Teamwork/Trabajo en equipo

At this point of the year, you are probably doing more and more work in cooperative groups.  If you haven't identified specific roles and responsibilities for the students in each group, they will determine them for you.  Some will take on the roles that you would have created and intended while others will find more passive or aggressive roles that you would probably prefer to avoid.

One way of making group work more productive is by assigning roles that will change with time.  In my classroom, I tended to change the table groups every month.  Based on the location of the desks within each table, the students took on a specific role for one week.  For example, the person at each table that was sitting in the Northwest corner (I always posted North, South, East, and West on my classroom walls) of their table would be the Leader/Speaker for his/her group for an entire week.  The following week, all of the roles would shift in a clockwise manner.  The Leader/Speaker would now become the Facilitator.  Clear as mud?

If you are thinking about introducing this idea of roles and responsibilities for group work to your students, I would highly recommend reading this book:

It is the precious story of three animals that know their roles and responsibilities until one day one of them becomes jealous of the other's job.  Feelings are hurt and no more delicious soup is made until the three friends discover once again how to work together and share the load.

Todos tienen su tarea.

Todos son felices.

The illustrations are beautiful and the language is brilliant.  You could do an in-depth study of vivid verbs with this book!  It's a great one for any elementary grade!  Let me know if you and your class decide to try it out!

Literacy Lesson: Cerdota Grandota

If you find yourself teaching opposites, descriptive adjectives, or rhyming these days, you will definitely want to check out this cute book by Clare Beaton.

This book has fun repetitive and rhythmic text that is filled with teaching opportunities for all of the above.

Algunas vacas son flacas; otras son obesas.

¿Pero cuán grande es una cerdita?  ¿Lo sabes con certeza?

Algunos gansos están sucios; otros están limpiecitos. 

¿Pero cuán grande es una cerdita?  Cuenta los animalitos.

If you are teaching opposites, you can have your students match the opposite words.  

If you are teaching adjectives, you could invite your students to create Bridge Maps that apply the descriptive adjectives in the book to other objects.

If you are teaching rhyming, try doing a rhyming cloze reading where students predict the last word on the page during the read-aloud.  It is a great practice for predicting on the micro-reading level!

So, those were my ideas for using this book.  What ideas do you have?

Elmer: Appreciating differences

Most you have been in school for several weeks now.  As unique personalities emerge, it can be hard appreciate the individual differences.  I don't think we have this all figured out as adults!  Children don't have the perspective and practice that comes with years of experience of learning to live, work, and play with others.

Elmer has always been one of my favorite books to read with my students around this time of year.  If you have read Helen Lester's Tacky books, Elmer has similar irregularities.  He is not like the other elephants.  He is a rainbow-colored elephant!  

Una noche Elmer no podía dormir porque se puso a pensar, y el pensamiento que estaba pensando era que estaba harto de ser diferente.  <<¿Quién ha oído nunca hablar de un elefante de colores?>> pensó.  <<Por eso todos se ríen cuando me ven.>>

Y por la mañana temprano, cuando casi nadie estaba todavía despierto del todo, Elmer se fue sin que los demás se dieran cuenta.

The story goes on to explain how Elmer tries to make himself like the other elephants so that he can blend in.  When he rejoins the other elephants, everyone seems so serious and quiet and boring.  He finally can't stand it any longer and, when he returns to being himself again, the rest of the elephants are so grateful.

The illustrations and language is this book are so beautiful and so accessible to even PK and Kindergartners. I know many schools are doing programs like "Rachel's Challenge" and other anti-bullying programs.  This book would be a perfect book in Spanish for sparking great conversations about differences.  

This is another book about bullying in Spanish and English in case you missed it in my De regreso a la escuela series. 

Does your school do anything special to help train students to appreciate one another's differences?  I would love to hear your ideas!

Dia de los abuelos: Book recommendations

I am so thankful for grandparents!  My girls are blessed to have four wonderful grandparents that love them and care for them in four unique ways.  While Grandparents' Day is celebrated in other countries on different dates, it is celebrated here in the US on September 9th.  There are so many great books to read to your students about grandparents with lots of reading strategy and writing potential.  Here are some examples:

I am kind of partial to books published by Piñata Books Arte Público Press.  This one is a precious cumulative tale in the style of "This is the house that Jack built".

