Ten-year-old Miguel Huerta struggled to enjoy reading before he and his mother discovered University of Houston Downtown’s bilingual e-library, an online collection of books available in both Spanish and English.
Math is still his main interest — the fourth-grader has his own YouTube channel where he teaches the subject to other kids — but reading became more fun when he started advancing his dual-language skills on the computer. He now gravitates toward fantasy and action stories.
“It makes it more interesting,” Huerta said.
Huerta is one of dozens of Aldine ISD students helping to grow UH Downtown’s e-library, which works to improve literacy and technology skills for Hispanic families in Houston. Patrons have been able to use the library cost-free at home since it launched around 2010, but a new partnership fueled by a $2.5 million U.S. Department of Commerce grant also allows Aldine parents to go to school once a week and help their children write their own stories for the collection.
Huerta and his mother, Maria Alvarez, will be published authors through the program — they wrote a book called “The Blue Dream,” or “El Sueño Azul,” based on the time Huerta learned he was going to have a baby brother. Like every book in the library, it is written in both Spanish and English, a process that Alvarez said has helped her son round out his academics.
“Literacy is so important. It’s important in everything and it’s really what’s going to connect him to his goals,” she said, via a translator. “He has a lot of potential.”
The collaboration is part of a larger two-year effort to expand the e-library and make it used worldwide. The new partnership is meant to benefit students and their parents, reinforcing the importance of Spanish literacy while also advancing English and technology aptitudes that are important for attaining jobs in the Houston workforce, said Marisol Vazquez, community engagement manager at UHD.
University officials hope the e-library will contribute to the city of Houston’s plan to increase residents’ literacy skills by one level — an achievement which would add $13 billion to Harris County’s economy, according to the Mayor’s Office for Adult Literacy.
Aldine ISD has the right demographic for the partnership, with parents who are eager to participate, district officials said. More than 47% of students there are emergent bilingual and English learners.
“For me, it’s deeper than just writing a story,” said Georgina Foroi, executive director of the district’s Family and Community Engagement Department. “At this point we’re not only transforming a student, but we’re transforming the whole child, socially and emotionally. And also the parent, they’re breaking barriers.”
Emerita Munguia said her own English skills have improved since helping her daughter with the program during weekly meetings at Black Elementary in Aldine. She recently declined a promotion at her job because she didn’t feel she had enough knowledge in English and technology, but she said she hopes her work on the e-library can help her advance in her career.
Her daughter is similarly making progress, and she breezed through reading exercises in English and Spanish as they worked on their e-book one afternoon in December.
Once their book is published, it will be added to the e-library’s roughly 350 books. Many of those were previously written by college students at the Hispanic-serving institution, said project director and co-founder Maria Bhattacharjee.
Families at Aldine ISD’s Black and Bussey elementary schools are taking over some of the writing through the university partnership. About 240 families are expected to participate over two years, with groups alternating each semester. Officials also plan for the program to reach a wider audience, with an expansion to other Aldine schools, community engagement events in the district and a YouTube channel that will give broader access across the U.S. and world.
“I believe learning to read and write is a human right,” Bhattacharjee said. “This is a country of opportunity, but you have to know how.”
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