Building Trust and a Love of Learning
Teacher Marta Pineda has seen firsthand the power of the GLXi curriculum.
Marta fondly recalls a set of students who she taught in first- through third-grade. In the second year, they began incorporating the lessons from the Open Books, Open Minds program.
“The boys were very excited from the beginning, since for each one of them, using technological tools in the classroom, in addition to whiteboards and markers, was something new,” Marta remembers.
Marta harnessed that interest and began incorporating other elements of GLXi’s curriculum. The Open Books, Open Minds program is designed to engage children in learning through four research-based components: Guided Reading, Individual Reading, Guided Writing, and Independent Writing.
“When they left third grade, they showed much more fluency and reading comprehension,” she said.
Open Books, Open Minds
Our literacy curriculum is built upon sound and studied teaching practices, sophisticated technology, engaging children’s literature and a respect for the children’s own language in their stories.
One day, students may be creating artwork that corresponds to a story they just read, or using that artwork to create their own endings to the story. On another day, they might be reading to themselves, with one-on-one guidance and interaction with their teacher, who has received in-depth training on how to implement the curriculum.
Throughout these sessions, students engage in reading, writing, discussion and vocabulary development, all centered around an interesting children's book.
And of course, the icing on the cake is all of the new supplies that students have in their classroom.
Our literacy kits are impressive. Included are the following:
a laptop computer loaded with digital Spanish-language books for guided reading
a projector
a laser pointer
approximately 50 children’s books for independent reading
30 individual small dry-erase boards and erasable markers
30 blank composition books and pencils
boxes of crayons for illustrations
notecards for vocabulary words
a teacher’s guide for the program
New Beginnings
Marta recalls how the students would gravitate towards the lesson plans, and even come up with their own adaptations, finding ways to think further about what they were reading and writing.
She heard stories about them bringing their learning home to their families and communities. She saw first hand how their young minds blossomed over those two years.
Even more special, Marta says that the GLXi program allowed her to become closer to her students.
“The bonds of friendship and companionship grew stronger and most importantly, I planted the little seed of love for reading in each one of them,” she said.
That is what we love hearing! Great work Marta, and thanks for sharing your experience with GLXi’s program! We are so proud of the work that you and your students are doing.
You can learn more about our program here: https://glxi.org/openbooksopenminds