Ésta es la abuela

que sueña con las caras felices

que comieron las empanadas

y bebieron la leche

que sirvió la abuela

que alimentó a la familia

que vino con los primos…

Younger students would love to participate in this as an interactive read-aloud.  Second graders could revisit the text for some great practice on past tense verbs.  

There is not much text to this book BUT if you are working with early writers, this is an excellent way to show how the author tells a story with her illustrations and just a few words to convey the meaning.  

This book is filled with beautiful language.  The descriptive scenes would be perfect for having small groups of students act out what they visualize based on the text.  

One thing I love about this book is the many reasons it provides for why so many people appreciate this grandmother.  Using a Bubble Map from Thinking Maps or another descriptive graphic organizer, your students could brainstorm their own reasons for why they are grateful for their own grandparents.

Another book from Piñata Books, this one highlights the special way we can learn about the past from our grandparents.  An excellent homework writing assignment would be to have students interview a grandparent or other older person to learn about a favorite food and its history.

This list is just a beginning!  I would love to know your suggestions and other ideas you have for helping your students celebrate this special day!

De regreso a la escuela: ¡Yo puedo leer con los ojos cerrados!

Mientras más libros leas 

más cosas aprenderás.

Y mientras más aprendas, 

más lejos llegarás.

As I wrap up my summer-long De regreso a la escuela series, I thought I would include this book that I came across at my public library today.  While I always prefer to use authentic Spanish literature, this is another Dr. Seuss book translated by Yanitzia Canetti who is widely recognized for her great translations.  

The first few weeks back to school often include a lot of discussions about reading and its purposes.  Why do we read?  What do we read?  How do we read?  

While my favorite book for prompting these discussions is still ¡Qué locura por la lectura!, ¡Yo puedo leer con los ojos cerrados! is another fun book that can serve a similar purpose.  

Are there any other books that I am missing that you use to kick off literacy for your class?

De regreso a la escuela: Pepita y la peleonera

As we near the beginning of school, I will be winding down my "De regreso a la escuela" Spanish read-aloud series.  If you want to see all of the books that have been recommended this summer, please visit my Pinterest board here or click on the "Back to School" tag in the right margin of the blog.


This week's book is not one for the first day but it would be a worthwhile read for later in the first week.  Pepita y la peleonera is the bilingual story of Pepita's first week at school.  She is bullied by another girl in her class named Babette.  After getting advice from several friends and family members, Pepita decides try out her father's counsel: "Así es que mañana si Babette te vuelve a jalar las trenzas, debes decírselo a tu maestra.  Pero si Babette te dice algo malo, puedes responderle de manera cortés o alejarte.  Pero hagas lo que hagas, debes ser cordial."

He goes on to explain that cordial means about the same thing as amable.

The next time Babette bullies her, Pepita confronts her with kindness and Babette decides to change.

Since I brought this book home from the library, my daughter has asked for it to be read aloud to her no less than three times and she has kept it in her bed to "read" at nap time.  My mom was here last week and had been the one reading it aloud to her.  She thought it would have been better if there was one more page at the end telling a bit more of the story.  Either way, the story sure resonated with my four-year-old.

Pepita is the character in several other books by Ofelia Dumas Lachtman and this book is a great way to introduce your students to characters in a book series as well as begin a discussion about friendships and avoiding bullying.

Have you read any of the Pepita books before?  Which one is your favorite?

De regreso a la escuela: ¡Qué nervios!

This week's De regreso a la escuela book may need no introduction if you have already seen the original English version:  First Day Jitters.  While I prefer to find as many authentic Spanish books as possible, I don't think it hurts to include some translations, especially ones that have been highly embraced in English.

This is a perfect read-aloud for the first hour of the first day of school.  You know that time when the children have arrived with their mountains of supplies, the last parent has finally left, and it is just you and your twenty-two lovelies?  It is that time when you might find yourself thinking, "Who needs a seating chart?  This class is a bunch of ANGELITOS!"  Isn't it funny how quiet they can be that first hour as their little bodies adjust to being awake at an earlier hour?

While I'm sure they are indeed going to be an angelic class, that first hour of school is always in need of a little ice breakage.  What better way to break the ice than with a funny read aloud on the carpet?  

SPOILER ALERT: ¡Qué nervios! is the story of Sarah who does not want to wake up and get ready for the first day of school at a new school.  After many humorous protests, she is eventually dressed and arrives at school.  As she is introduced to her new class by the principal, the reader is surprised to learn that Sarah is not a student but the teacher! 

