Helping Parents Connect to Their Children

Every semester bilingual Program Officer Corrin Chambers from the Reading Connections comes to the Family Literacy classroom to teach parents how to read with their children. Every time she covers a different aspect of reading and shows the parents how to do it. The first session in October she talked about bilingual books and during the second session she talked about wordless books where parent and child can make up their own stories.

The parents love coming to these classes because they not only learn new reading techniques but receive free books for their children as well. This way they can immediately apply what they have learned in class.

I follow up on these classes by talking about what was taught and by having the parents read the books out loud in class. I make sure that everything is understood and that the parents are reading the books using the new techniques at home.

by Eugenie Ballering, M.Ed.
Family Literacy Instructor

Volunteer Spotlight: Katherine Milliner

We are finding that one of the main reasons why parents stop attending our ESL program is because they find the class too challenging or not advanced enough to meet their needs. To deal address this issue we have changed the structure of our ESL program from 4 days of classes per week (with 2 beginner classes and 1 intermediate class per day) to 3 days of classes and 2 days of small group tutoring per week. This allows us not only to offer 5 full days of literacy programming as opposed to 4, but also to meet our parents where they are at in terms of their literacy level. We are hopeful that these changes will help us increase our retention rate with parents by up to 50% so that more parents improve their literacy levels by year’s end than anticipated. We currently have 105 parents participating in our classes!

This change in the structure of our ESL/Family Literacy program depends upon talented volunteers to lead our small group tutoring sessions on Tuesday and Thursday. One woman who has been giving her time and talents each week to help us better serve our families literacy needs is Katherine Milliner (pictured above).

What brought you to volunteer at CFNC?

Katherine: I came here from Idaho. My husband is working with the President's Malaria Initiative for a couple of years. So here I was with time on my hands and looking for something useful to do. I went on the Internet, found your organization, and you welcomed me with open arms. I called and was invited to come in.

Education is my background, so this was a good fit for me. It was an amazing thing because I was able to step right in. In terms of you being open to receiving me into the fold and letting me help in a way that I could was lovely.

Tell me about your experience so far volunteering with our ESL program.

Katherine: It has been delightful...I was also taking Spanish classes, which was a really humbling experience, and that was one of the reasons I felt I need to do something to help those on the other side of this because I know how much I am struggling. I have support, and I have books, and I have everything at my disposal...I have also lived over seas so I know what it is like not to be able to communicate.

My experience has been I come here for an hour and a half on Thursdays to a room full of eager, enthusiastic, happy women, whose needs are met. They have deposited their children with you, and they are anxious to learn. Their camaraderie is great. Their reception of me has been phenomenal...We just have a good time.

Has there been any one moment so far that stands out in your mind?

Katherine: I think for me the most touching thing is if I am asking a woman to speak who doesn't even have a strong voice for herself in her native language, and she is brave enough to try and say the words in a foreign language. If we can create an atmosphere where she is willing to try it, it is a beautiful moment. And there are lots of those little beautiful moments.

ESL Student's Leadership Makes A Difference

On Monday, April 14th at 6:00 pm a contingent of CFNC children, parents, ESL students and staff, converged on City Hall to ask the City Council to allocate surplus money to the Children’s Fund so that CFNC could continue to provide much needed services to Alexandria's low-income residents.

Approximately 25 children and parents met at our main office to show their support of CFNC's commitment to children and families. CFNC staff planned to use taxicabs to transport everyone; however, Andrea Sierra Aguilar rallied everyone to carpool so that CFNC would not have to incur any expenses. Her leadership was a success, and parents who had cars transported others to and from the event.

Andrea Sierra Aguilar is one of my oldest continuing clients. I first met her in 2001 when I started working here. She had started ESL classes at the old Presidential Greens site. Through the years, she attended English classes, as she was able per her work schedule. At present, she has gained enough command of the English language to get a better position in her job, and to be able to volunteer at our Birchmere center in our preschool classes. Andrea is so proud of being able to give back that she even designed and wears a CFNC volunteer badge. Andrea is a perfect example of an immigrant woman’s desire to better herself and attain the American Dream.

by Blanca Leyva, Director of Family Support Services

Mom's Learning Too!

Ana Paniagua from El Salvador joined our ESL classes in September 2007. She has one daughter, Yosselyn, who is in one of CFNC's preschool classes. Anna tested as a beginning ESL Literacy student when she started ESL. That means that she could only understand a few isolated words, and extremely simple learned phrases. Her vocabulary was limited to a few isolated words and she had no control of grammar.

Anna has been coming to the ESL classes regularly after she drops her daughter off in the morning. She has gradually become more comfortable in English. She has started helping other students in the class. She has told me how she uses learned vocabulary with her daughter. She reads the books she has read in class with her. She sings nursery rhymes with her and she volunteers in her daughter’s class.

She volunteered to read an English children’s book in her daughter’s class. She had received the book through the Reading Connection which had given a reading workshop in our ESL class. She had learned how to use rhyming words when reading to a child. She did exactly that when she read the book in her daughter’s class. She also acted the story out and she asked the preschoolers questions. The children loved it and her daughter was beaming with pride (they are both pictured above).

After 60 hours of ESL instruction she took a post ESL test. She became a High Intermediate ESL which means that she can now understand simple learned phrases easily, and can participate in basic conversations in a few very routine social situations. She has now some control of basic grammar.

By Eugenie Ballering, ESL Instructor