Oklahoma Agriculture in the Classroom offers a teacher training program to reach more Spanish-speaking kids in the classroom.

About 9% of Oklahoma public school students are English Language Learners, and the number of students enrolled has grown recently, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Oklahoma Agriculture in the Classroom is offering professional training in the Super Crops-Súper Cultivos: Bilingual Resources to Support Reading and Agricultural Literacy program. Two books, Zora Zucchini and Sylvia’s Spinach, feature Oklahoma specialty crops and are available in Spanish and English.

The classroom program created resources centered on the books and will offer them and other training at professional development sessions.

Melody Blosser, an Oklahoma Agriculture in the Classroom coordinator through the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, said this could also spark students’ interest in different occupations.

“We feel like our Ag in the Classroom resources in our program, in general, is just a nice way to introduce students to maybe something that they have never thought of,” Blosser said.

Blosser said most English Language Learners in the state speak Spanish. She said even for students who are familiar with Oklahoma’s commercial crops like wheat or whose families raise those types of crops, the program can introduce them to specialty crops.

“We feel like they're really going to be valuable to teach a lot of things,” Blosser said. “To help our bilingual students, but also to help English speakers be more familiar with the Spanish language. As well as teaching agricultural literacy and then really honing and using those best practices for teaching reading.”

Up to 40 teachers can attend each session, and the resources from Oklahoma Agriculture in the Classroom are free. The first session is in Frederick on Nov. 14.