Now, you will have to forgive this book the VERY unrealistic idea that a teacher could just show up on the first day of school!  I'm not sure where this school is supposed to be but Sarah was obviously not spending her summer studying Pinterest and decorating her classroom!

Still, it's a cute book and, after reading through it the first time and discovering the surprising twist, your students will want to revisit the earlier pages to find clues that might have helped them infer that Sarah was really a grown-up and not a kid.  Definitely a great way to break the ice on the first day with second or third graders!

Have you read this book with your students before?  Did they enjoy it?  You can find more Spanish back-to-school read aloud suggestions on my Pinterest page!

De regreso a la escuela: René tiene dos apellidos

You know Arthur, Franklin, Emily Elizabeth, and Gaby.  Now, it is time for you to get to know René!  He is such a lovable little boy and so relevant to our bilingual students.  As a follow up to his debut book (featured here on ITDL last week), René now faces the dilemma of losing one of his last names attending the US school.  I know my students can relate to this one!

The first René book is still my favorite of the two but this would be another great addition to the typical study about names at the beginning of the year.  I hope the author René will bring more books about his character to us in the future!  

De regreso a la escuela: Marisol McDonald no combina

From the bookjacket:
Marisol McDonald has flaming red hair and nut-brown skin.  Polka dots and stripes are her favorite combination.  She prefers peanut butter and jelly burritos in her lunch box.  To Marisol, these seemingly mismatched things make perfect sense together.

Other people wrinkle their nose in confusion at Marisol -- can't she just choose one or the other?  Try as she might, in a world where everyone tries to put this biracial, Peruvian-Scottish-American girl into a box.  Marisol McDonald doesn't match.  And that's just fine with her.

A mestiza Peruvian American of European, Jewish, and Amerindian heritage, renowned author Monica Brown wrote this lively story to bring her own experience of being mismatched to life.

I have visited hundred of bilingual classrooms and practically every one of them has at least one student who could identify with Marisol McDonald.  Whether it's his name or her hair color, they just don't look or sound like the rest of the peers assigned to the class. 

Being a part of a bilingual program typically means that students will spend several years with the same peers unlike the monolingual students who are shifted around each year.  This can be a wonderful thing as they build deeper friendships and trust and know each others' strengths and challenges.  It can also be difficult because certain expectations can be unintentionally established that a "bilingual student" will always have certain characteristics.

I picked this bilingual book Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match/Marisol McDonald no combina as another book for my DE REGRESO A LA ESCUELA series because it is a good way to foster conversation from the very beginning of the year.  A typical beginning of school activity is to have students create Venn Diagrams or Double-Bubble Maps comparing and contrasting themselves with a partner in the class.  It is healthy for our students to begin to process these ideas even at a young age as they appreciate the diversity within and outside their classroom. 

I would say this book is best targeted for first or second grades but could easily be stretched higher or lower!

De regreso a la escuela: Luna, Lunita, Lunera

PreK and Kindergarten teachers, have you met this sweet book by Jorge Argueta yet? 

Mañana voy a la escuelita

por primera vez

El corazón me salta

como una ranita.


Little Luna, Lunita, Lunera is quite nervous about going to school for the first time. 

Como tengo cinco años

y soy grande como la luna llena

me pongo

los calcetines blancos,

los tenis rojos,

la blusa azul

y unos pantalones verdes

yo solita.

Y nos vamos a la escuela.

Little Lunita gradually discovers that school is not so scary as she gets to know her teacher and new friends in her class.  And contrary to her previous belief, she realizes that there are actually no scary monsters at school.  At home that night with her parents, she is even excited to go back the next day.

PreK and Kindergarten teachers, I have such admiration for what you do, especially those first few weeks of school!   I hope you can enjoy this sweet book with your little Lunas!

De regreso a la escuela: La caja de las carcajadas

La encontré una tarde fría y gris de otoño en una estación de tren. 

Yo estaba sentada en un asiento del andén buscando distraerme un rato.  Trenes saliendo y llegando.  Gente caminando, corriendo apurada, cansada.

Debajo del asiento estaba esta caja que sin querer golpeé con el talón del pie.  Me agaché.  Una caja pintada con colores muy alegres.  “¡Que bonita!” pensé y me estiré para tomarla.

