Bilingual program helps pupils at Newhall school read, write

A group of youngsters at Newhall Elementary School is taking part in a quiet revolution that could change the way bilingual education is taught in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Spanish-speaking kindergartners and first-graders are learning how to read and write under a program called Estrellita ("little star" in Spanish).

Those using the program say it's meant to supplement--not replace--a school's traditional curriculum. What's more, they argue that the program is vital in a constantly changing landscape of languages and cultures.

Parents also participate in the program, reviewing children's work at home. Aimed at those in the primary grades, the program has produced dramatic results, especially among those who had difficulty learning how to read using traditional methods, educators say. "Before, it took six to eight months before children started reading fluently," said Melvina Austin, a bilingual teacher at Newhall Elementary. "Now they're reading fluently in six to eight weeks." "Where has this program been my whole teaching career," said Austin, who's been teaching bilingual students for the past eight years. "It's really fun. It's really amazing."

The program was developed several years ago by a bilingual teacher in Oxnard and is being used by students in Washington, Texas and Arizona.

Newhall teachers -- believed to be the first to use the program in Santa Clarita -- learned about it in February at a bilingual education conference in Anaheim. There are 638 limited-English pupils in the K-6 program at Newhall School District.

Newhall educators are so excited about the program that they plan to immediately introduce it next fall to children in kindergarten through second grade at four district schools. The program also will be used to teach older Spanish-speaking students who are illiterate.

"This program will be really helpful to children who haven't been able to go to school in Mexico or help children to learn a foreign language," [Newhall principal] Wetterau said.

At Newhall Elementary, nearly 60 children are involved in Estrellita.

One recent day, the class zipped through a group of beginning sounds, chanting words out loud and their syllables.

Pupils also say they enjoy the program -- especially the chanting.

"I'm learning the syllables and I'm learning how to read," said Ricky Campa, a 7-year-old first-grader at Newhall. "It's easy to learn the syllables."