Connect Canyons
Learning is about making connections, and we invite you to learn and connect with us. Connect Canyons is a show about what we teach in Canyons District, how we teach, and why. We get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great: students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts, too. And we spotlight the “connection makers” — personalities, programs and prospects — we find compelling and inspiring.
Connect Canyons
Ep 137: Language as a Superpower: How Bilingual Learning Builds Literacy
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As we celebrate World Literacy Day, two Canyons experts explain on the latest episode of Connect Canyons how our native languages provide the building blocks students need to grow and learn in other languages.
Welcome To Connect Canyons
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by Canyon School District. This is a show about what we teach, how we teach, and why we get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great. Students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts too. Learning is about making connections. So connect with us.
SPEAKER_01Reading, writing, and arithmetic. The foundation of any education and two of the three Rs are the topic of our conversation in honor of International Literacy Day. Welcome to Connect Canyons. I'm your host, Francis Cook. Today we're diving into a topic that touches so many of our Canyons families, the power of language, and specifically how learning to read and write in a first language actually powers up a child's ability to learn in a second one. Joining me today are two of our incredible experts, Amy Gutierrez, teacher specialist for multilingual learners and dual language immersion support, and Leslie Morris, Canyon's teacher specialist and reader for Notable Books for a Global Society. Thank you both for being here.
SPEAKER_04Thank you for inviting us. Yes, we're happy to be here.
What Literacy Specialists Actually Do
SPEAKER_01I'd like to start with both of you just kind of describing what your jobs entail. There are a lot of titles that we could throw around that I think a lot of people might go, huh? Amy, would you start us off and tell us what a day in the life looks like for you?
SPEAKER_05It could be any number of things, supporting our counselors and diploma specialists, registrars with the process to receive the Seal of Biliteracy, world language credit, elective credit to help students receive an honors diploma or to do credit recovery. It could be answering some questions on how to best support students in a language classroom, any content area, especially at the secondary level for those students who come in as newcomers, providing professional learning, coaching around any multilingual learner supports and not just with teachers, but coaches, admin, and developing resources that they can use along the way. Goodness, is there anything you don't do?
SPEAKER_04Leslie, how about you? Currently I serve on the digital teaching and learning team, and I'm on the ML team with Amy, building those resources, supporting schools and teachers with providing best practices for their ML students. And then I'm also I also work with secondary literacy teachers in our district. And Amy is on my team as well for that. And they really intersect. We work with special education, the ML team, and our general population with students who struggle with reading. And it also includes language acquisition programs within our district.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_05And we often collaborate with other departments to make sure that we are working together system-wide to establish those supports. Yes, definitely.
SPEAKER_01That's beautiful.
How Award Lists Find Diverse Books
SPEAKER_01You both wear so many hats.
SPEAKER_04I've also had the opportunity the last three years to serve on an International Book Award Committee, and that committee is called the Notable Books for a Global Society. And we focus every year on finding the top 25 books, K-12, that really represent diverse cultures and peoples authentically throughout the world.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for bringing that up. I was actually going to have you dive into that because that is such an interesting title alone, Notable Books for a Global Society. Like I could go, I could go on with that for days on end anyway. So you help essentially cultivate those new books that are coming out that we want to get. Do we want those on our shelves? Do we, you know, is this one better? Is this one gonna add to our plethora of reading possibilities?
SPEAKER_04Yes, definitely. And it's uh an award given through the International Reading Association. So our target audience is to get the book, these books, in the hands of students and to really recognize and honor because a lot of unfortunately a lot of diverse books are published by smaller publishing companies. And so they don't get the same publicity and press that others do. And over the last three years, I've read over 500 books every year that are sent to the committee for consideration, and we have to whittle that down to what we think are the top 25. It's amazing, and I've read so many incredible books and so many honorable mentions over the years as well that could have made the list.
SPEAKER_01I'm sorry, my brain stopped working when you said 500 books a year.
SPEAKER_04Yes. About half of them are picture books.
SPEAKER_01Sure. But they're a little shorter, you're not reading, you know, Kant or Right.
SPEAKER_04They're not 500-page books.