Sorprendida por su peso, la arrastré hacia mí con las dos manos.  Miré a mi alrededor buscando a un posible dueño, pero no había nadie que pareciera serio.  Finalmente, la abrí con bastante dificultad. 

Dentro de la caja había sonrisas, sí, así como lo lees, sonrisas.  Y muchas.

Mis ojos y oídos no pudieron dar crédito a lo que sucedió luego. 

With a title like La caja de las carjadas, this book by Mariana Jäntii captured my attention from the library shelf.  When I sat down to read it, I was in awe of the beatiful word choice and sentence fluency and absolutely loved the story. 


This book is about a girl who discovers a box that contains laughter.  That's right!  As in ¡Je je je!  ¡Ja ja ja!  ¡Ji ji ji!  ¡Jua jua jua!  The laughter is contagious and has the power to change people's attitudes when they hear it (las miradas de mis amigos comenzaron a iluminarse mientras alegres sonrisas se pintaban en sus rostros, transformándolas). 


Telling her story in first person, the girl claims, "Es muy lindo ver cómo sonreír cambia los colores de cualquier alma gris” and later asks the reader, "¿Has probado alguna vez transformarte en una caja de sonrisas para los demás?"
 
I think this book would be a perfect back to school read as you establish your new community of learners and talk about the importance of sharing laughter together.  Of course, you will definitely want to revisit this book throughout the year for many other teaching purposes (word choice, sentence fluency, onomatopeia, and much more!).

I know the start of school is still a long way away but good back to school reads in Spanish can be hard to find so I want to feature as many as possible this summer to allow you the time to gather a few before that first day is here.  Yes, I will admit to being at Borders one year on the night before school started (just before 10 pm) trying to buy a book I just had to read to my students on the first day.  A little crazy?  Yes!  But those first read-alouds with a new class are pretty stinkin' special!

De regreso a la escuela: ¡Qué locura por la lectura!

I know, I know!  School just finished this past week and the stores are still weeks from filling their shelves with crayons and pocket folders.

However, I am always on the quest for good books to begin the school year because those first read-alouds seem to be so important in building community and establishing our class's identity.  Today, when I was perusing the children's section of Spanish books at my public library, I came across a few gems that I will be sharing over the next few weeks.  I know it is crazy early but this will give you time to buy or reserve the books at your library.  I promise, you'll thank me when August (or September) gets here! :)



¡Qué locura por la lectura! is the translation of Judy Sierra's book Wild about Books.  I have always been a fan of Marc Brown's illustrations and Yanitzia Canetti's translations are widely respected.  She has been the translator of most of Dr. Seuss's book.  Can you even imagine trying to translate those?

The book starts out like this:

Literacy Lesson: Chato y su cena (Visualization & Metacognition)

Gary Soto is one of my favorite authors of children's books and short stories for grown-ups.  His writing is funny and relevant and beautiful...even when writing about cats! 


If you are a second, third, fourth grade teacher, you really must share a read-aloud of Chato y su cena with your students.  It is a perfect book for practicing the strategy of visualization.  As I mentioned last week, visualization is so crucial to developing strategic AND avid readers. 

I love Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis's book Strategies That Work and I have found so effective their method of zooming in on text and modeling a think aloud with a specific strategy and then allowing the students to practice the method on a structured handout or with sticky notes. 

I did this lesson as a demonstration for a third grade bilingual classroom.  It was my first time working with these students and, according to their teacher, the first time for them to do an activity like this.  As I read the book aloud, I stopped at the really juicy (perfect moments for visualization) parts and did a think-aloud about what I was visualizing.  The illustrations in this book are fantastic but we discussed how they are still just one person's interpretation of the text.  We compared and contrasted our own visualization with the book's illustrations just like you might compare and contrast a book with its movie version (I just did this last Saturday night at my book club with The Hunger Games!). 

I used the handout below to gradually release responsibility for visualization over to the students.  They pretty much copied my illustration with the first text example.  With the second one, they discussed and drew with a partner while I walked around.  The final example was on their own and I was totally hands-off to see what they could truly do by themselves.     


















Before seeing Harvey and Goudvis demonstrate some of their strategies, I would have just ended my lesson there.  However, several years ago, I had the opportunity to hear them in person and see one of their videos.  I realized that I had only been doing part of the lesson.  The crux of the lesson comes when you ask the students how this strategy will help them to be better readers. 

