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Clara Cappiello y Emily Diaz
On November 17, Emily Diaz, a preschool teacher with the ECMHSP Loxley Migrant Head Start Center in Alabama, and Clara Cappiello, Training and Development Manager at ECMHSP, were prepared and excited to present at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) annual conference, which took place at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. They were a part of, “Grandes Comienzos,” a special track for the Spanish speaking conference attendees.
The session title: “Currículo y cultura: Cómo incorporar el idioma y la cultura de todas las familias para optimizar el currículo” (Curriculum and Culture: How to Imbed all Families’ Languages and Cultures to Optimize the Curriculum). Emily and Clara were eager to share their experiences in making the curriculum relevant and culturally responsive to migrant and seasonal farmworker children and their families.
Emily Diaz with Dr. Iliana Alanis, a member of NAEYC Board of Directors, and two professors from the University of Texas
After a brief summary of the most recent research on dual language learning and the importance of being responsive to all families’ languages and cultures, Emily and Clara described a process to gather authentic, rather than stereotypical, cultural information from every family. The information gathered is leveraged to develop critical children’s school readiness skills. Emily explained how she made cultural displays, identity books, used family letters and photos, and other learning materials many of them co-created with families. Videos demonstrated how she used these bilingual cultural resources to develop language, early literacy and math skills.
Emily and Clara felt confident attendees gained value from the presentation, as many displayed excitement about the new ideas, congratulated them for their work and expressed gratitude for the information obtained.