Libros en Casa: A Case Study of an Online Spanish Book Club for Latino Youth During COVID-19
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v12i1.4402Keywords:
US Hispanic youth, Heritage Language Literacy, Latino Mental HealthAbstract
This case study presents data on the impact of “Kindles4COVID”, a novel youth-led book club initiative to promote student reading while staying socially connected in the era of COVID-19. We report on quantitative and qualitative outcomes of US heritage Spanish-speaking students, ages 10 -13, who participated in a Spanish-language version of the online book club. Research on Latino youths’ social activities and literacy is especially important since one out of four students in US public schools is Hispanic; also, serious mental health issues are on the rise for US Spanish-speaking students ages 12 - 19. We collected weekly survey data of 40 bilingual and biliterate Spanish book club participants during one academic year. Our findings show that students across all age groups, socioeconomic classes and genders reported increased reading and a wider circle of friends due to book club activities. 100% of participants commented positively about having a ‘safe’ space to be with students who shared their Latino identity. This study has important implications for how communities can support Latino youth, both academically and culturally.
Downloads
References or Bibliography
Bao, X., Qu, H., Zhang, R., & Hogan, T. P. (2020). Literacy loss in kindergarten children during COVID-19 school
closures. Retrieved on, 29(5), 2020.
BINKLEY, C. (2022, September 1). Reading, math scores fell sharply during pandemic, data show. AP News.
Retrieved February 28, 2023, from https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-race-and-ethnicity-education-
d02ce3fe0fe432efc68373ee961c5bb
Caitlin F. Canfield, Anne Seery, Adriana Weisleder, Catherine Workman, Carolyn Brockmeyer Cates, Erin Roby,
Rachel Payne, Shari Levine, Leora Mogilner, Benard Dreyer, Alan Mendelsohn,
Colwell, J., Woodward, L., & Hutchinson, A. (n.d.). Out-of-School Reading and Literature Discussion: An
Exploration of Adolescents' Participation in Digital Book Clubs | Colwell | Online Learning. Online Learning
Journal. Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/1222
Cummins, J. (1987). Immersion programs: Current issues and future directions. In L. L. Stewin & S. J. McCann
(Eds.) Contemporary educational issues: The Canadian mosaic. Toronto: Copp Clark.
Domingue, B.W., Hough, H.J., Lang, D., & Yeatman, J. (2021). Changing Patterns of Growth in Oral Reading
Fluency During the COVID-19 Pandemic. https://edpolicyinca.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/wp_domingue_mar21-
Dorn, E., Hancock, B., Sarakatsannis, J., & Viruleg, E. (2021, July 27). COVID-19 and education: The lingering
effects of unfinished learning. McKinsey. Retrieved February 25, 2023, from
unfinished-learning
Encouraging parent–child book sharing: Potential additive benefits of literacy promotion in health care and the
community, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Volume 50, Part 1, 2020, Pages 221-229, ISSN 0885-2006,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.11.002.
Griskell, H. L., Gámez, P. B., & Lesaux, N. K. (2022). Bi-literacy and motivation as predictors of bilingual students’
talk during classroom discussion. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25(5), 1665–1680.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1798870
Jones, C. (2018). SPARK Early Literacy: Testing the Impact of a Family-School-Community Partnership Literacy
Intervention. School Community Journal, 28(2), 247-264.
Katie Stover, Lindsay Yearta & Caroline Harris (2016) Experiential Learning for Preservice Teachers: Digital Book
Clubs With Third Graders, Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 32:1, 5-12, DOI:
1080/21532974.2015.1055013
Loh, C. E., and Sun, B. (2022) The impact of technology use on adolescents' leisure reading preferences. Literacy,
https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12282.
López, L. M., Barajas-Gonzalez, R. G., Díaz, G., Moreno, F., & García Coll, C. (2020, September 9). Addressing
Inequities in Education: Considerations for Latinx Children and Youth in the Era of COVID-19 | Society for
Research in Child Development SRCD. SRCD. Retrieved February 26, 2023, from
McNamara, L. (2020) Silent Reading is Golden. Unpublished Masters’ Thesis, Scholarworks, Sonoma State
University, California. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
Menken, K., & Kleyn, T. (2009, April 1). The Difficult Road for Long-Term English Learners. ASCD. Retrieved
February 26, 2023, from https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-difficult-road-for-long-term-english-learners
Merga, M. & Roni, S.M. (2017). The influence of access to eReaders, computers and mobile phones on children's
book reading frequency. Comput. Educ. 109, C (June 2017), 187–196.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.02.016
Merga, M. K. (2014). Are teenagers really keen digital readers? : adolescent engagement in ebook reading and the
relevance of paper books today. English in Australia, 49(1), 27–37.
https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.203262
National Center for Education Statistics (2020) Enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools, by level,
grade, and race/ethnicity: Selected years, fall 1999 through fall 2018.. National Center for Education Statistics.
Retrieved February 28, 2023, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_203.65.asp
National Center for Education Statistics. (2022) Report on the Condition of Education 2022. (2022, May 5).
National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from
https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2022/2022144.pdf
Pułaczewska, Hanna. (2021). Adolescence as a “critical period” in the heritage language use. Polish in Germany.
Open Linguistics. 7. 301-315. 10.1515/opli-2021-0019.
Schreuder, M., & Savitz, R. S. (2020). Exploring adolescent motivation to read with an online YA book club.
Literacy Research and Instruction, 59(3), 260–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388071.2020.1752860
Stewart, M.A. (2014) "I Don’t Want to Write for Them": An At-Risk Latino Youth’s Out-of-School Literacy
Practices, NABE Journal of Research and Practice, 5:1, 197-229, DOI: 10.1080/26390043.2014.12067779
Suárez-Orozco, C., Suárez-Orozco, M. M., & Todorova, I. (2008). Learning a new land: Immigrant students in
American society. Belknap Press/Harvard University Press.
Wartella, E., Kirkpatrick, E., Rideout, V., Lauricella, A. R., & Conell, S. L. (2014, August). REVISED Media,
Technology, and Reading in Hispanic Families A National Survey. Center on Media and Human Development.
Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://cmhd.northwestern.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2014/08/NWU.MediaTechReading.Hispanic.FINAL2014.pdf
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2023 Meera Pandey, Angel Benki; Teresa Satterfield
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright holder(s) granted JSR a perpetual, non-exclusive license to distriute & display this article.