I admit that I was skeptical about trying this with students that I didn't know and because I was modeling it in front of a group of teachers sitting at the back of the room.  But, I forged ahead and, after the students had shared their final mental images, I asked them to flip their papers over and write about how they thought this strategy could help them be better readers.

I was AMAZED by how well these third graders were able to articulate their own metacognition.  A few of them wrote and wrote like they had just been waiting for me to ask. 

Ever since, I try to leave 2-3 minutes at the end of any lesson (reading, math, science, etc.) to allow for that thinking about WHY and HOW.  Sometimes I forget and sometimes we're already late for P.E.  But, when I do take the time to allow for that processing, I always see a return on the investment later in the day or week as the students show evidence of having really internalized the learning.

If you would like to try out a visualization mini-lesson with Chato y su cena, you can download this handout for free here.  I would love to hear how it goes so please come back and share!  Just don't forget to use the backside of the paper for some reflection!

Literacy Lesson: Kicking off Reading Strategy Study with an Online Game

Don't forget to enter to win a Spanish/English Vocabulary program focused on word roots. Go here for more information!  The giveaway ends Friday at noon.

In searching Pinterest for bilingual/dual goodies, I saw that Susan Orozco had posted a link to http://www.rtve.es/infantil/ which is the children's site of the Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española.  There are all sorts of online games available through the site.  Some do not seem educational at all (Bob Esponja? UGH!) but there are quite a few really good games that would make great computer centers or excellent whole class SMARTBoard activities to kick off the study of a new reading strategy. 

For example, this game is called Las 7 Diferencias.  It displays two elaborate pictures and you have to click on seven things that are different between the two pictures.  What a perfect way to begin talking with your little guys about semejanzas y diferencias? 

Maybe you are working on describing words or characterization.  Have you ever played the Guess Who? Board Game?   ¿Quién es quién? is an online version of that game and it is so much fun!  I may have just wasted invested the past half-hour playing it myself.  In order to guess the person that your partner has chosen, you pick from a long list of questions to guess who they are "thinking" of.  Based on your computer partner's answer, you must go through your grid of pictures and eliminate all of the people that do not match that criteria.  Awesome critical thinking opportunities for our little guys!
 

I used to always "anchor" my reading strategy studies with a favorite picture book.  I would call my students to practice a strategy by reminding them of the book that we had read when we first learned about how to use that strategy.  I still believe in the power of mentor/anchor texts but why not anchor with a game as well?  Seriously, so fun!  Okay, I think I'm going to go back and play ¿Quién es quién? one more time!  :) 

Literacy Lesson: El viejo y su puerta (Minimal Pairs)

Are you at the time of year when you and your students could really use a laugh?  You cannot read this book and keep from cracking up!  I love Gary Soto's sense of humor and the great thing about this book is that even first and second graders can "get" the funny parts.

This book provides a great entry to talking about minimal pairs (pares mínimos) with your students.  Minimal pairs are pairs of words which differ in only one phonological element and have distinct meanings.  

In El viejo y su puerta, the old man is not very good at listening to his wife so when she asks him to not forget to bring the puerCa to the barbacoa, he mistakenly hears puerTa.  The old man is a bit confused but the door proves useful en route to the party and there is plenty of food to eat thanks to the friends he makes along the way.  The book begins with this explanation:

En México hay una cancioncita que dice “La puerta.  La puerca.  Al viejo lo mismo le da.”  Eso es porque a un viejo las dos palabras le suenan muy parecidas – sobre todo si no escucha con atención.  Así es que sean jóvenes o viejos, escuchen atentamente porque si no, ¡se pueden meter en un lío!

After you read and enjoy the book, you can have a discussion about minimal pairs and the importance of careful listening using these cards (you can download them for free over at Teachers Pay Teachers):

You can represent the sounds in the words with magnetic letters or by simply writing the letters in the sound boxes.

It is really important to help our students understand minimal pairs in Spanish so that we can better help them understand minimal pairs in English.  Several years ago, I attended a PASA Conference and heard Dr. Elena Izquierdo talk about why our students struggle with English words like "meat" and "mitt".  She said we really need to do a lot more work in the younger grades to train their ears to distinguish the differences.  

What do you think?  Do you have a favorite way to train those little ears?