SPEAKER_01Right. But still, that is incredibly impressive. I'm lucky, I mean, I read a lot, but not that much. So
The Myth Of English Only Homes
SPEAKER_01that's what we're here to discuss today is literacy, getting our kids reading, but particularly when it comes to a first and second language, right? So a lot of our Canyon students here, English is not their first language, or they're also it is their first language and they're learning in another language as well. You know, we offer a multitude of languages. Many of our parents, I think, have heard that if they want their child to learn a second language, let's say it's English, then they need to switch what they do at home completely, right? They need to only speak in English, they need to only read in English, but that's not necessarily true. Amy, would you explain why that is a myth?
SPEAKER_05Well, I can start with my own personal experience growing up. I can say that I learned Spanish first and acquired English simultaneously because my siblings were a lot older than me and spoke a lot more English in the household. Right before I started my kindergarten year, I'd gone to Mexico City with my mom, and all of a sudden my English had just, I don't know, it had gone away. And all I could all I could think of was Spanish. And when I thought that I was speaking to my siblings in English, it was in Spanish, and so when I returned, they would laugh at me. Um, but I I remember sitting with my mom that night before I started the first day of school and said, Mamá, no puedo hablar inglés. And um, I don't know, something just clicked and it was seamless. And it was the same for me even as an adult when I graduated from high school and I started, I decided to uh become a Spanish teacher. Um it was seamless for me. Whatever I had learned in English easily transferred in literacy to Spanish, to Spanish literacy, and vice versa. And I've always felt like it's been something that has really helped me thrive along the way. And that I see the same thing in my son. He learned Spanish first as well, being in a household with my mom and dad always. And I was a little worried that maybe he wouldn't be scoring proficient or at benchmark on all of his assessments, and he has exceeded. Like he has been above benchmark in everything and in math and ELA. And so this year I'm excited to see how he does with science because you know that's something that they're doing in the dual immersion program at Mid Valley. That's really awesome to hear.
SPEAKER_01It's fascinating to me how learning other languages can help even with your own first language, right? And and vice versa. Absolutely. It's just how singular it is.
SPEAKER_04Well, and I think that there's a real misconception. My mother's first language is French, because my grandmother's from Belgium. And well-meaning teachers in 1950s southern Idaho told my grandfather and my grandmother that if they if my mother ever wanted to learn to read and write, she needed to stop speaking French. And so she stopped, they stopped completely at home, and she lost that language. And consequently, she lost the ability to talk to her grandmother who was from Belgium that ended up moving there. And so she lost a lot of her cultural identity as well because of not being able to speak her native language. Um, so and we find in reading intervention classes with our newcomer students or students who have lived in other countries, if they have strong literacy in their first language, they pick up English more quickly because that literacy, those literacy skills are the same and they transfer.
SPEAKER_05I think for me growing up, we didn't have a lot of texts, books, anything that was representative of our culture. And I I grew up in a rural town in Wyoming. And um I would say that it was the rich, the deep conversations that happened at home in Spanish, the storytelling and all of that, the background building that helped me do so well.
Representation And The 2024 Book Shift
SPEAKER_04And do you want to hear some good news? I looked up the statistics today to get ready for this. Um every couple of years, the Cooperative Children's Book Center does a diversity study on all the books published that year to assess them for various diversity issues. And for the first time ever in 2024, 51% of the books significantly featured someone of a diverse background.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_04And that could be like a BIPOC child, or it could be someone with disabilities. But that's really exciting because our students get to see themselves in the books that they're reading.
SPEAKER_05Just the books that you've shared with me, Leslie, I was blown away. I was just like, wow, we never had this growing up.
SPEAKER_01That you guys are already reading my mind. That was actually my next question. What does it mean, particularly for a child, for our young students, for them to be able to see their primary language reflected in a book and see, you know, a picture of themselves almost, as it were, in when they pick up that book that's in their first language or that talks about something going on in their lives that they can relate to or their culture. What does that do emotionally and intellectually for our students?
SPEAKER_05I think for me it helped it just helped me light up. I worked harder for my professors because it wasn't until I got into college that I was exposed to a lot more literature and Spanish and um that culture that was representative of mine. I know that for my students, I saw I would see them light up in class when I would share something with them. And um, even with my son, also, he just gets really excited when he sees something.
