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URBAN EDUCATION STUDENTS CREATE BOOKS IN SPANISH FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

(Houston, Texas, February 19, 2007)   When Associate Professor Maria Bhattacharjee or Urban Education has an idea, watch out!   Her students, required to use Spanish to teach reading and writing to young children, found that there were not enough books in Spanish out there.   Her solution?   The teachers could write the books.

Using a grant from the Technology Teaching and Learning Center, Bhattacharjee developed a pilot project for students in her PED 3314 Children's Literature in Spanish to produce 19 books in Spanish, written for pre-K non-readers.   Not only will these books, now on-line, support reading programs in the city's school districts, but they will also help parents who do not have reading skills to assist their children.

"In many instances Latino parents don't know what to do because they don't have the skills they need to assist their children," Bhattacharjee says.

Following course guidelines, Bhattacharjee's students are writing about family and tradition, a perfect content for socializing children into American and Latino culture.   One student who wrote a story about her family's experience now has the family requesting a book on the subject.   Maria Gonzales, who wrote a book in poetry form, is competing in Barcelona, Spain in a poetry competition.

"Next time around, I want a bigger grant so that we can have an English and a Spanish version of each book," Bhattacharjee says.

The Department of Urban Education at UHD was created to address the shortage of teachers in Texas.   It is a state-approved Center for Professional Development and Technology (UHD-CPDT).

The University of Houston-Downtown has developed a unique field-based teacher education and certification program. To find out more about the teacher education program at UHD, click here.

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