Oak Hill Elementary launches Bilingual Family Reading Room

On Friday, April 15, Oak Hill El­ementary School launched the Oak Hill Bilingual Family Reading Room to promote reading between students and family members at school and at home.

To celebrate the opening of the read­ing room, the school hosted its first of five Family Fridays, with 85 fam­ily members reading the book, “Vida Frida” in either English or Spanish to students in classrooms throughout the school.

Family Friday Program participants receive coaching in a select reading strategy prior to facilitating a class­room reading activity. Family mem­bers who participate in the Family Friday Program receive a copy of the book to be able to continue to practice the reading strategies with their child at home.

Facilitated by the school’s family liaison and librarian, the Oak Hill Bi­lingual Family Reading Room hosts a variety of programs to equip parents and other family members with the tools to support their child’s ongo­ing reading development. The Family Reading is Fun Program and Family Story Time are additional activities offered through the reading room staff at Oak Hill Elementary School; bring­ing together parents and their child to learn and practice reading strategies together on a weekly basis.

“Parents attending activities in the reading room are not only learn­ing a lot, but they are having a good time while reading and learning,” ex­plained Giannina Whiting, family li­aison and co-founder of the Oak Hill Bilingual Family Reading Room. “We want parents to enjoy reading and we want them to be able to make that con­nection at home with their children.”

The Oak Hill Bilingual Family Reading Room was funded through an Innovation Grant from the Escon­dido Education Foundation in the fall of 2015.