SPEAKER_04Rudine
Mirrors Windows And Sliding Doors
SPEAKER_04Sims Bishop wrote an essay in a journal called Reading is Fundamental. It's was published in 1990, but it is it has become sort of a seminal essay in English literature. I'm a former English teacher.
SPEAKER_01Love that.
SPEAKER_04Um it's called Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors. And the concept that when children read books, they can serve as mirrors so they reflect their own lives and strengthen them and give them show that they're they have value and importance. But for our students who maybe are not multilingual learners or who don't come from diverse backgrounds, they can serve as a as a window so they can see into that world. Right. But what's really incredible about this amazing diverse literacy that literature that we have is that they can be sliding glass doors. And I I you I used to teach to kill a mockingbird, and Atticus says to Scout, you know, you don't know someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes. And it's that idea that through literature we can actually experience other people's lives. And so even relate to them more. Yes. And even if you yourself were not a refugee, but you're reading a book about a refugee and you're able to read it in that language, you get to experience that. Or as myself, who doesn't speak another language fluently, I can see what life is like from other people's perspective, and it's incredibly powerful.
SPEAKER_01You open that sliding door and you get to have those conversations and you get to walk through, yes. That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. But I think um some of one of my most favorite books, I brought our list from the last three years, so let me find it. Um there was a book published a few years ago called Wild Green's Beautiful Girl. It would have one sentence in English, one sentence in Chinese, and then another sentence in pinyon. And when this book was submitted to our committee, we we learned so much about pinyin and this indigenous Chinese group that I did not know about. But I'm picturing students coming from China who are from this group, and for the first time ever, they got to see their language represented in a book.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_04And how powerful and validating and I just love that books have the ability to do that for students.
SPEAKER_01So
How First Language Skills Transfer
SPEAKER_01as our students are able to see their primary language in in books, how does that skill set transfer over as they're learning English and learning to read in English or another language?
SPEAKER_05A lot of those skills they've already acquired, so they've they've already given themselves like a jump start with literacy. So they're easily able to transfer those skills over into the into English.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and a huge trend happening now is that books will just sort of drop in words from other languages. So as an English speaker, I'm getting to learn that language in context of what's happening. And for a student who maybe is that English is not their first language, they get it the opposite way, right? They have that keyword in their own language, and then they get to use the context to learn all of the other words. And I love that it that context learning works both ways with vocabulary.
SPEAKER_01I even love that as an adult, you know, you're you're reading through a book or listening to an audiobook, and they throw out something in another language that makes you stop and go, Wait, what was that? And I I'm one who I I just want to know more. You know, you'll I'll be watching a movie and I'm looking up things in that are happening in the movie. And so it makes me stop and I'll look up that word or dive deeper into what that reference means, and not just on a literacy level, but on a cultural level as well.
SPEAKER_04Yes, and really honor like how they I learn a lot of words about how different cultures view themselves. There's a big surge of indigenous books coming out from indigenous authors, and you learn words like anishinabe. And as soon as you hear that, because I love to listen to the audiobooks for those, then I know that that is how they refer to themselves. And I'm calling them a tribe name that is not what they would call themselves. And so now I've learned a new vocabulary that can honor a culture and a people. And I always think if I had a student in that classroom, then I can use that. And early on in my career as an English teacher, I had a student from the Navajo Nation, and I chose to read some Navajo stories, and I just saw him light up. But it was then that I learned that they called themselves the Dinnae, and I started using that, and he actually I wasn't able to go, but he invited me to his Blessing Way ceremony that they have when they're when they turn 18. And he was so quiet in my class, and it was amazing how just a few stories and using the appropriate words, like he opened up and started talking and participating, and he he was a completely different student after that. And it was authentic uh literature that did that.
SPEAKER_01That's so beautiful. I
What Families Can Do At Home
SPEAKER_01think a lot of times too, the same thing can happen with some of the parents of our students who say Spanish is their primary language, and they may not be very fluent in English. And so they come into our schools, and you know, some of them might get a little worried about that. What message would you have for them about how they can not only learn along with their child but help and support their child in their learning routines?
SPEAKER_05I think just to continue to engage them in conversation, just pulling out a book, reading along with them in Spanish. Even for me, I think music was a big it was such a big part of my life, and even to have them, you know, continue to expose them to that.