Estudiando palabras: Palabras con r/rr

Do your students struggle with spelling in Spanish? Even though Spanish is a much more transparent language than English, there are plenty of confusing letters that can give our students problems. I've created a unit focusing on the sonido fuerte and sonido suave of the letters r/rr based on the methods described in one of my favorite books, Words Their Way. You can download the printables for $1 here!

No matter what the grade, I think picture sorts are a great place to start a unit, especially with the letters r/rr. Ask students to identify whether the r sound in each picture sounds fuerte or suave. When students are able to do this successfully, begin using the word cards. I would suggest using Level A for first grade, Level B for second grade, and Level C for third grade. Of course, you could also use all three levels to differentiate in one grade level!

After you sort the word cards based solely on the sound, ask students to look closely at the r or rr in each word. Use the second sorting mat to divide the cards in the sonido fuerte column into two more categories. Ideally, your students will figure out this pattern on their own but if they are still new at sorting, you may need to point it out.

If you have time during that lesson, have the students wipe their mats clean and do a speed sort a few more times. Throughout the rest of the week, students can pair up and do a no-peeking sort that will help them remember and apply the pattern. To do a no-peeking sort, have one partner read the word while the other partner writes the word in the appropriate column on the sort mat (sticking the mat in a sheet protector with dry-erase markers works great!). The first partners checks the spelling and then they switch roles.

Here is a game board for a spelling center. Place the word cards on the mat. Each student takes a turn drawing a word card. He reads the card and then hands it to the person to his right. He writes the word on a dry erase board or scrap paper. The neighbor checks the spelling. If it is correct, the player rolls a dice to move his railroad car forward. The first person to make it to the train wins!

So what do you find are the most confusing letters in Spanish for your students? Let me know what spelling units you would like to see!

Literacy Lesson: Idea Principal

Los estudiantes determinarán la idea principal de un texto. 

Anytime I wrote those words as the objective of my lesson plan, I couldn't help but shudder. Main idea always seems so hard to teach to primary students. We are supposed to help them focus on what is important and not what is interesting. Yet, if you have ever spent any time trying to teach anything to a seven or eight-year-old, you know that interesting always wins out!

Several years ago, I was asked to model a reading lesson for a brand new teacher. As the bilingual facilitator for my district, modeling lessons was a major part of my job and I was getting more and more comfortable at walking into a room of unknown students and teaching a lesson. However, all of my confidence flew out the window when I read the reading goal for that week in second grade. I had to teach about main idea to a group of students with whom I had no shared background knowledge. It was time to get creative!

While I usually like to anchor my reading lessons in a book, I decided to anchor this specific skill in something a little more concrete. I decided to spend some time identifying the main idea of photographs before we made the transition to text. I selected some photos from clipart that contained both interesting and important elements. Using a photo from a baseball game, the students and I made a list about what we thought was interesting about the picture. Then we discussed the following standard "Get the Gist" questions.

We went back to our list of interesting things and determined that interesting things are not always included in the main idea. I passed out a new picture to small groups of students and had them work through the Registro de lo esencial handout one question at a time. I kept them on the rug near me while they worked with their groups so that I could easily listen in to their conversations. Some groups needed a little more guidance than others but I could hear a growing understanding from all of the groups.

You can download the pictures and handout I used for free here. What is your favorite way to teach main idea? Here are some photos I captured from a dual-language second grade teacher's classroom in Mesquite.  I though it was a creative use of those Scholastic magazines!

Mentor Text: De verdad que podemos cuidar de tu perro

Personal narratives tend to be the starting point for most writing workshops and, for most students, they are the perfect place to help students become confident, fluent writers.  However, I always had a few students that could never get past the “Ayer fui a Wal-Mart.” stage.  Please tell me it's not just me!  Despite my many mini-lessons on exploding the moment and finding the nuggets in everyday life, writing was a chore for these friends and it did not hold the meaning or excitement for them that it did for my other students. 

And then, I introduced “All about…” and “How To” books.  It was like I had found the key to their writing souls.  Apparently, just like some people do not consider themselves nonfiction readers, some people may not consider themselves nonfiction writers.  It doesn’t mean we can neglect a genre all-together but it does makes sense that we might find more interest and joy in one than the other and that is okay!

One of my AFAW (Ayer fui a Wal-Mart) students wrote the most elaborate book about how to paint a car.  It turns out that his dad works in a shop that paints cars and this eight-year-old has spent many a Saturday morning at that shop with his dad.  Because he was so familiar with his topic and so excited to share his knowledge, his writing oozed voice and development of ideas.

