Donna L. Dorsett and Sarah Johnson

Dorsett and Johnson's project, "The Tiger's Den", brings the parents of Dobson Elementary School's growing population of English Language Learners (ELL) students into the school and establishes partnerships between school and home, creating bonds of trust. "The Tiger's Den" will be a resource room filled with bilingual reading games, books with audio CDs, personal CD players with headphones, various manipulative and fun take-home activities. All items will be available for Hispanic parents to check out so they can work with their children at home in both their native language and English. This project seeks to improve approximately 260 kindergartens through fifth-grade students' communication and academic skills, helping ELL children progress toward fluency in English with the target of exiting the ELL program. The long-range goals of the project include increasing ELL reading fluency, conversation skills and reading comprehension while improving communication between home and school. The program also hopes to get parents involved in their children's education throughout the entire school year.