This project, funded by a CU Boulder PACES Grant, solidifies a long-term collaboration between faculty and instructors in CU Boulder’s School of Education and McElwain Elementary at Adams 12 Five Star School District. The goal of this project is to support and enhance the reading, language, and digital literacy practices of multilingual families and students in K-5 classrooms.

From 2021-2024, the research team (Silvia Noguerón-Liu, Kristen Driscoll, and Emily Johns O’Leary) has visited with and collaborated with school and district staff, including community and family liaisons and translators, teachers, and leaders. Through visits to classrooms and activities with families, the research team has curated and designed literacy kits and text sets for families, teachers, and children. These kits and text sets aim to represent the languages and cultures of children from Afghanistan and from Spanish-Speaking countries. McElwain Elementary is one of the schools recognized by Adams 12 as engaging in exemplary practices, and hosting family engagement events, promoting family leadership and involvement. With the support of the Outreach Award, the research team has been able to continue learning from exemplar and knowledgeable school partners, and develop literacy educational resources that they can share with future teachers in our Elementary Education licensure program.

In Spring of 2024, the research team was able to expand project activities to focus efforts on one more school (Westview Elementary), in addition to ongoing visits and activities in McElwain Elementary. With the additional funding from a School of Education Place-Based Seed Grant,  the research team was able to focus on visiting classrooms in both schools, and developed scaffolding resources for reading for emergent bilingual students (e.g., vocabulary supports, sentence-level supports for complex grammar), and to share with our CU Boulder elementary education students.

This list summarizes the outreach activities conducted by our team from fall 2021-summer 2024:

• Curation and design of literacy kits for kindergarten students (December 2021, December 2022, December 2023). We were able to send each kindergarten student (about 60-70 each year) with a picture book, literacy activities and links to multilingual storytelling resources for them to explore during winter break.
• Literacy workshops for parents/caregivers in Dari/Pashto and Spanish (October 2021, March-May 2023)
• Literacy booth and green screen activities for McElwain’s Reading & Recreation annual event. We distributed about 50 picture books to families each year, featuring culturally diverse characters and athletes, and took pictures of students with their favorite athlete, character, or book cover (May 2022, May 2023, May 2024).
• Visits and observations in classrooms (fall 2023-spring 2024)
• Library visit (Anythink Huron Library), translation, and transportation of families speaking Dari and Pashto (May 2023). We were able to support families obtaining library cards, and are working on establishing more opportunities and partnering with a new Anythink Branch opening in Fall 2024.

Lastly, in 2024, we were able to refocus our efforts on the needs of newcomers from South America, one of the student populations that has increased significantly in Adams 12 and other Denver area districts. The activities, expertise and networks developed through this Outreach Grant were instrumental in securing more funding. The PI (Silvia Noguerón-Liu), together with a group of Latinx and bilingual researchers, were awarded a New Frontiers Grant to fund the project: Empowering Newcomer Students: A Multifaceted Approach to Culturally Sustaining STEAM Education and AI Integration.  The work of this group (including members of this Outreach Grant research team) were featured in this CU Boulder Today’s story: Meeting the needs of Colorado ‘newcomer’ K-12 students (June 12, 2024).

Literacy Outreach Activities with McElwain and Westview partners will continue in Summer and Fall 2024.

• Family Workshops about Literacy and Digital Learning

  Additional Info

  Caregivers and parents attended after-school sessions with their children. In these workshops, we read and explored culturally relevant books and literacy resources for elementary-age children.

  ---

  Location

  in colorado

  Thornton

  Dates

  3/1/2023 - 5/10/2023

  Public or Private

  Private Program (by request only or for a specific audience or group)

  Program Fee

  No charge to attend/participate in activity or program

• Library Visit - Anythink Huron

  Additional Info

  Caregivers and children who speak Dari and Pashto as home languages, came together at a library site. With guidance from translators and library staff, caregivers obtained library cards and were able to check out materials.

  ---

  Location

  in colorado

  Thornton

  Dates

  5/31/2023 - 5/31/2023

  Public or Private

  Private Program (by request only or for a specific audience or group)

  Program Fee

  No charge to attend/participate in activity or program

• Literacy Booth at Reading and Recreation Event (May 2022) Theme: NONFICTION!

  Additional Info

  Our team in Literacy Studies at CU Boulder hosted a literacy booth to share nonfiction texts and idea notebooks with students and families attending the event (Reading & Recreation at McElwain Elementary). The booth theme was Learning about Animals, and students were able to select nonfiction texts, and take a green screen photograph with their favorite animal.

  ---

  Location

  Dates

  Ongoing

  Distribution Location

  Within Colorado

• Literacy Booth at Reading and Recreation Event (May 2023) Theme: POWERFUL WORDS

  Additional Info

  Our team at Literacy Studies in CU Boulder hosted a literacy booth to share culturally relevant picture books and word cards with students and families attending the event (Reading & Recreation at McElwain Elementary).
  The booth theme was "Powerful Words." Students were able to select a picture book where characters learn about their powers and powerful words. Students were able to take a green-screen photo with their favorite character and book cover!

  ---

  Location

  Dates

  Ongoing

  Distribution Location

  Within Colorado

• Literacy Booth at Reading and Recreation Event (May 2024) Theme: AMAZING ATHLETES!

  Additional Info

  Our team at Literacy Studies in CU Boulder hosted a literacy booth to share books about athletes from diverse backgrounds with students and families attending the event (Reading & Recreation at McElwain Elementary).
  The booth theme was "Amazing Athletes" Students were able to select a picture book about U.S.-based and international athletes, including Ibtihaj Muhammad, Lionel Messi, Simone Biles, and Laurie Hernandez. Students were able to take a green-screen photo with their favorite athlete in the background.

  ---

  Location

  Dates

  Ongoing

  Distribution Location

  Within Colorado