Hands-On Programs Promote Multilingualism

Out of the box

In New Mexico, Agnes Chavez started a corporation and put together a kit to help improve the bleak literacy situation in the nation’s schools.

Chavez grew up with Cuban-American parents, and when she was pregnant with her first son, she realized she wanted to make sure he grew up bilingual. She had an idea to fuse art and Spanish lessons, and she used that approach when she was hired as a Spanish teacher.

“I saw that there was nothing quite like it out there,” Chavez said. “I decided to use it and turn it into a complete kit where anybody teaching Spanish could use it.”

In 1996, she founded Sube Inc. Sube, which means “to go up” in Spanish, is a system that teaches Spanish through art, music and games. Created for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade, the curriculum comes in a box and allows schools to adopt and customize it to fit their needs. The lessons, activities and multimedia materials were designed to address the various learning styles of students.

“It really engages them because of the multisensory approach,” she said. “It's become a comprehensive program.”

Chavez said she encountered resistance at first, mostly from the public sector because her early versions didn’t provide a way to track student progress. But she made some adjustments so public schools would be able to use it too. She has also recently developed video tutorial training because a lot of schools didn’t have the money to fly her out for in-person training.

In the face of budget cuts, Chavez emphasized that educators can’t afford to abandon literacy programs. Success requires commitment, she said, and these programs and tools can truly help shape 21st-century students.

“I'm always coming up with ways to adapt to current situation,” she said. “I’m stuck on a core belief that teaching kids languages at an early age makes them more tolerant, more accepting and helps them develop global awareness.”