Great Resources!

Recently I discovered two wonderful resources that I have to share with you all - stORytime and "Beyond Bilingual Storytime and ESL," a presentation from this year's recent PLA conference.

stORytime
StORytime is "a new early learning initiative created with the help of communities across Oregon with an investment from the state legislature. The initiative brings together parents, educators, Early Learning Hubs, Regional Achievement Collaboratives, libraries, local businesses, and culturally specific community partners to build awareness and shared responsibility for ensuring our youngest Oregonians are on track to read by third grade." I love this resource because it is all about empowering families AND...they have lots of great resources available in Spanish! Materials in Spanish include suggested early literacy activities for families, printable handouts and more. Great job Oregon!

"Beyond Bilingual Storytime and ESL"
A colleague who attended PLA in Denver shared the information from this session with me, and it is fantastic. It's all about outreach, and the presentation and outreach planning guide available on the session page clarify some extremely valuable points about outreach to Latino communities. For example, there isn't one "Latino" community! They also point out why traditional models of program development don't really work for underserved communities and propose a different, community-focused strategy. It's great work, and I highly recommend you check it out. Way to go Adriana (Ady) Huertas, Zoe Jarocki, and Simone Groene-Nieto.

What great resources have you come across lately that help you in service to Latino and Spanish-speaking children and families? Share them with us here!