SPEAKER_04And yeah, I just there's well and building those literacy skills, especially early literacy, like retail, vocabulary, background knowledge, inference, you can do that in any language.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_04And it's building that skill in a native language can then help a student when they're speaking in a different language. And I I don't think we emphasize that enough. And in the reading standards, there's nothing in there that says that they have to be able to analyze literature in English. And so it's one accommodation that a lot of our teachers can do for students is to really assess if they're really understanding what they're reading in their native language, and then use that to build on their English skills.
SPEAKER_01And I think like you both have mentioned, you know, Leslie, you were mentioning your mom and how she stopped speaking French, and so she kind of lost that cultural aspect of it as well. And for the parents of our students to be able to just sit down and have a moment with them and share those stories of their culture, you know, their experiences, and then see their children not only learn about where they come from, but then also take that skill set and apply it in the classroom. I think that's just so beautiful. And like you said, I don't think that's talked about enough.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And
Honoring Language Honors The Child
SPEAKER_04I really feel like honoring a student's language is honoring them. It's the language that you speak is so integral to your communication, which is so integral to who you are. And we cannot disassociate those two things. And so if we want our students to thrive, we need to honor who they are and their family and their culture, whatever that might be.
SPEAKER_01It's not just about the grades, it's about the entire human that is the student.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I'm I want to share a non-language example if that's okay. Yeah. Rick Riordan wrote the Percy Jackson series. And in that book, Percy is dyslexic and he has ADHD, and he struggles in school, and he's always sort of ashamed of that or you know, embarrassed by it. But he finds out that he's not dyslexic, he's the son of a Greek god, and his brain is wired to read ancient Greek. And he may be called ADHD, but he has that so that he can fight monsters. And Rick Riordan did that because his son is dyslexic and at ADHD, and he had really low self-esteem in himself. So he wrote these books for his son. And His son saw himself in these books, saw that these things could be a strength, and his son blossomed from there. And we have this whole set of amazing books from Rick Riard and an amazing series that really honors who a child is and sees it as a strength rather than a weakness.
SPEAKER_01Turned it into a superpower. That's so well said. That's you know, I'm really glad you brought that up because first and second languages aren't the only, I don't want to call them barriers, but they're not the only thing that can impact how you read or if you enjoy reading. Some of our students who who are ADHD or dyslexic probably they say they don't like reading because it's it can be difficult for them. So helping them to find a way to enjoy reading while letting them understand that just because you have ADHD does not mean you are less than. In fact, it's a superpower.
SPEAKER_04Yes. And I'll tell you a little secret. Even though I became an English teacher, I hated reading all the way up until the sixth grade. Gasp. I cheated on a book report in the third grade. Um so I mean, I was a good reader, but I hated reading. And then we read a book in sixth grade that I wouldn't recommend for sixth grade. I don't know what my teacher was thinking, but um, it was Night by Ellie Wiesel. And it's, if you don't know, it's a Holocaust survivor story. And I went home and I talked to my parents about this book we were reading in class because I needed to process it. And my mother says to me, Did you know that your grandmother's family had a secret room in Belgium and that they helped underground workers escape the Nazis? And all of a sudden, by the end of sixth grade, I had read every Holocaust novel. I don't know how I survived that, but I did. And by eighth grade, I had read all of Jane Austen. It's amazing how finding one connection in a book could lead to opening up, right, all of these windows and all of these doors. And it completely changed the trajectory of my life because for the first time I saw value in reading a story, right? Because it connected to something real for me and something personal for me. I just think that our students who are coming from other countries, they already can feel isolated. And books and stories is one way that they can find connection in a world that might feel really foreign to them.
SPEAKER_01Gretchen Zeitziff, our library specialist for the district, always says people who say they don't like reading simply have not found the right book for them. Yes. And Leslie, I think you're exactly right. There's always that one book. And I think a lot of book nerds can remember the one book that made them stop and go, wait, this is cool.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, the house on Mango Street did that for me. Oh, that's such a great book.
SPEAKER_01That's a good one.
