Kindergarten Reading Program To Improve English Literacy Skills A Success In First Year

The “Let’s Read Together” program, an initiative to help Spanish-speaking kindergarten students and their families improve their English literacy skills, was a success in its first year.

The program, a collaboration between Shenandoah University’s Claude Moore Center for Literacy (CMCL) and Winchester Public Schools, was funded by a $10,000 Family Literacy Grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation (DGLF) and launched in September 2025, at Garland F. Quarles Elementary School in Winchester. Twenty parents and guardians enrolled, with a core of 12-14 families regularly attending the program nearly every week. Each family received 20 books to build their own home libraries. Though designed for English-language learners, the program also welcomed several English-speaking parents who expressed interest in participating.

“Let’s Read Together” follows a research-based family literacy model developed by Dr. Grover Whitehurst, which includes three key components: adult education workshops that train parents in the dialogic reading method to use with their children, specialized children’s literacy instruction, and “parent and child together” (PACT) time where families practice those reading strategies together.

Through the “Let’s Read Together” program, Shenandoah University undergraduate students could earn practicum hours by observing parent-child interactions and reading with the children while parents and guardians participated in workshops. The program also provided opportunities to observe research-based interventions in a real-world setting, providing specialized training in English as a Second Language (ESL) support and community-based literacy outreach.

“When most adults share a book with a child, they read, and the child listens. In dialogic reading, the adult helps the child become the teller of the story. Basically, the Dialogic Reading method is children and adults having a conversation about a book,” said Shenandoah University Director of the Children’s Literature Program and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction Karen Huff, Ed.D. “Dialogic reading works. Children who have been read to dialogically are substantially ahead of children who have been read to traditionally on tests of language development.”

Marisol Rodriguez ’24, ’26, a fourth-grade teacher at Quarles Elementary and Shenandoah University student who will earn a Master of Science in literacy education in May, served as the lead teacher for “Let’s Read Together.”

“We have worked with about 14 consistent parents on teaching them dialogical reading strategies in hopes of improving vocabulary in kindergarten students in both Spanish and English,” Rodriguez said. “The Dollar General Literacy Foundation Grant has allowed us to provide bilingual books every week to kindergarten parents to share with their child to not only continue their student’s learning in school, but at home as they repeat the books and practice the strategies that we offer through the program. Parents have shared that not only has their students’ vocabulary improved, but they have also learned words both in Spanish and English through the books that we have offered.”

Parents and guardians who participated in the five-month “Let’s Read Together” program were recognized as part of Quarles Family Night on March 26, which featured Grammy Award-winning musician and children’s author Lucky Diaz. During his visit, Diaz, who is bilingual, performed a concert for guests and led a reading of his book, “Paletero Man,” which was one of the books given to families who participated in the “Let’s Read Together” program.

Quarles Family Night festivities included various activity stations set up throughout the school, which students visited and received stamps on the “passports” they were given for each station they visited. While students visited activity stations, Diaz signed free copies of “Paletero Man” and “La Guitarrista, The Rock Star” that were gifted to every student in attendance. Guests also enjoyed tacos – a favorite of Diaz’s and the subject of several of his songs – while representatives from Handley Regional Library helped students and their families sign up for library cards.

Future plans for “Let’s Read Together” include transitioning to a dual-language model to better support both Spanish- and English-speaking families in learning both languages together, while expanding to include both kindergarten and first-grade students to allow families to continue their progress.

“By using bilingual books, the parents in the group also increased their language skills. If an adult doesn’t understand an English term, they can glance at the version in their native language to clarify the concept instantly. All parents reported that their confidence in their ability to help their child with reading increased. When completing the survey after the program, all parents stated they were now interested in reading to their children in both Spanish and English. One parent reported, ‘We learn together. She explains in English and I explain in Spanish.’ Another parent said, ‘I’m an ELL, and am learning with my child,’” Dr. Huff said.

“Our deepest gratitude goes to the Dollar General Literacy Foundation,” Huff continued. “Their support did far more than place 900 bilingual books into the hands of the children at Quarles Elementary. Because of this grant, we watched English-speaking and non-English-speaking parents transform from neighbors into friends. We saw families grow their vocabularies together, families who created book clubs, and a group of kindergarten children who significantly increased their vocabulary scores on the state test. On March 26, over 500 parents and children came together to celebrate bilingual books and music and to eat tacos and paletas. A community of readers is growing at Quarles Elementary.”