News Release
April 10, 2007
Valverde Teachers Receive $2500 Morgridge Reading Recovery Award
On Monday, April 9, 2007 at the Morgridge Awards Banquet several teachers from Valverde were recognized for their outstanding implementation of the Descubriendo La Lectura Program. Mariza Elizondo-Rios, Elva Hernandez, Guadalupe Martinez de Leece, Karin Mendoza and Aura Soto have spend the entire school year attending classes to learn theoretical principles and instructional practices using the Reading Recovery method. These teachers have volunteered over 576 hours collectively to provide first grade students at Valverde with one-to-one instruction in reading. They have had great success with 100% of their students reading at and above grade level.
Descubriendo La Lectura is a reconstruction of the nationally known Reading Recovery Program for Spanish speaking children. It is highly effective intervention of one-to-one tutoring for low achieving first graders. Individual students receive a half hour lesson each school day for 12 to 20 weeks. As soon as students can read at or above grade level expectations, students are discontinued from the program and new students begin individual specialized instruction. The goal of DLL (Descubriendo La Lectura) is to dramatically reduce the number of bilingual first grade students who have extreme difficulty learning to read and write. Additionally the DLL program provides students a solid for foundation for literacy in English.
Many thanks to Sheila Shannon, Professor at the University of Colorado and The Bilingual Educators Network for providing funding the professional development for Valverde DLL teachers and to Karin Cecere for mentoring and providing instruction for DLL teachers in the Denver Public Schools.
Special thanks to the Morgridge Family for their philanthropy, support and commitment to the success for all Reading Recovery and Descubriendo La Lectura programs through out the state of Colorado.