SPEAKER_05And so like authority ever represented, you know, for me at Latina. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04A diverse group of people who live on this street. Yeah who live on Mango Street, right? So you it's a great book that a lot you can connect with a lot of different characters. I just think it shows how important it is that we read a variety of books that have a variety of characters and a variety of situations. And one of my favorite books that did not make our list last year, I won't tell you which one. It actually featured students who like communicate differently, like through devices. Um, and after substitute teaching at Jordan Valley, thank you, Jordan Valley, and working with those students and seeing those devices, I advocated really hard for that book to be on our list. Um, it did not make it, but I think about students who might have communication barriers and seeing themselves for the first time in a book represented and valued because in this book the child is non-verbal, but in his mind he sees himself as a hero. And so it takes him in and he's a superhero and he's saving people, right? That's awesome. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01What makes
Audiobooks And Graphic Novels Count
SPEAKER_01me think of also how you read books, right? I think when, for example, audiobooks first came out, that was cheating. You know, no, you have to read the actual book. I cannot tell you how many books I have read in my adult life because of audiobooks. Because, you know, oh, we're still busy, we're going everywhere. But it's true, you know, I'm listening as I'm going to work, I'm listening as I'm driving home, I'm listening in the grocery store while I'm doing the dishes. And I think if we have the technology and if we have the ability to show students how reading can be enjoyable, we just have to find the right one that fits for them.
SPEAKER_04Yes, and I think uh graphic novels are also a misconception of those not being books. I think graphic novels are incredibly difficult to read because you have to take in all of that imagery and what's happening in the background, and color plays a key and um take all of that in with very limited text, and you are interpreting all of that and making those inferences. There isn't a narrator telling you how people feel, you have to be able to see it in the pictures. So I think it's it's another way of reading that people really downplay how difficult it is and how important it is.
SPEAKER_05I think it's something that has inspired my son to want to read more. We actually started reading at home and we take turns reading or it was uh his second grade teacher, I believe, Miss Milne, who's who read a whole novel, would read whole novels to his class. And so ever since then, like we've gotten so many things by Dick of Millow and then Catherine Applegate. Um also graphic novels, like uh it's really been a springboard for him.
SPEAKER_01That was his That was his his muse, his inspiration to and his motivation to want to read what are some of the books that you have seen our students grab onto like that? That we
Book Picks And Choice For Teens
SPEAKER_01have, you know, what are someone that our students and our parents can look out for in our libraries that would help spark that inspiration to read, but also provide that cultural background?
SPEAKER_05Oh, Skippy John Jones. Have you have you read those books?
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_05Oh, it's about a cat. It's in this cat family, and he has just a vivid imagination that and he believes that he's actually a Chihuahua. And so he has all of these friends and conversations with them in Spanish. And so there's just random phrases and jokes and sayings in in the book that are in Spanish, and my son loved it, loves it. We have all of them. Skippy John Jones. Skippy John Jones. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_01Leslie, how about you? What do you uh recommend? So I know I'm asking you to pick one or two out of the thousands of options that we have.
SPEAKER_04Because I'm more secondary focused. So one thing that I've I've seen in schools that's really powerful for secondary students is to actually give them choice and voice in choosing their novels and doing literature circles or a fully independent reading. So Alta High School does this extremely well, where they will have a class where students, every student's reading something different in the class, but then they come together, meet in small groups, talk about the books that they're interested in, and they'll talk about theme and character and plot development within their own individual novels. And I think that has been incredibly powerful. They've seen engagement, motivation improve with students, and just deeper learning by allowing them to choose the book that they want to read.
SPEAKER_01I think you bring up a really great point. I had a professor in college who would provide a very in-depth list of options that we could read, and then we would have to, of course, write an essay about it. But uh she also said if there are books on this list that you want to try, just come talk to me about it. And I read so many books. In fact, I found a book that interested me. It was about the Roman ops, and it was a book that dove into what happened after they were taken into custody and looked at potential options of endings that we can never know after they died. And I took a gamble and I wrote the essay without giving away the ending of the book. Oh. And I even wrote in the essay, I realize that this is risky, but I knew she hadn't read it yet. And I didn't want to give it away. I got a name. She was a she was an amazing professor, and she said, Okay, I need to borrow that. And then she read the book and loved it as well.