My all-time favorite “How to” book was written by a little girl that struggled academically and behaviorally.  She was one of seven children and missed many days of school.  Her book was titled “Cómo darle un baño a tu bebe”.  It was the most precious book with excellent illustrations.  I WISH I would have kept a copy of it but I didn’t.  The book was filled with evidence of a seven-year-old that had participated in bathing numerous siblings.  There were lots of details about safety and to be careful “porque pueden ser muy resbalosos”!

I came across this book at the library last week and I thought it might be some inspiration for our AFAW students. 

De verdad que podemos cuidar de tu perro by Lauren Child is a fictional story with a “how to” embedded inside:

“Muy bien”, dice Marv.  “Pero para poder cuidar de Chispas hay que saberse muy bien estas normas:  Nada de bombones.  Nada de pasteles.  Nada de dulces de ningún tipo.  No hay que dejarle que haga agujeros…  Ni que persiga a los pájaros.  Ni que se meta en los charcos.  Y sobre todo NUNCA quitarle la correa.”

What a great frame for getting students started on how to writing!  

Para poder cuidar de ______ hay que saberse muy bien estas normas:  Nada de ____________.  Nada de _____________.  Nada de ____________ de ningún tipo.  No hay que ______________________...Ni que ____________________.  Ni que ______________________.  Y sobre todo NUNCA _____________________________________________________.

Here is my little attempt at imitation.  Paco is our mischievous elderly dog. 

Para poder cuidar de Paco hay que saberse muy bien estas normas:  Nada de chocolate.  Nada de chicle.  Nada de dulces de ningún tipo.  No hay que dejarle que duerma en las camas…Ni que se acueste en los sillones.  Ni que se meta en el cuarto del bebé.  Y sobre todo NUNCA dejarle escapar por la puerta principal porque le encanta explorar el vecindario.

Nothing fancy but it is a good exercise in word choice and sentence fluency.  If you don’t have a lot of experience with mentor texts, I love using Jeff Anderson’s Invitation to Notice and Invitation to Imitate.  Trying out small paragraphs like this one helps us build our skills and our confidence by imitating published authors.

Do you have any AFAW students?  Have you invited them to try writing in other genres?

Literacy Lesson: El tío Paco y la nieve

I just found this book by Ricardo Alcantara last week at the library.  It's a perfect read-aloud for second or third grade and a great anchor book for discussing how characters change.  It would also be a good mentor text for modeling writing about character change with fourth grade writers.

Julia, the main character, is known for being "bastante perezosa" at the beginning.  She likes to spend her weekends in her pajamas, lounging on the sofa and watching TV.  Her Tio Paco comes to visit and suggests an excursion to the snowy mountains.  Julia finds everything wrong with this idea.  I love how the author describes her attitude: 

Era evidente que la excursión no le hacía gracia.  Al bajar del tren, cuando la brisa helada le tocó el rostro, su malestar fue aún mayor.  Con cara de pocos amigos, como si estuviera enfadada, comentó:  --¡Oh, qué frío!

Just as she is feeling even worse for the cold, her uncle starts a snowball fight with her.  The whole family joins in until Julia is laughing so hard she isn't thinking about the cold or being at home watching television.  On the way home, she even asks her uncle about the possibility of returning soon.

If this was the first time I was introducing the concept of character change, I would use my Emoticons cards.  Depending on your students' vocabulary, it might be necessary to take one class period to just familiarize them with the vocabulary terms for emotions.  They could sort the emotions according to positive or negative feelings.  You might have them draw an Emoticon out of a bag and tell their partner about a time they felt that emotion.

When students are familiar with these emotions, read aloud the book El tío
Paco y la nieve.  Pass out the Emoticon cards and ask students to identify which of these emotions was demonstrated by Julia during the story (enojada, frustrada, sorprendida, contenta, emocionada).  Once students have identified the emotions, make a list on chart paper in the order they are shown in the story.   Return to the story and model rereading to find text evidence that supports our conclusion that Julia feels a certain emotion.  Next to each emotion in the list, write key words or phrases from the text that provide evidence.  Repeatedly use the sentence, "Sabemos que Julia se siente ____, porque el texto nos dice que..."

