Learning Bilingually

con Laura Pantin

kindergarten

Guided Reading K-2nd

by

Guided reading is one of the most important parts of any elementary school classroom. In dual language classrooms that should be no different! As Dr. Jose Medina (2017) states,  “Guided reading, at its core, is a targeted, specific, and planned instructional activity that helps students improve reading fluency, gain greater comprehension, practice literacy reading strategies, and become strong independent readers…there has to be a specific teaching point….In dual language classrooms, guided reading must include work on metalinguistic and cross-linguistic connections; it is about biliteracy instruction and not English literacy instruction”. Therefore, guided reading time should ultimately include the four literacy skills – speaking/hablando, writing/escribiendo, reading/leyendo and listening/escuchando.

This is how I set-up my center rotations and the “Maestra” rotation is the guided reading time:

My guided reading set-up looks like this:

There are four bins to represent my four different groups. Each bin contains differentiated materials and activities for the week for each group.

My guided reading layout looks like this (and takes about 20 minutes):

1.Independent leveled work

2.Sight Words/Vocabulary/Words-of-the-Week activity

3.Reading/Reading comprehension

4.Reading fluency/Oral Language

5.Writing (lecto-escritura)

I will go into what I do in each part of the guided reading layout and examples of activities for each:

1. Independent Leveled Work (trabajo independiente):

  • Tracing (alfabeto, vocales, sílabas abiertas, sílabas trabadas, frases, palabras importantes, oraciones
  • Reading independent books (books you’ve read together before or are appropriate for their level)
  • Sight Words/Vocabulary/Words-of-the-Week activity

2. Sight Words/Vocabulary/Words-of-the-Week activity (Palabras de alta frecuencia/Vocabulario/Actividades con las palabras de la semana)

  • Introduce vocabulary using TPR—Total Physical Response (aplausos, movimiento físico (de los brazos, las manos) – don’t be afraid to get your students active during guided reading!
  • Work with the words you have been teaching (trabajar con las palabras que has enseñado durante la semana/las semanas anteriores usando juegos y actividades interactivas)

  •  

3. Reading/Reading comprehension (lectura/comprensión lectora)

  • Antes de leer un libro:
    • Paseo por el libro–mira las ilustraciones
    • Mirar la estructura del texto
    • ¿De qué crees que se tratará el libro? ¿Por qué?
  • Leer el libro
  • Cuando el estudiante se detenga en una palabra o diga la palabra en ingles o una palabra incorrecta, ¿qué estrategia podrías utilizar en ese momento para ayudar al estudiante?
  • Después de la lectura
    • Preguntas: (1) Sobre el texto y (2) Mas allá del texto
    • Hablen sobre el cuento (Taxonomía de Bloom)

4. Reading fluency/Oral Language (Fluidez de lectura / lenguaje oral)

La fluidez de lectura es la capacidad de leer con precisión, sin problemas y con expresión. Los lectores con fluidez reconocen las palabras automáticamente, sin tener problemas con los problemas de decodificación. Suenan naturales, como si estuvieran hablando. La fluidez es importante porque une el reconocimiento de palabras y la comprensión.

5. Writing (lecto-escritura)

La lecto-escritura implica un proceso en el cual están involucradas diferentes etapas en las que se producen adquisiciones que tienen que ver con el descifrado, la comprensión, interpretación, composición y redacción. This includes: deciphering, understanding, interpretation, composition and writing.

Daily Morning Messages in Kinder

by

Teaching the young ones, especially in a dual language program, comes with its’ set of added challenges. How will we get our students talking? How will we build a classroom community every day and make sure our students are talking in the target language every day? One of the main tools I utilized when I taught Kinder Dual Language was having a daily morning message.

Yes, I know… program schedules are usually very tight and we are always on-the-go, but it’s crucial to allow at least a couple of minutes for targeted vocabulary and oral language practice on a more “social” level (on top of the academic vocabulary and oral language your students get during centers and whole group lessons, etc). Using a daily morning message during a short “whole group circle time” allows for children to get comfortable, lower their anxiety level and get talking!

I think that this circle time and incorporating that daily message is also important for several reasons, one being that it provides a routine that children learn to expect. However, another added benefit is that it also builds students linguistic confidence and sets up the rest of the day nicely. After having done this every day, I had many children repeating my greeting (“Buenos días niños y niñas”) and my closing line (“Vamos a tener un día fabuloso/maravilloso/extraordinario/fantástico, Señorita Pantin”). I loved seeing my students saying these words and following along because they are speaking in Spanish and learning some words/phrases in the target language!

I always started the message by saying how our day went yesterday (always positive!) and I always included the Special that we have that day so that students knew what to expect. I also included what we are doing that morning together (since they switched after lunch and went to the English side). Something that I also started doing more after the first initial messages is making my punctuation marks thicker in order to point them out visually for students when they are looking at the message and hearing me read it. Since in Spanish we use a question mark at the beginning and at the end of a sentence, I made them thick so that students can start distinguishing this difference in both of the languages. 

I think that this time together was very important in setting up the day and having students know the expectations for their morning. For dual language programs, in the target language, it is essential to provide many opportunities for the students to hear the language during a routine but also to have a chance to talk. I tried to provide children with opportunities to review some of the ideas/concepts we had worked on/were currently working on during the week. Incorporating questions in the morning message allowed for my kids to become involved and feel at ease in answering. I also modeled answers and would include sentence stems to help them navigate forming their own answers! Even with a tight schedule, these little moments are significant and important in fostering community, developing linguistic confidence and setting up a successful day of learning (and fun of course!).