Nonfiction Hooks And Local Stories
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think you bring up a really good point that a lot of our students are really interested in nonfiction. They love history, they love science, they um and they and I think they just love learning new things. And giving choice and voice brings in more nonfiction than they might get in a traditional classroom.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And that's one thing if I were to go back and get my PhD, I would work on would be uh strengthening, building, and then maybe reinforcing nonfiction reading in elementary because the focus is the narrative through characters. Um but you know, in my case, I my spark of reading came through a nonfiction novel, through a memoir. Yeah. And I started out with nonfiction, that's what really hooked me.
SPEAKER_01I think our authors are showcasing that a lot more. For me, it brings to mind uh Emily Anoia Huey, who's a local author. She's written many books for both adults and children, and she has a children's book called What Kept Playing.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I've read that. I wanted it on the list.
SPEAKER_01It's about a uh local university of Utah, he winds up playing for the University of Utah on their basketball team, but while he was playing for them, he was interred at one of the Japanese internment camps and was driven by bus to and from school from the internment camp. And it's a picture book, and it gives not only this historical retelling, but it provides his his culture, you know, his family heritage, and it also happened right here in Utah. So it's it's almost this triple threat of things that students can relate to at a very young age.
SPEAKER_04And a local story. And he went on to play for the NBA. He did, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think he was the first uh Japanese American to play for the NBA. Don't quote me on that, but if I remember correctly.
SPEAKER_04I think I think you're right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um,
What We Are Reading Now
SPEAKER_01what are the two of you reading right now?
SPEAKER_05Oh, I was reading a river runs through it. I wanted to reread it. Um I started that and uh Silo. I have started reading Silo. Like one of the I know it's really it seems really dark. I can't handle scary books. Uh Midnight, Midnight Train. I there was one that I read this summer that I really enjoyed.
SPEAKER_04So I'm on the wait list for a book.
SPEAKER_01As we all are.
SPEAKER_04Every library possible, and an audiobook. And it is by Eli McCann, he's a local author, and it's called Stitched. And I I like to quilt, and so it's about a quilting group, and they invite these two guys into their quilting group to um hopefully help them win at the state competition or at like a quilting competition. So um I've heard it's hilarious, which is why I can't get it from the library. I might just have to buy it on Amazon.
SPEAKER_05I sometimes will have two or three that I've at a time that I've started.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I have three going right.
SPEAKER_04And then I love the Odyssey so much, so I am rereading it. I used to on the wait list. Yeah, I used to teach mythology, so I am I have never read Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey, and so I'm reading that version of it right now.
SPEAKER_05I just reread The Wish Tree. It's a children's book. We just yeah, we we read that one together and we just reread it. Me and Rodrigo.
SPEAKER_01Rereading can be so great too. I'll throw mine out. I'm currently uh listening to uh We the Women by Nora O'Donnell, and it's about uh women in in American history who helped shape our history that aren't talked about as much. You know, so it's more the unknown names, you know. We know yeah, it's it's fascinating. It's written by a journalist, um, so she really deep dives into her uh background gathering and things, and it's it's been some fascinating stuff, and I'm learning about women that I never knew about before. So that's the power of reading for you. Yes. Well,
Literacy Day Challenge And How To Reach Us
SPEAKER_01thank you both so much for being here today. I love doing these podcasts because it's always so wonderful to hear how our teams are so invested in the work that you do, in the work that you do for our students and helping our students to learn and grow. Again, not just to get that grade and to to graduate, but to develop the entire person. So thank you both so much for all that you do and thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_04Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us.
SPEAKER_01And I'm gonna challenge all of us for International Literacy Day, go find a book that you've been wanting to read or maybe had heard about that sparked some interest and crack it open.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. Yeah, you can go to Notable Books for a Global Society, just search that, and they have their lists published every year for the last, oh gosh, 30 something years. Wow. And you can get like a quick little summary statement, and I know you'll find a book that you'll like.
SPEAKER_01Find something new.
SPEAKER_04You can read it with your kids.
SPEAKER_01I don't think we'll catch up to your record though. 500 a year, that's a lot of books. Well, thank you both again for joining us. And thank you for listening. If there's a topic you'd like to hear discussed on the podcast, send us an email to communications at canyonsdistrict.org.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect Canyons. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram at Canyons District, or on our website, CanyonsDistrict.org.