This book deals with very simple but very relevant emotions and change within a character.  Other books will delve much deeper into character development and lifetime change.  El tío
Paco y la nieve is not about heart-wrenching emotional change!  It does, however, present a simple structure for understanding plot and character.  As your students apprentice with this book and its simplicity, they will soon be able to move on to deeper, more layered texts.

For more info on teaching about character change and motivation, see this ReadWriteThink.org lesson plan. 

If you would like to use a Spanish version of RWT's graphic organizer, you can find my version here.

I hope you and your students enjoy this little gem of a book!

Literacy Lesson: Textos de no ficción y propósito del autor

From the STAAR Third Grade Reading Information Booklet: Los estudiantes analizan, infieren y sacan conclusiones sobre el propósito del autor en contextos culturales, históricos y contemporáneos, y proporcionan evidencia del texto para apoyar su comprensión.Just the other day, I sat next to a friend while trying to explain to her the basics of Pinterest, specifically the why and the how. Within a few minutes, she was hooked and I sent her pinning merrily on her way.

We all find ourselves at different points on the spectrum of taking on the newest trend in technology. However, most of us are successful with those trends when given a moderate amount of guidance and the opportunity to make connections to what we are already familiar with. As adults, we already have a framework for examining WHY we would want to tackle a new type of media. Will it entertain me? Will it keep me informed? Will it explain how to do something new? Will it try to change my perspective?

Our minds also possess an internal structure for HOW to interpret the new media and understand what is important. We don't exhaust ourselves with reading every single word. We don't necessarily start at the beginning every time and move forward in a sequential order. We also give ourselves permission to abandon the media if it is not meeting the "why" for which we originally agreed to give it a look.

Even with all of this experience, we can still feel inundated at times. Just think about our students! They begin their reading journey thinking that reading is simply about learning the letters and the sounds they make and putting those sounds or sílabas together. They (hopefully) have heard hundreds of stories read aloud to them and retain a framework for understanding those simple narratives.

Yet, we know that the texts of life are not all fictional narratives. Research also tells us that many of our students will fall much more deeply in love with reading if we allow them to explore world of nonfiction. When I first heard about the benefits of nonfiction with my young students, I excitedly began pushing on them all sorts of expository texts. After several weeks of a less than enthusiastic response from my students, I began to question those researchers. It was then that I read Debbie Miller's Reading with Meaning about her journey into critical thinking with her first graders.

I realized that my students needed to learn to determine the "why" about the new genres of books they were reading. We created a chart similar to this one I snapped from a Mesquite second grade teacher's classroom. I would suggest adding to explain/para explicar.

I began scavenging for all types of text anywhere I could find it. I discovered that the entrances to grocery stores like Fiesta or Carnival are great places for diverse (and FREE) types of Spanish text. Phone books, newspapers, and tourism pamphlets are typically easy to find in both Spanish and English. These were cut apart and placed in a basket. Many times throughout the year, I would hand a type of text to each student and ask them to bring it up to our chart and sort it according to the author's purpose and why we might want to read more about it.

Those conversations spilled into our library time. As the students would bring their books up to the checkout counter, we would discuss their purpose for reading it based on the author's purpose for writing.

Once the students had a general idea of why we read different types of text, we began to implement what Debbie Miller calls the Nonfiction Convention Notebook. You can download my free bilingual template here. As I observed my students read nonfiction text, I saw them do what I and their previous teachers had taught them to do: just pay attention to the letters and their sounds. I was amazed as they diligently focused on the tiny writing and seemed oblivious to the captions and tables and bolded print. Apparently, I had to teach them to pay attention to those things as well! Go figure!

The Nonfiction Convention Notebook or charts like this one (also snapped from the teacher above) do a great job of helping our students to notice and understand how to approach different types of text. As we point out these features and study them over time, the students' eyes will begin to notice them and recognize their usefulness for reading.

If you are anything like me, your time spent reading fiction is limited to bedtime or the beach. The rest of our day is consumed with nonfiction text everywhere we turn. Aside from the fact that is IS IN YOUR CURRICULUM and ON THE TEST, developing within our students a framework for understanding nonfiction is so much fun and opens a new world of texts to read for the rest of their lives.

So, what are your favorite ways for teaching author's purpose and the characteristics of nonfiction?  As dual-language teachers, this is something that can and should be taught in both languages because there is complete transfer!