Parents and students from around the world gathered in West Creek Academy’s multipurpose room last week to attend the Saugus Union School District’s first district-wide Multilingual Literacy Night. In an event only open to members of the school district, children were able to hear bilingual stories, one in English, followed by a translation in their preferred language: Korean, Punjabi, Hindi, Spanish or Armenian. In each of the classrooms, a staff member of the school would read a sentence or passage in English, directly followed by a parent volunteer reading the same passage in the language.
In addition, families had the chance to learn about different cultures, eat Indian food, such as naan and butter chicken, and partake in the start of a new tradition for the district. “We really wanted to find different ways to embrace the amazing diversity of our community and our families. We’ve been doing some mini bilingual storytimes at some school sites, and we’ve heard from families that they wanted some more languages represented and they wanted to be a part of this,” said Carin Fractor, director of categorical and special programs for SUSD.
While only a few languages were read aloud during the event, attendees had the chance to showcase customs, traditions or ideas from their cultures. “It’s a way for our community to come together and share about who they are and be proud of where they came from,” Fractor said. “We did invest in a lot of different bilingual .