If you missed those, please check them out on my educational website, Relevant Paradigm:
http://relevantparadigm.weebly.com
This week I would like to focus on how language immersion students learn to read English when he/she isn’t taught formal English Language Arts until third grade.
The first and most important message I can continue to share is to continue to read to your child daily in English. Talk with your child and encourage conversations that will broaden vocabulary and interest in the world around us. Take advantage of times when it feels natural to ask comprehension questions, talk about letters and words, and model for your child how you “think through” things.
All children need the same skills to learn to read no matter the language. Once children learn the skills, they can be applied to most any other written language. Because the majority of our immersion students speak English at home and socially with friends, they have a greater context in which to apply their new-found skills. For some, they will intuitively apply their reading skills from Spanish to English without a lot of formal instruction. Others will require more formal instruction before they can transfer skills. For most students this transfer of skills happens quickly. Once they learn the concept of sound/symbol correspondence in Spanish, they can easily apply this to English. This same premise applies to reading strategies such as predicting, summarizing, questioning, making connections, retelling a story, etc.
All children need these skills that support beginning reading. These skills and strategies transfer across languages:
- Know that spoken words come apart and that letters represent these sounds by developing an awareness of words including rhymes.
- Know the names of the letters of the alphabet and write these letters.
- Understand about letter-sound matches.
- Understand the process of decoding these letter sound matches-pulling apart and pushing together sounds in words.
- Separate words into syllables and then into phonemes (word parts).
- Develop ever-increasing vocabularies.
- Understand the conventions of reading in their first language. In English and Spanish—reading from left to right, from page top to bottom.
- Have a positive attitude towards reading.
If you have not yet liked our Facebook page or joined Twitter, I would highly encourage you to. We share many pictures, videos, and information through these two medians of social media. Our La ola del lago hashtag is #LODL, my Twitter handle is @RKucinski, and our Facebook Page can be found at https://www.facebook.com/EdgewoodPLSAS
If there is anything I can help you out with over the course of the school year, or if you have any questions about Spanish immersion education, I am always happy to hear from you. I can be reached directly at 952.226.0903 or [email protected].
Hasta luego,
Richie