading achievement and close learning gaps.

Biliteracy also strengthens students’ cognitive and executive function, helping to them to train their brains for improved decision-making, recall, memory, and focus. Research suggests that biliteracy even promotes emotional growth, by making students more empathetic and creating stronger ties to culture and community. The inclusion of biliteracy programs and materials benefits the whole student, both academically and emotionally.

Promoting biliteracy has a tremendous positive benefit to student reading growth and overall academic achievement, and our diverse student body would continue to benefit from the inclusion of these resources in our library collection for many years into the future.  

Budget Narrative

Most of the books being purchased place an emphasis on and center the authentic perspectives and voices of diverse Hispanic characters from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. The list also includes Spanish-language versions of some of the most popular English titles in the existing DHS library collection from a variety of genres, including graphic novels. The selected titles have a variety of reading levels to allow access to texts for students at varying levels of biliteracy. The hope is that this deliberate selection process will allow the Spanish-language titles to reach the widest audience and serve the broadest possible needs for our student body, from ESOL students to beginning World Language students to fluent Spanish speakers.

While more expensive than paperback copies, the cost of the requested titles includes library-quality binding, processing, labeling, and MARC records that are necessary for durability and longevity when texts are being added to long-term media collections. We want these titles to become a permanent addition to our library collection that will last for many years to come. Our hope is that this initial investment will create a circulation demand that can be built upon by adding additional Spanish-language titles to the collection in the future. 

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